Submitted photoDavid Grisman

When David Grisman Bluegrass Experience rolled through town in 2011, the legendary newgrass mandolin player told this reporter fans could expect “Some great bluegrass music mixed with a bit of music history (hopefully) played with precision and feeling by one of the best bands I’ve ever worked with.”

We expect nothing’s changed since then: Grisman has lived and breathed this music for more than 50 years.

A native of Hackensack, New Jersey, Grisman was a teen when he got to know mandolinist and folklorist Ralph Rinzler, according to Grisman’s bio on acousticdisc.com.

As he became familiar with the mandolin, Grisman ignored his piano teacher’s admonitions that the mando is not a “real” instrument, to the future enjoyment of his many fans.

As a New York University student, he landed in a pretty sweet spot for a budding acoustic player — Greenwich Village of the early 1960s.

Over the course of his career, Grisman has worked with the likes of violinist Stephane Grapelli, Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Del McCoury, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Earl Scruggs and James Taylor.

But it was Garcia who christened Grisman with the nickname “Dawg,” which is how his potent blend of jazz and bluegrass came to be known as “Dawg Music.”

With DGBX, Grisman concentrates on traditional string music with cohorts Keith Little (five-string banjo, guitar and vocals), Jim Nunally (guitar and vocals), Chad Manning (fiddle) and Grisman’s son Samson on bass. The Dawg man himself will handle the mandolin — by the way, it’s real. And it’s spectacular.

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience; 7 p.m. tonight (6 p.m. doors); $48.50 and $59.50, plus fees in advance and at the door; Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend; www.towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700.

— David Jasper