Sam Grisman and Holly Bowling share The Freight on Dec. 4

The bassist's first local show since May 2023 is a Friday night in Berkeley, with pianist Holly Bowling and Max Flansburg on the bill.

Sam Grisman's music is built on a family inheritance: the songs his father, David "Dawg" Grisman, made with Jerry Garcia, and everything that grew out of that friendship. Few rooms are better suited to hearing that kind of acoustic, conversational music than The Freight, and that is where Grisman lands next month, his first show in the area since 2023.

Sam Grisman plays The Freight in Berkeley on Friday, Dec. 4, 2026, with Holly Bowling and Max Flansburg. Tickets are through The Freight. The date was announced Oct. 21 and is Grisman's first show for local fans since May 25, 2023, at the Mystic Theatre.

Grisman spent the last few years building the Sam Grisman Project, which a No Treble profile described as a bassist-led group playing bluegrass, folk and Grateful Dead songs. It has turned into a full-time touring outfit. Relix followed the band's late-2025 dates and its plans for this year, and the 2026 calendar filled in from there: a June stop at the Belly Up in Solana Beach billed as a tribute to the musical legacy of Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and beyond; summer festival and theater dates, including the Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley and Revolution Hall in Portland, according to Relix; and a run that is still going, with The Sheldon in St. Louis hosting a Nov. 15 show.

The Berkeley bill is what makes this one different from a standard Project night. Holly Bowling is a pianist whose path runs through the same jam and bluegrass worlds: her Wikipedia entry notes she regularly appears on keyboards with Phil Lesh and Friends and with Greensky Bluegrass. Putting her piano next to Grisman's upright bass in an acoustic room is the kind of pairing that tends to produce a night you can't hear anywhere else. Max Flansburg rounds out the bill.

The Freight is a listening room first. People come to hear the music, not talk over it, and the room holds about 600, which is big enough to feel like an event and small enough that an upright bass carries without strain. For music rooted in the Garcia-Grisman acoustic tradition, the setting matters, and this is the right one.

Putting her piano next to Grisman's upright bass in an acoustic room is the kind of pairing that tends to produce a night you can't hear anywhere else.

There is a nice circularity in hearing this music in the Bay Area, where so much of the Garcia and Grisman story was made. Grisman has been carrying it around the country all year. On Dec. 4 he brings it back to a room that knows how to listen.

Sources: No Treble: Bassist Sam Grisman Leads Project on 2025 Tour With Bluegrass, Folk, and Grateful Dead Songs (notreble.com); Relix: Sam Grisman Project map out final 2025 tour dates, look ahead to 2026 (relix.com); Relix: Sam Grisman Project Extend Tour into Fall with New Midwest Appearances (relix.com); Belly Up: Sam Grisman Project (thesound.bellyup.com); The Sheldon: The Sam Grisman Project (thesheldon.org); Holly Bowling - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); The Freight (thefreight.org); JamBase listing (jambase.com)