John Sebastian, founding member of The Lovin' Spoonful, and mandolinist/composer David Grisman have both had their hands in the music game.

They developed separate careers over the course of 40 years and recently joined forces to record folk and blues tunes.

The acoustic duo will perform at 8 tonight at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave.

Grisman is best known for playing with the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and for inventing his own genre called Dawg music, which samples elements of swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy. The Lovin' Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and Sebastian was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year.

The musicians met up at a benefit concert in Mill Valley, Calif., last year. Soon after, they recorded Satisfied, an album of folk and blues duets, and embarked on a tour.

"We enjoy the road in the same way, but we have lives and it's a nice balance," Grisman said. "It's just a very comfortable situation."

Kristy Cyone, marketing director for the State Theatre, said the duo has been around the block a few times and has stood the test of time.

"These are two of the most seasoned performers and songwriters in the music business today," Cyone said. "They're legends."

Sebastian said a different audience has appealed to his music with each decade of his career: teenagers in the '60s, a contemporaneous crowd in the '70s, children and their parents in the '80s (when he recorded Care Bears themes) and both young and old fans in the '90s.

During their college days in the early '60s the duo informally played folk music together.

Now reunited, their collective fan bases converged and Sebastian's years of attracting a specific demographic were over.

"With David, it got much more miscellaneous and spread out," Sebastian said. "Now I'm not surprised when anybody walks in."

Sebastian said he's accumulated a wider fan base with each of the shows he's played.

"I'm sure David's fans are wondering what I'm doing onstage with this virtuoso," he said.

David Bendett, Sebastian's manager at Artists, Inc., said the duo has consistently exhibited an undeniable chemistry.

"They come from similar backgrounds, starting out in the '60s," Bendett said. "They still respect each other as musicians. I think they just enjoy playing with each other. They have fun."

Among things the two have in common -- they both spent years serving as accompanists to musicians they respect highly and preferred it that way, Sebastian said.

"We learned a lot more than we would being the guy with the light on him," Sebastian said.

At its live show, the duo sometimes plays songs from a 45-year-old set list.