Bob Weir and Wolf Bros rolled through the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Saturday night. Bobby and the band welcomed Emmylou Harris, Margo Price and many more during the show that benefitted tornado relief.
The trio kicked things off with “The Music Never Stopped” with Bobby showing off some of that unique rhythm guitar work and working the whammy. After a short but wild jam section, Weir added the lyric “never stopped, never stopped now” before the band jammed into late RatDog bassist Rob Wasserman’s “Easy Answers” with Wolf Bros. drummer Jay Lane — who also played in RatDog — handling backing vocals over bassist Don Was’ thumping double bass. The band then finished up “The Music Never Stopped.” Next, Bobby put down the electric and picked up an acoustic guitar for “Friend Of The Devil,” which saw the audience singing along. Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” came next. Weir then slung the electric back up for “Loser,” on which the band welcomed pedal steel player Russ Pahl. Pahl would stay on for an adventurous and unfinished “Dark Star,” which saw Russ adding some nice phased out steel touches and playing off Bobby, before the band headed into a laid back “One More Saturday Night” to close out the set.
Things got turned up a notch in the second set when Bobby and the band emerged wearing their iconic cowboy hats and Weir prefaced the set by saying, “We’re gonna have a number of guests out. Some of them are new friends and I don’t even know their names. Well, I know their first names but…we’ll get around to it.” He then introduced the first guest, singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt. Bobby talked about recording the opener, “Ramble On Rose,” with Wynonna Judd before launching into the fan-favorite with Pruitt leading the band on vocals. Guitarist Frankie Ballard then joined the band for Johnny Cash’s “Big River” ahead of the Wolf Bros. debut of an iconic Bobby song, “Minglewood Blues,” which featured Jimmy Hall on harmonica for the bluesy rendition. The band would keep the debuts up with “Bye Bye,” a song Weir recorded with Kingfish nearly 45 years ago and introduced as an “old ‘bahman’ folk carol,” which also featured guitarist Jamey Johnson.
Margo Price then joined in on vocals and tambourine for “Scarlett Begonias” which also saw the return of Pahl on pedal steel. Margo would stay on for a duet with Weir on a twangy version of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” which then took a turn into “Dark Star” with singer-songwriter Buddy Miller joining in on guitar. Miller would then lead the band on “Black Muddy River” with the legendary Emmylou Harris joining in just in time for some harmonies on the chorus. Emmylou stayed on for John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” with Weir and Harris trading off lead duties and dueting on the chorus, before the trio would handle “Days Between.” The whole cast of characters then joined in for a sing-along on “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad” and also helped close out the night with The Band’s “The Weight.”
Watch pro-shot full show video via Nugs.tv below:
Setlist
Bob Weir at Ryman Auditorium
Set 1
- The Music Never Stopped
- Easy Answers
- The Music Never Stopped
- Friend of the Devil
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- Loser
- Dark Star
- One More Saturday Night
Set 2
- Ramble On Rose
- Big River
- Minglewood Blues
- Bye and Bye
- Scarlet Begonias
- A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
- Dark Star
- Black Muddy River
- Angel From Montgomery
- Days Between
- Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
Encore
- The Weight
- The Band
