Celebrate Bob Weir’s 75th Birthday & Watch Recent Collaborations With Billy Strings

Co-founding Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir began his long strange trip 75 years ago today. Bobby will join Dead & Company on the band’s final tour next summer, bringing an end to an important chapter in his post-Dead career.

What Weir does after Dead & Co. will likely include the guitarist remaining might busy, touring with his group Bobby Weir and Wolf Bros and working on other projects. There’s also a book Bobby’s been working on for several years, an opera and orchestral endeavors, including his just-held performances in Washington D.C. with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Recent years have also seen Weir becoming a somewhat regular fixture of the Nashville music scene. Dating back to at least 2016 when he sat in with Phish at Ascend Amphitheater, Weir has participated in many memorable collaborations in Nashville. Most of Bobby’s sit-ins have occurred on the storied stage of the historic Ryman Auditorium, where just this week he performed with Ramblin Jack Elliott at an all-star tribute to John Prine on what would have been the late singer-songwriter’s birthday.

In March, Prine’s son Tommy Prine was among the guests who joined Weir & Wolf Bros at The Ryman, along with Margo Price, Wynonna Judd, Mickey Raphael, and Cactus Moser. In May, Billy Strings took over The Ryman for a three-night run that saw Weir joining the talented guitarist and his bandmates at two of the three shows.

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Weir’s first drop-in at The Ryman came on May 7, when he and Strings kicked off the collaboration by playing “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Dire Wolf” as a duo. Weir then stuck around for the second set, which was made up entirely of songs performed by the Grateful Dead.

Weir came back to The Ryman the following night, May 8, and was one of several guests to accompany Strings that evening as he also brought out Les Claypool, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie McCoury and Marty Stuart. Weir came out to help Strings on Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” as well as the Dead jam-vehicle “Dark Star” and their staple cover “Samson & Delilah.” Weir came back out with the other guests for the show closing “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”

Bobby and Billy’s meetups at The Ryman were preceded by a rendezvous at Weir’s familiar stomping grounds, Sweetwater Music Hall in Milly Valley, California. Strings was a guest of Weir & Wolf Bros on February 28 at a performance honoring Rob Lawson, a longtime friend and employee of Weir who died last fall.

That evening also saw Claypool and guitarist Matty Michna sitting in. At Sweetwater, Strings, Weir and Wolf Bros – drummer Jay Lane (who played in Primus with Claypool), bassist Don Was and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti – joined up on “China Cat Sunflower” into “I Know Rider” for an exploratory offering of the oft paired tunes. Playing electric guitar, Strings’ time onstage at Sweetwater also included “Brokedown Palace” and saw him and Claypool accompany the band on The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Starting with the Sweetwater sit-in, watch highlights of Bobby and Billy playing Dead together this year below:

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Source: JamBase.com