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CD Review
Weir’s first solo release, 1972’s Ace, provides the largest offering with five tracks. Essentially a Grateful Dead record, Ace featured the then current Dead line-up performing mostly Weir/Barlow tunes that eventually became Grateful Dead staples. “Playing In The Band” and “One More Saturday Night” are contributions to the band’s more rocking repertoire, while the patience exuded in “Looks Like Rain” and the harmonies with Donna Godchaux on “Cassidy” demonstrate some of Weir’s best softer songwriting of all time. As the 70s progressed, Bobby certainly found his signature cheese, and selections from both 1978’s Heaven Help The Fool (“Easy To Slip,” “Shades of Grey”) and mid-70s Kingfish (“Lazy Lightning”) are closer to adult-contemporary than the work of the following decade. The Grateful Dead’s first record with Brent Mydland, Go To Heaven, may have the most distinct album cover of their career, but it contains some live Dead essentials, namely the powerful set opener, “Feel Like A Stranger.” The 80’s are typically associated with Mydland’s Dead work, though the often overlooked Bobby and the Midnites has him working on some of Weir’s finest to date. The reggae/rocker “(I Want to) Fly Away” is an obscure gem, fierce and heavy. Perhaps not the song of choice when you get Neil Young Rob Wasserman and Weir together in the studio, “Easy Answers” represents the Wasserman ‘94 Trios album. But Ratdog-era Weir is well respected with both “Two Djinn,” and “Ashes and Glass,” two of the finer Weir songs as of late. Rounding out the disc is another collaboration, “Wabash Cannonball,” taken from the children’s album, Dan Zanes and Friends - a brief bluegrass piece more associated with a Garcia/Grisman release than Weir.
“Throwin’ Stones” from the Dylan shows in ’87 (View From The Vault Four) is a wicked, Weir monster and two poignant selections from fall ’89 are quintessential Weir - “Hell In A Bucket (10.12.89) and “New Minglewood Blues” (10.14.89). Yet the true Bobby shines in the “Estimated Prophet” taken from an Ontario show (3.1.90) during the often staggering, sometimes brilliant, early 90s. This particular version is the Bobby that stole the hearts of Dead fans while simultaneously forcing others into a cold shudder. Every Californian war cry and piercing shriek is met with a greater and louder roar from the crowd, giving a rare Weir-goosebumps moment. If that doesn’t do it, the previously unreleased Ratdog rehearsal of Dylan’s eerie “Masters of War,” recorded on March 19, 2003 right after the “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq, is certain to draw you to silence. He may have spent thirty years as Jerry Garcia’s rhythm guitarist but Weir Here proves again that he played much more than a supporting role to a legend. Glide Magazine is proud to giveaway two (2) copies of Weir Here.Click here to enter
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With more than thirty years of material, most of which has become engrained in American culture, attempting to compile the best of Bob Weir is undoubtedly a daunting task. The extensive archive of live performances with the 
The live disc as you would imagine is Bobby in all his rock star glory, but somehow lacks a full spectrum of Grateful Dead eras sharing equal spotlight. Two tracks from the closing of the Fillmore East shows in April ‘71, “Truckin’” and “Sugar Magnolia” (Ladies and Gentlemen, The Grateful Dead) and “Jack Straw” from the Europe ’72 tour (Steppin’ Out With The Dead) showcase Weir and the band in that full, early 70s stride. Though the next batch doesn’t come into play until fifteen years later and the late 80s heyday of the Dead. 
