Bob Weir initially formed the
Wolf Bros. in 2018 as a stripped-down live trio featuring himself on guitar and vocals,
Don Was on bass, and
Jay Lane on drums. The latest of
Weir's post-
Grateful Dead iterations, the band focused on a mix of
Dead catalog standards, a few latter-day
Weir cuts, and assorted roots rock covers to fill out their set. The trio only had a couple of tours under their belt when the COVID-19 pandemic grounded them in early 2020. When they re-emerged the following summer as
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., it was with an expanded lineup that nudged the group into a more sonically familiar place of
Dead-adjacence. Culled from a series of June 2021 shows in the Centennial State,
Live in Colorado is the first official
Wolf Bros. release and features a couple more veteran instrumentalists in pedal steel player
Greg Leisz and keyboardist
Jeff Chimenti along with a five-piece horn section called the Wolfpack. Peppered in among
Dead staples like "West L.A. Fadeaway" and "New Speedway Boogie" are low-key takes on
Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and
Johnny Cash's "Big River" as well as a rather moving version of
Weir's 2016 solo standout "Only a River." While
Lane and
Chimenti are regular collaborators,
Was,
Leisz, and the horn players help give the project a slightly different flavor than
Dead & Company,
RatDog, or any of
Weir's other combos. At this point in his career he's not reinventing the wheel, but it's nice to hear him finding new ways to move around in the jam band ecosystem he helped launch. ~ Timothy Monger