It’s been a banner year for Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead guitarist who has recently marked his 75th birthday with a number of landmark shows. Just this month, he performed four concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at The John F. Kennedy Center before jetting back to San Francisco for an intimate three-night birthday party at The Warfield. In between, he also made a layover at one of the You Got Gold John Prine tribute concerts at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
Before all that, however, Weir celebrated the 50th anniversary of his debut solo album, Ace, with two nights at Radio City Music Hall back in April. Those shows witnessed guest appearances from Tyler Childers, Brittney Spencer, and Bobby’s Dead & Company bandmate John Mayer.
The Radio City shows also featured nightly full-album tellings of Ace which were recorded for a new 50th-anniversary reissue of the album. Out on January 13th, the reissue pairs a newly remastered mix of Weir’s 1972 album alongside the live version recorded with Childers, Spencer, and The Wolfpack. Ahead of the release, Weir on Thursday shared audio of “Black Throated Wind”.
A crossover favorite in the Grateful Dead catalog, “Black Throated Wind” stands as one of the classic Bobby ballads. The weary tale of highway miles and living on the road takes on added depth from the vintage quality of Weir’s voice, while Barry Sless‘s pedal steel guitar plays up the folk factor that’s a pillar of Bob’s solo style. This live recording was also included on Good Music To Secure Safe Abortion Access For All, a star-studded benefit album that was available on Bandcamp for one day only earlier this month.
“In the eternal present-tense of the Grateful Dead’s music, none of the songs had stopped evolving in the previous 50 years,” author and co-host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast Jesse Jarnow wrote in the Ace reissue’s liner notes. “At Radio City, everything was heard in its newest (and perhaps already outdated) incarnations, the evolutions acting as a progress report on the ensuing half-century of Weir’s life, musical and otherwise.”
Listen to Bob Weir & Wolf Bros perform “Black Throated Wind” at Radio City Music Hall from the Ace 50th-anniversary reissue, available here for pre-order. The remastered studio version and live recordings will arrive as a 2CD release while just the studio album will be available on custom “high roller” pearl white vinyl available exclusively through Dead.net. Revisit Live For Live Music‘s coverage of nights one and two of Weir’s Radio City run.
Bob Weir & Wolf Bros – “Black Throated Wind” – 4/3/22