by Dean Budnick

At this point it may be hackneyed to suggest that for Bob Weir, the music never stopped, but son-of-a-gun if that isn't the truth. Fully five years after the final performance of the Grateful Dead, Weir remains a vital musician who continues to delight and surprise. To employ a metaphor drawn from the sport that provides the backdrop to his upcoming musical on the life of pitcher Satchel Paige, Weir has not lost his fastball. Indeed, not only that, but over time, he's added a slider and a tantalizing slow curve as well.

Weir has a number of projects set for public consumption in the months to follow. The debut release from Ratdog, a studio recording entitled Evenings Moods, is scheduled to appear in September. Also on the horizon is the premiere of a musical that traces the life of Satchel Paige, the baseball player whose mantra "Don't look back, something may be gaining on you" likely carries some resonance with the guitarist as well.

On August 23 he will take to the road with the Furthur Festival, which will feature the second incarnation of the Other Ones. This time out, Billy Kreutzmann has reentered the fold to accompany fellow rhythm devil Mickey Hart, while Alphonso Johnson will perform on bass. Furthur will tour through September with Ziggy Marley and Melody Makers on board, heading out from California and traversing the nation. For additional information on Furthur, the Other Ones and Ratdog seek out the appropriate constellation on www.dead.net.

DB- Since you're in rehearsal now with the Other Ones, I know our readers would be interested to learn a bit about the process. How loose is it in terms of focussing on individual compositions versus exploring areas outside the structures of the songs?

BW- Right now what we're doing is a little of both. We don't work on the improvisation so much because that kind of happens naturally when we get out on stage. What we're attempting to do now is really just work up a bunch of songs to kick around once we get out on tour. What we'll do though is we'll establish a groove upon which we're going to work. We'll work on the arrangements so there are no huge thundering clams and then its understood that okay, here's an instrumental section, we'll develop that when we get out there. We'll just save it for then.

DB- I would imagine that in that context though with so many musicians, so many voices, that there is a danger of clutter. I interviewed Mark Karan, a few months ago and he mentioned that from his perspective there was a bit of that on the first Others O nes tour.

BW- With our approach sometimes it's real good and sometimes you need a traffic cop. We've got our best guys on it. I think we have to re-establish our corporate selves as it were. That'll happen. It's happening now in the studio and then it will sort of reforge itself once again when we get out live because it's just different when you're playing for people.

DB- From experience long does it typically take for something like that to gel?

BW- God, there's no telling. We could come hot out of the box and I think we actually will. Then typically at the end of the tour things are a lot tighter anyway. It's been that way on any tour I've ever been on.

DB- Who brings songs to the Other Ones? Who takes the lead there?

BW- We all do. Particularly the guys who are singing of course, but everybody steps in. Like for instance the two guitar players wanted to do "Help On the Way" and "Slipknot" and all that kind of stuff which is going to be an undertaking because they're complicated tunes. But they really want to do them so we get to figure out who's going to sing them and exactly how we're going to address it.

DB- Do you find yourself more drawn to revisiting older tunes, or exploring newer material with the Other Ones?

BW- Half and half. We're going to have to have a certain number of chestnuts worked out so that the people who are coming to hear those will get to hear them. At the same time we're going to have to have enough of those so we don't all go crazy repeating them. And then on top of that we're going to want new stuff of which there's a fair bit that we're working on to present. There's also the open-ended stuff that will arise when we get out there. If we start visiting a given place long enough we also may endeavor to make a song out of it somehow. "Only the Strange Remain" came out of one of those for instance.

DB- In terms of creating new collective music, how long do you anticipate it will take for that to happen this time out?

BW- It already is happening. We've gotten to where we're playing stuff and we're trying to put lyrics over it. But that's the natural stuff that happens when you're playing regularly with people.

DB- Will you bring any of your newer Ratdog songs to the band?

BW- There is talk of it. My inclination is to keep them separate so that I start missing the other body of material. But I wouldn't be surprised if we did one or two.

DB- So that is why a song like "Banyan Tree" was placed on the backburner and never surfaced with Ratdog?

BW- Exactly. It was never quite put away. It's on the front burners now. It took a couple years off, that's all.

DB- So from the very start then you envisioned after the first tour that you'd come back out on the road with the Other Ones?

BW- Yeah, that was the plan all along.

DB- Who tapped Alphonso to join the group?

BW- We all sort of kicked that around. He was available, he knew the material and I had played with him in various ensembles in the past. I had a great time with him, he's a great bass player.

DB- How did you first meet him way back in the Bobby and the Midnites days?

BW- He and I were both Ibanez endorsees. We met at a trade show. We played together a bit in that context and when a spot opened up in the Midnites, I gave him a buzz.

DB- Did you ever see him play in Jazz Is Dead?

BW- No, I never caught that.

DB- What has he brought to the band in terms of his approach?

BW- He's a great groove bass player which is not something that Phil was real comfortable doing when he was working with us.

DB- So can we expect to see more funk-laced jams?

BW- There's more of that happening to be sure.

DB- I'm curious about Bill. When was the decision made that he would join the band?

BW- The day that he announced he wanted to, basically (laughs).

DB- We interviewed him on the site a while back as well. At that time he said that the first incarnation of the Other Ones never opened up the songs enough for his own taste. Do you think that's a valid criticism?

BW- Well, I think we opened up a whole lot of stuff the last time around. I would say though that we're doing even more of that this time under his auspices. Under his aegis, shall I say, that's getting done.

DB- Is that a conscious decision or is that something that has arisen through familiarity? I would imagine that it has helped to have a bit more rehearsal time this year as well.

BW- Well everybody's just loosened up a bit. Although Alphonso has a pretty sizable slug of material that he hasn't done, some of which he's never heard, to choke down. So now we're not in full race. But we'll be changing things up and learning stuff all along.

DB- Let's briefly jump to Ratdog. You have an album on the way and a number of new songs in the band's repertoire. This seems to be a particularly fertile songwriting period for you, what accounts for that? How has your approach changed over the years, if at all?

BW- Most of those songs are collaborations within the band. The way I prefer to write these days is to do it collaboratively. That way the guys in the band know what the song is supposed to sound like, because they helped make it up. Also there's a little of them invested in each of those tunes so they'll lean into them a little bit more than just interpreting someone else's tunes. We just got busy and wrote over the last year. The band personnel stabilized so that we could do that finally, so we took adv antage of the opportunity to write.

DB- Will the newer material appear on the disc?

BW- There's only one older tune, that's on there and that's Corrina. The rest of it is pretty new, all written in the last year or two.

DB- Does Kenny Brooks play on it?

BW- Yup.

DB- A few more quick ones- the Gathering of the Vibes, I'm curious as to your thoughts on playing with Les Claypool?

BW- (Laughs) I wish we'd had a soundcheck so that we could have had it more together. I thought he fit in better with us than I did with him. He's a lot of fun, I've played with him in the past.

DB- Did you know he was going to tear through "Tomorrow Never Knows?"

BW- About twenty minutes in front.

DB- And what's the status on the Satchel Paige musical? I know a number of people are looking forward to that.

BW- We're waiting for the theatrical company that we're doing some development with to get done mounting a piece in New York. When they get done doing that then I think we're next up.

DB- Have any of those songs seen the light of day with Ratdog?

BW- Nope. I suppose I could bring some of them around and I probably will for that matter. With Ratdog though, we've been concentrating on working up our own stuff, and with the Other Ones it's kind of the same deal. I would imagine that once that gets up and rolling if people come to me and say, "We've got to do this tune," then hell yeah, we'll do it but I'm not going to drop it on the group and say we've got to do these tunes.

DB- Are those songs blues-based?

BW- Some of them. Actually we tried to work within constraints of the periods. We'd go back and try to cop a Louis Jordan groove and feel for a given song. Or a Basie or an Ellington groove or feel for a given song, just letting the genre tell the story o f his life and times.

DB- One final quick one. Since this is a Presidential election year and you're such a vocal figure on political issues, I was wondering if you're interesting in flagging one or two that you deem to be essential as November 7 approaches?

BW- My extreme bias is towards the environment. This is going to be a pivotal election, I think. If we don't elect a candidate who will respect the environment then it may be too late four years later if the store is given away to environmentally insensi tive politicians and interests. I don't see how we're going to get it back.

DB- Are you optimistic that this will happen?

BW- Relatively. I think people might come to realize that. I think more should made of the issue.