Live in Colorado

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 Weirs 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 Dylans "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall" and Johnny Cashs "Big River" as well as a rather moving version of Weirs 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 Weirs other combos. At this point in his career hes not reinventing the wheel, but its nice to hear him finding new ways to move around in the jam band ecosystem he helped launch. ~ Timothy Monger