Rest In Peace Bob Weir

 Rest in peace Bob Weir. What started out as a modest text to a couple of relatives who love the Grateful Dead, became a journey though Bob’s s music and career. It was both a sad and joyous journey. It was sad to acknowledge that we wouldn't get to see that one more concert that Bob performed at. But it was joyous because I got to re-listen to much of his music that resulted in some fun evenings. Bob seemed to love to perform in front of small and large audiences, and his frequency of performing and sharing through performing with the Dead or one of the other groups he would work with meant that he was one of the people that I probably saw more than many others. He may be even one of the performers with the greatest number of performances.

I've seen him in number of groups and with a number of people but the one that stands out today is when he was on the bill at the 9:30 Club in DC with the Persuasions, the great acapella group. He sang before them and with them and after them, and their music so intertwined that it seemed to create a new reality of influences and performance. Some of that is summed up in the interview at the following address: https://www.trufun.com/discogr.../persuasions/interview.html Some of what I felt that night could be summed up in a new word that I learned more about yesterday a little before I learned about Bob’s passing and that word is “contranym," a word with opposite meanings. In the roots and the fields the dead played in, and where they play and the roots of the street corner Persuasions and where they sang their harmonies, seemed worlds apart, like opposites in one respect and very blended in another, because of the influences on both groups that often intersected.

Bob’s qualities of modesty and naturalness were often displayed in his role as second fiddle in the Grateful Dead while Jerry was leading (while leading some of his own groups) and then stepping up seamlessly to the leadership role of the most recent versions of the Other Ones and the Dead. He took it on with modesty and a naturalness that allowed him to wear shorts in any kind of weather and say when he was complemented about a particularly great set, well next time I'll mess it up don't worry (Trey Anastasio, the founding spirit of the Phish shared that observation in a recent post). Bob made it all seem easy and natural and fun, and we will miss him but his music and contributions truly live on especially in that one night with the Persuasions in (as they sang "Black Muddy River" and "Might As Well")--so playful and joyful a memory.