Evening Moods

1	Bury Me Standing / RatDog 9:03
2	Lucky Enough / RatDog 5:10
3	Odessa / RatDog 6:14
4	Ashes and Glass / RatDog 5:55
5	Welcome to the World / RatDog 6:52
6	Two Djinn / RatDog 9:03
7	Corrina / RatDog 8:52
8	October Queen / RatDog 7:45
9	The Deep End / RatDog Instrumental 5:16
10	Even So / RatDog 9:41

Barnes & Noble

Although the members of the Grateful Dead did allot time for outside projects over the years, three-plus decades of togetherness blurred musical edges to the point that it was often tough to tell where one member's output ended and another's began. Since Jerry Garcia's death, those lines blurred to the point where none of the band's surviving members seemed willing to shoulder the responsibility of moving the Dead's legacy forward, but Bob Weir finally seems ready to do just that with RatDog. Unlike, say, Mickey Hart, who's gone on to explore the further (no pun intended) flung regions of world music, Weir and company don't stray far from the (admittedly wide) swath of territory colonized by the guitarist's "old" band. From the slow burn of the Willie Dixon-styled original "Bury Me Standing," which gains an extra layer of hoodoo from Jeff Chimenti's dark, burnished organ tones, to the elegant road ballad "Two Djinn," the best songs unfold slowly, revealing new textures at each turn. Weir certainly doesn't disappoint those tuning in to hear his trademark six-string work: He laces "Lucky Enough" with an effortlessly head-turning solo and buoys the pensive "Ashes and Glass" (which does a nifty job of paraphrasing the classic "Mockingbird") with an intricate mesh of notes that recall his best concert improvisations. Yes, there are a couple of missteps -- the horn-driven choogle of "Odessa" sounds a bit forced, and the reworking of the Dead staple "Corinna" slightly out of place -- but for jonesing Deadheads (and devotees of old-school jam-rock in general), those will be but small breaks in a very good Mood, indeed. David Sprague

All Music Guide

The long-awaited release from former Grateful Dead icon Bob Weir's jam band Ratdog shouldn't disappoint hungry Deadheads. The bluesy/folky/country/jazz feel of the Dead's live sets have been reborn in this incarnation as well, accented by guest Mickey Hart's loose percussion on a couple of tracks (notably the cover of "Corinna"). Weir's friend and frequent collaborator, bassist Rob Wasserman, anchors the tracks and allows for plenty of bluesy jamming, and the band opens up to make room for gritty keyboard solos and even a bright horn section. After five years of touring without a single album for rabid fans to take home with them in their VW vans and BMW convertibles, the inevitable question is "When does the tour start?" Zac Johnson