Bob Weir / Ratdog EVENING MOODS

Bob Weir & Ratdog: Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Mark Karan (guitar, background vocals); Jeff Chimenti (keyboards, background vocals); Jay Lane (drums, background vocals); Rob Wasserman (bass). Additional personnel: Matt McGinn (guitar); Matthew Kelly (harmonica, background vocals); Dave Ellis (tenor & baritone saxophones); Eric Crystal (tenor saxophone); Kenny Brooks (saxophone); Robbie Kwock (trumpet); Marty Wehner (trombone); Mickey Hart (percussion). All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology. Personnel: Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Mark Karan (guitar, background vocals); Jeff Chimenti (keyboards, background vocals); Rob Wasserman (bass guitar); Jay Lane (drums, background vocals). The first album from Grateful Dead second banana Bob Weir's group is a bit of surprise. The interplay between Weir and lead guitarist Mark Karan and Weir's regular guy vocals notwithstanding, this doesn't sound all that much like the Dead. True, there are a couple of bluesy workouts like "Bury Me Standing" and "Odessa" (which actually sounds more like the Band), but the bulk of the album is a lot more experimental. Witness the instrumental "The Deep End," which flirts with late '60s free jazz, and the concluding "Even So," with its dissonant guitar lines and edgy feedback. The general level of songwriting is extremely strong, in particular "October Queen," a jazz-inflected sort of surreal Tom Waits-ish story (complete with surprise ending in the last verse) about a man who cheats on his wife in New Orleans once a year; it's the sort of thing that never would have even occurred to the Dead.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: CD
• Released: 4/19/2005