Bob Weir - Ace (1972)

Bob Weir is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his role as rhythm guitarist for The Grateful Dead.

Bob Weir was born in San Francisco, and started playing guitar as a teenager. In 1963 he met banjo player Jerry Garcia, and the two decided to form a band. Before long they traded in their acoustic instruments for electric guitars, and with the addition of three other members became The Warlocks, soon to be renamed as the Grateful Dead. With the Dead, Weir acted as rhythm guitarist, and shared the lead vocal duties with Garcia and keyboard player Ron McKernan. By the late 60s the Dead had become known as one of the foremost bands of San Francisco's psychedelic rock scene.
His debut solo album came out in a period when the Dead were focusing on live albums. The band backing him was actually just the rest of the Dead, so in reality Ace is a Grateful Dead studio album with the focus on Weir. Stylistically it fits in with the sound of the period's live albums (Skull & Roses, Europe '72), with a rootsy mix of rock, folk, blues, country, etc... Most of the songs were collaborations between Weir and lyricist John Perry Barlow (whom he had met as a teenager). Many of them would become much-loved parts of the Grateful Dead's live repetoire ("Playing In The Band", one of Weir's best-known songs, had actually already appeared on Skull & Roses).

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