Don Was remembers : NPR

Don Was (backside left) joined the group Wolf Bros in 2018 on the invitation of Bob Weir (middle), who was in search of a extra intimate format to carry out the music he’d co-created with the Grateful Lifeless.

Todd Michalek

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Todd Michalek

Over the weekend, Grateful Lifeless followers the world over mourned the lack of an icon: Bob Weir, guitarist and founding member, had died at 78, leaving listeners and collaborators caught off-guard. Because the 1995 loss of life of lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia, Weir had been devoted to carrying on the band’s legacy by the use of numerous initiatives, presenting Lifeless songs in new configurations to audiences huge and small.

Certainly one of Weir’s most up-to-date experiments had been a guitar, bass and drums trio assembled in 2018, which he dubbed Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. He selected his former Rat Canine bandmate Jay Lane to play drums. For bass, following the identical intuition that had introduced John Mayer into the touring mega-group Lifeless & Firm just a few years earlier, he stretched past the band’s established universe of musicians and turned to a renaissance man.

Don Was is a type of music trade figures the place you’ll be able to’t select a single defining credit score. He has produced for the likes of Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Wayne Shorter and Elton John, served because the music director for quite a few all-star group performances, composed for movies and, since 2011, led the storied jazz label Blue Word Data as president. Was admits he had solely an informal relationship with the Lifeless’s music when he bought the invitation to hitch Weir’s new trio, however rapidly fell in love with the philosophy that had guided the group and its spinoff initiatives for many years.

“I’d say they approached life very a lot the best way they approached songs, which was largely improvisational — keep within the current and really feel your method by means of it,” Was says fondly. “Belief your instincts and proceed with out concern.”

With Was on bass, Wolf Bros rapidly turned an viewers favourite, functioning as a extra intimate different to the festival-sized scale of Lifeless & Firm live shows. Of their restricted however yearly excursions, the ensemble finally grew to incorporate keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, Greg Leisz on metal guitar and, often, a horn part known as The Wolfpack.

Was has lengthy been identified for what musicians name “huge ears” — an distinctive knack for listening to many sorts of music with a deep appreciation. In an interview performed only a day after the announcement of Weir’s loss of life, he shares just a few tales of his expertise from the bandstand.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.

Felix Contreras: What is the greatest lesson you realized from Bob Weir in your time taking part in collectively?

Don Was: What I realized was to strategy each music and life with out concern. I am not saying that I mastered it, however he set me on a course of obliterating self-consciousness and remorse and concern in regards to the future whenever you’re taking part in music. Simply be within the current and belief your instincts, and do not be afraid to do one thing that is going to be perceived as being a mistake. The viewers does not thoughts in case you make a mistake, as a result of they know you are attempting to present them one thing new and authentic. And that was the purpose — to do one thing contemporary each single night time, to strategy these songs like they have been brand-new experiences. So each night time was an journey.

Had you listened to the Lifeless a lot earlier than you entered their orbit as a collaborator?

I noticed them play in ’72, and I dug what they have been doing. I understood that they have been a jazz group, primarily, an improvisation group, they usually did make use of a few of the similar rhythms and the identical harmonic modes because the jazz musicians have been doing — however there was one thing else happening, and it was a rock and roll band above all else. I dug the place they have been coming from, however I used to be not what you’ll name a Deadhead. I did not observe a tour round, and up till we began taking part in these songs collectively, I actually couldn’t have identified the distinction between a 1978 live performance and a 1994 live performance. However I can now [laughs].

There have been so many shops for the Lifeless’s catalog. What was the precise thought behind Wolf Bros? Did Bob ever speak to you about it?

I feel crucial factor to Bobby was that he wished a bunch that allowed him the area to interpret the songs as a singer — and interpret them in another way each night time — however to completely inhabit the lyrics and keep out of the best way of the story. In order that was our focus initially, simply to present him room to be Bobby and to sing these songs with a newbie’s thoughts each night time. To begin contemporary, to inhabit the characters within the tune, and to be unencumbered by notes getting in the best way. So I attempted very laborious to help him in order that nonetheless he wished to phrase that night time, he was all the time within the pocket.

I noticed that first tour within the fall of 2018, and what stood out to me that night time was, as you guys have been inhabiting the songs, within the areas the place there was imagined to be a guitar solo, it was simply him comping [playing supporting chords]. I used to be like, “Oh my God, that is the highlight on his distinct type” — a singular type that he developed taking part in behind Garcia for all these years. It was like a non-solo solo. 

By the best way, he wasn’t the primary to do this. I’d say that Keith Richards started blurring the road between [lead] guitar taking part in and rhythm guitar taking part in. And possibly you might even say the identical about Chuck Berry in case you actually listened to what he was doing on the core — he was type of taking on the horn components by way of the syncopations.

Bobby actually blurred the traces between lead guitar and rhythm guitar, but in addition blurred any preconception about what a rock and roll guitar participant is meant to play. He may alternate throughout the course of 4 bars from one thing John Lee Hooker-raw to Segovia-sophisticated. I discovered his improvisations each night time to be extremely colourful and vivid, and I by no means knew what he was going to do subsequent. Typically whenever you play with somebody for a very long time, you’ll be able to anticipate them. He was all the time a pleasant shock to play with as a result of the whole lot he got here up with was unpredictable. And once more, I do not assume there was a separation between his singing and his taking part in. It was all one primary intuition, and he was being himself.

You’ve got labored in so many types and genres, and finished so many alternative collaborations. What did you get out of taking part in Grateful Lifeless music?

There’s lots of attract to taking part in Grateful Lifeless songs. Initially, they’re superbly written. I used to be really offended after I needed to study them as a result of they have been so difficult — like “Saint of Circumstance” and “Misplaced Sailor,” it took me a very long time to get these down. As soon as I internalized the songs, I spotted that the issues that I believed have been laborious, the odd bars and that type of factor, that is a part of the great thing about it. These songs all roll off your fingers like butter, man.

Additionally they enable you room to play in another way each night time. There’s every kind of territory to discover. That does not occur in each type of tune. It jogs my memory of Wayne Shorter: Why did he stand out? Why is he thought of the good author of our time? It is as a result of [the songs] have been enjoyable to play. You recognize, I began pondering of these songs as pals. I do know it sounds goofy, however “Misplaced Sailor,” for instance — I heard it lately, and I missed it. I missed taking part in it, and I missed inhabiting the tune. They’re light on the psyche. They make you are feeling good. I do not know if this may make sense to anybody however a musician, but it surely’s a optimistic expertise to play these songs and to inhabit them.

Additionally, I may see the faces within the viewers. You recognize, I used to be in my 60s after I joined Bobby’s band, and I’ve by no means seen an viewers reply to music like that. You may see how a lot sure traces would imply to individuals by their faces, and also you’d get a vibe again that might really influence the best way you performed. The vitality change between the viewers and the band at a Grateful Lifeless-related present is on one other stage: The viewers is known as a member of the band. The musicians on the stage feed off that vitality that comes again at them, and it makes you select completely different moments. It is a outstanding little change. It is completely different from anyone else.