Recording April 2022 - 35

Bobby Weir
Thanks to the Dead's live
recording culture, you may
be one of the most recorded
musicians of all time.
Are you conscious of that
when you go on stage?
Not at all. When I go on stage, I go into a world where
the characters in the songs live, and I try not to think about
technical stuff at all.
When did you decide that the Red Rocks
shows would become an official album?
Because of the nature of our setup, we can record any show,
and we just assumed that if the band played well, and it did,
we'd make a record out of it.
Do you typically record every
performance as a multitrack?
Yes, it's a good reference for us when we get around to listening
to it, which we don't do all that much, at least I don't-I
think Don actually does.
I've often wondered, do you guys get back
on the bus and go, " Hey, let's listen to
the show we just did 20 minutes ago? "
We used to do that in the old days with the Grateful Dead,
and it helped to grow us as a band because you can hear
what's working and what's not. With the Wolf Bros., we get
together and listen back to our performances every now and
again, just to stay sharp.
You guys played 34 songs between
the two nights. How did you whittle
that down to eight for the album?
Don did that. He's our resident bigshot producer. [laughter]
He knows what works and what doesn't. My view is a little too
subjective, and he's past that. He picked the songs, presided
over the mix, and did what a producer does.
Who does the live recording?
Our front-of-house mixer, Derek Featherstone. I dare
say he's the best in the business. He's lashed it up
so that all he has to do is press the red button,
and we're recording.
We always pan everything where it was on stage because
you're going to get better phase integrity. The band more or
less mixes itself. If I need to step out with my guitar at some
point, I just crank it.
Were there any moments at Red Rocks that you
walked away and said, " Yeah, this is the night! "
I regularly have moments on stage when the character in the
song makes some sort of revelation to me. The character is using my
voice, my mannerisms, and my hands to tell a story, and every now
and again, he'll show me a new aspect of his character, and I'll lean
into that. That's what's going on in my head when I'm performing.
What is your current guitar rig?
I try to keep things as simple as possible. I don't use much in the
way of guitar effects anymore. My current guitar rig is just a little
Vox Night Train amplifier. They don't make them anymore, but I've
got a few of them. It gives me the high end I'm looking for and
goes into distortion very evenly and predictably. From the Night
Train, I go into a Universal Audio OX box, and I use a bit of reverb
and sometimes a little bit of compression. I've been finding that the
sounds I get from my guitar are so rich and varied that I don't need
delays. I don't need phasing. I don't need flanging. If you let it, the
guitar will reveal its subtlety, and that subtlety works with the characters
that are coming through me, so they can just tell their story.
Wolf Bros. is a ten-piece outfit, so I can't be playing with delays
because that just complicates things and makes the sound too thick.
Are you miking a cabinet on stage?
I don't mic the cabinet. I'm going direct out of the OX box. I
use a Friedman full-range speaker on stage that's pretty damn
flat, and it's not real big. I use two of them because I've been
running stereo, but I think I might cut my whole rig back to
just mono and just one Friedman
cabinet because I just don't
need stereo anymore.
RECORDING April 2022 35
Recording April 2022

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