Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Welcome Tyler Childers, Brittney Spencer & Ron Carter At Radio City Music Hall

kicked off their two-night run at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall on Saturday celebrating 50 years of Weir’s 1972 debut solo album, Ace. Bobby made good on his promise of a guest-filled run with Saturday featuring Tyler Childers, Brittney Spencer and Ron Carter and the first set boasting a complete performance of Ace.

Weir got the run celebrating 50 years of Ace going with a solo acoustic rendition of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” Drummer Jay Lane, bassist Don Was, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and pedal steel player Barry Sless then joined in to take NYC to the Wild West with “Me and My Uncle” and “Loser.”

Weir then welcomed The Wolf Pack string and horn section — cellist Alex Kelly, violinist Mads Tolling, trombonist Adam Theis, trumpeter Brian Switzer and woodwind specialist Sheldon Brown — along with singer-songwriter Tyler Childers for Ace opener “Greatest Stroy Ever Told.” Bobby deferred to Tyler to sing the tune, who delivered a stellar vocal performance on the Weir/Hunter/Hart rocker. Next, Bob Weir & Wolf Bros and The Wolf Pack offered the Weir/John Perry Barlow highway tune “Black-Throated Wind.”

Singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer then emerged to help dust off the Ace deep cut “Walk In The Sunshine,” which marked the first time Weir performed the song since 2010, as per SetlistFM. After the full ensemble delivered Ace side one closer “Playing in The Band,” Brittney returned for “Looks Like Rain.” The full ensemble then played the rest of side two beginning with “Mexicali Blues” and followed by “One More Saturday Night” and “Cassidy” to close the first frame.

Bob Weir & Wolf Bros along with Childers and his acoustic guitar got the second set underway with the Hank Williams classic “You Win Again,” a song covered by the Grateful Dead in the Ace era, with Tyler once again delivering an amazing vocal performance. “Tyler’s gonna be with us this weekend,” Bobby said as Tyler left the stage, “and we’re gonna be real happy about that.” The Wolf Pack would then return for the rest of the set beginning on a gorgeous full rendering of the “Weather Report Suite” before Spencer helped the full ensemble out on “Shakedown Street.”

Legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter, who Bobby called a “hero of mine” in a 2020 social media post, then added his expertise to the psychedelia of “Dark Star.” While Ron would depart for the ensuing “Eyes Of The World,” Spencer came back out and stuck around for Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” as well as a return to “Eyes.” The full ensemble then went it alone to close the set with “Days Between” and a “Playin” reprise. The Wolf Pack would also add to the encore, the beloved Dead classic “Ripple.”

Watch pro-shot video of the first and second set opening songs including “You Win Again” with Childers as well as fan-shot video of Tyler singing “Greatest Story Ever Told” below: