Life in RatDog: Mark Karan Recalls Bob Weir’s "Loud and Clear" Devotion to the Songbook.

Continuing the Bob Weir appreciations with word from guitarist Mark Karan, who played with Weir for 15 years.

I got to know Mark Karan when he was playing with Bob Weir in The Other Ones and Ratdog. I always enjoyed his blues-rooted playing and it made perfect sense when I learned that Mark’s first breakthrough was playing with Delaney Bramlett (a story for another day). He and Steve Kimock ended up in The Other Ones because Bob wanted mark and Phil wanted Steve, so they just took them both… or so I heard.

I hired Mark to play San Fran book launch parties for both Big in China and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. The latter was held at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads and featured Brian Lesh’s American Jubilee as the backing band, with Mark as special guest. A good time was had.

So it was natural for me to ask Mark if I could share his thoughts on the passing of Bob Weir, with whom he played for 15 years.

Mark Karan, center with me and American Jubilee and my buddy Norm Bradford. Phil Lesh upper far left, Roos James far right. Photo - Jay Blakesberg.

Here is Mark on Bobby. He doesn’t do a lot of punctuating or capitalizing and I left it alone.

Bob Weir… the chief… ace... there are so many of us hurting at the loss... especially his family! so first off, i want to send big love to tascha & the girls…

bob brought huge numbers of “us” SO many great feelings, memories… and MUSIC! and i really don’t know where to begin. this will likely be a rambling, unfocused post.

the news came as a quite a shock to me saturday evening, rite before hitting the stage to play… Grateful Dead music!

bobby’s respect for music as a creative force, a healing agent, a community builder & a pure expression of “spirit” came thru loud & clear thru the decades. he made so MUCH awesome music for all of us for so many years… & i was lucky enuff to share the stage with him in Ratdog & in many other Dead-related configurations over the past 30 years.

bobby completely shifted the trajectory of my entire LIFE back in 1998. i’d been a pretty much “unknown” guitar player, chasing the dream of “rockstardom” all my life. in 1998 at age 44, i was literally ready to “throw in the towel” on music when the boys invited me to play in the other ones in 1998/2000 & bobby invited me to share the stage with him in ratdog.

i’d grown up in SF, seeing the dead from 1966 thru about 1976 & i had “moved on” to other bands & types of music... coming into the “scene” revitalized my entire being. it reconnected me to the energy of my early years & led me to connect to a deeper, purer part of myself & to my one true love… the MUSIC!

That ride went for 15 YEARS & i still experience it’s effect on me every day in my music & personal life. i have so many great memories & experiences from those years… i wish i could share some here but there’s only so much time & space…

bob helped me fulfill my lifelong dream of touring & playing on big stages in a great band… he encouraged me to reconnect to playing music for music’s sake- eschewing the trappings of fame & fortune…he wasn’t the most expressive guy in some ways. he wasn’t a font of complements… but we played really well together & there were always little “special moments” in the music.. i loved the little sideways smile he’d get when i stumbled across something cool to “say” in the midst of a jam...

i also realised once we started playing together that bob’s unique approach to rhythm guitar had become sort of the foundation for the way i approach rhythm guitar (an oft neglected part of guitar playing that bob excelled at).

bob & i hadn’t really spoken in several years & i’m sad about that & that we didn’t have a chance to say “goodbye”, but he will be with me in spirit for the rest of my days… i’m super thankful for his support thru the years (when i had to leave tour to heal my cancer, bobby kept me on salary while i was in treatment!), for his musical influence & for changing my LIFE for the better so many years ago… and mostly for his friendship.

thank you bobby… HUGE love to you & many thanks. you will, & do, live on in our hearts & in the pages of musical history!

i’ve posted some pics … it’s shocking to me how few i actually have to document fully 15 years touring with ratdog & the dead family (but i do have a TON of well recorded live shows on DAT & CD… & the MUSIC’s “the thing”, ain’t it?

Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.