Bob Weir's Feral Radiance

"The studious manner in which he addressed his guitar suggested that it had been given to him only moments before he went onstage, and he was fascinated by it. Each chord, each passing tone, each cluster of notes, each pointed remark seemed like the confirmation of an abstruse mathematical assertion happened upon by chance in the midst of chaos. Clearly he was surprised and delighted by his discoveries; sometimes he shook his head as if in awe."

"He was also beautiful. Later in life, he grew a white mustache and beard, which made him look like a prospector or a sea captain, but when he was young he had an androgynous allure. He had the nature of a polite and well-meaning cowboy, and a shy and understated charisma and grace. More than once, over the years, it occurred to me that he was the holy fool of the Grateful Dead."

Bob Weir died on January 10 at seventy-eight. He first performed with the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East in 1969 and moved in a lurching, twitchy way like a marionette. He approached his guitar with studious fascination, treating each chord and passing tone as an unexpected mathematical-like discovery. He often appeared surprised and delighted by musical moments, sometimes shaking his head in awe. In youth he had an androgynous allure and later grew a white mustache and beard. He embodied a polite, well-meaning cowboy persona with shy, understated charisma, and his father Frederick, an engineer, instilled gentlemanly principles.

Read at The New Yorker