REMEMBERING BOB WEIR final meeting, as Phyllis passed away only a month later.
Bobby, his wife Natascha, and their two young daughters, though, continued to bond with the Parbers, making a tradition of visiting“ the grandparents” on weekends, and often for the night. When they did, Bobby and Natascha always stayed in James’ old room, where Milena had kept his old guitar. The shabby case had variously been stashed in the closet, stood in a corner, or stowed beneath the bed. Curiosity got the best of Bobby, and rising to the bait, he unlatched the case and opened it up: before him lay the road-worn’ 56 Tele. With broken knobs and a pickup sprung from its moorings, it still bore the scars it incurred when it fell to the floor that heartrending day in’ 91. As he lifted it from its case, he wondered what it might have to say.
Bobby called Milena to the room and asked her if he might be allowed to fix the guitar and possibly play it.“ I thought you’ d never ask,” she said. And so, with her blessing he delivered the guitar to AJ, his roadie and guitar tech, who got the guitar back into playing shape in no time. Coincidentally, The Dead had been preparing for their summer’ 03 tour. At their next rehearsal, Bobby plugged the old Tele into his rig, and with its first biting notes it unequivocally claimed its place in the mix.
Being a large group, Bobby had struggled with his sound; the fatter tone of his Modulous just couldn’ t cut through to his satisfaction. Between the two keyboards, lead guitar, and bass, his guitar was fighting for its life in the overcrowded midrange. But James’ Tele, a characteristically thin sounding guitar, poked right through the mix and spoke right up. The cutting quality of each note, line, and chord defined its own space within the flux of the music. And when it did, all the previous sonic frustrations evaporated. At once Bobby began to imagine the possibilities this newfound clarity would lend to his rhythmic and harmonic explorations within the band’ s sound.
So excited were the band that Bobby invited the Colonel and Milena to their studios, only a couple of miles from their home, to hear it for themselves. And when they did, the Tele’ s sparkling tone drew a satisfied smile from the Colonel and tears from Milena’ s eyes. They knew its voice well; each attack of the strings invoking a long-silent spirit.
The ensuing tour would take the band— and James’ guitar— across the country, performing with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan along the way— two musicians James had most admired.
James never got to meet his older brother, but somehow, they commune.“ Needless to say,” reflects Bobby,“ I feel a deep and mysterious bond with the brother I never met; I can’ t help but wonder if he could see me coming from where he is now, if perhaps he even helped guide my steps toward my newfound family. One thing is for sure, though: the voice of his old guitar has changed my whole approach to how I play.” Fate, it seems, mercifully intervened and made up for its cruel twists.
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