Bob Weir merely 16 years old the first time he sat down to pick with Jerry Garcia in the back of a Palo Alto, California, music store on New Year's Eve, 1964.  In the ensuing 17 years, he has provided a rhythmic and harmonic bridge between Garcia's melodic, eccentric lead lines and Phil Lesh's unique free-form bass stylings.  Throw in the added rhythm contributions of two drummer/percussionists and a keyboardist and the band's penchant for playing "intuitive improvisational music" in odd time signatures, and it becomes clear that Weir has to develop a unique style in the often neglected art of rhythm guitar. As Jerry Garcia explained in his October '78 cover story:  "We all feel Bob's the finest rhythm guitarist on wheels right now.   He's like my left hand.  We have a long, serious conversation going on musically, and the whole thing is of a complementary nature.  We have fun, and we've designed our playing to work against and with each other.  His playing, in a way, really puts my playing in the only kind of meaningful context it could enjoy.

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