The Grateful Dead guitarist’s first solo album in a decade is a set of “cowboy songs” crafted with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter and indie-folk heavies like the National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner. Weir, who delivered most of the Dead’s country covers, sings about “plain-spun and rough” lives, “cutpurse” evenings and unhappy trails, while a nimbus of electric guitars surrounds his acoustic bunkhouse strumming. The highlight is his self-penned and unaccompanied “Ki-Yi Bossie,” in which “a 12-step meeting under harsh fluorescent light” occasions a wry round of soul-searching, no wide-open spaces required.
