Before he spends the summer on tour with his former Grateful Dead bandmates, Bob Weir leads his group Ratdog [ tickets ]--a long-standing side-project that pre-dates the death of Jerry Garcia--on a spring outing.

The month-long tour focuses on the Southeast through April and early May, and concludes with a few dates in the West.

Ratdog's current members include vocalist-guitarist Weir, drummer Jay Layne, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, guitarist Mark Karan, saxophonist Kenny Brooks and bassist Robin Sylvester. Sylvester played his first gig with the group in March.

Weir formed Ratdog in 1995 with bassist Rob Wasserman, who is no longer involved with the group. The only Ratdog studio album is "Evening Moods," which Arista Records released in 2000.

The Dead [ tickets ]--a group that features the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead--opens its summer tour in June.

The Grateful Dead performed their last show in Chicago on July 9, 1995. Singer-guitarist Garcia died a month later in California after he suffered a heart attack at a substance-abuse treatment facility. Ratdog was in the midst of its first tour when Garcia died.