
Bob Weir's Ratdog has added summer shows to its current spring calendar as the outfit welcomes its returning lead guitarist from extended sick leave.
The jam band, which has a few more dates left on its spring run--including a Tuesday night (4/2) show in Stroudsburg, PA--has lined up several summer appearances through June, July and August, among them a pair of shows later in the year opening for The Allman Brothers Band. Dates are below.
The band has returned to full strength on its current tour with the rejoining of lead guitarist Mark Karan, who took time off from touring last year to undergo treatment for throat cancer. "With much gratitude after long months of hard work, joy, fear, hope, affirmation ... and finally triumph ... I have been given the 'all clear' by my wonderful doctors @ UCSF and am really pleased and excited to be able to say I'll definitely be on the RatDog bus heading your way this spring," read a note from the guitarist posted on the group's website.
"I'm looking forward to seeing all y'all and to playing with and for you very, very soon," he added.
Primarily a touring band, Ratdog hasn't released a studio album since 2000's "Evening Moods," which was followed a year later by the double-CD "Live at Roseland."
Co-founded by former Grateful Dead guitarist Weir in the mid-'90s, the group performs a large repertoire of songs including Dead tunes, covers and originals.