When RatDog took the stage last summer in Milwaukee at Summerfest, guitarist Mark Karan was forced to sit out the show due to illness. Eventually, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and missed all of the band's remaining 2007 performances, with Steve Kimock touring in Karan's stead. However, RatDog has announced that Karan will return for the group's spring tour. On the band's website, Weir affirms, “Mark’s back.  It’s pretty much a miracle.” Karan adds, "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. yippee!  I'm looking forward to seeing all y'all and to playing with and for you very, very soon...thank you for all the love and support you've given me thru my greatest challenge." RatDog will next take the stage on March 21 in St. Paul, MN at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium and following its spring tour, the band looks to be busy throughout the year, with festival gigs announced for Wanee, Mountain Jam and the High Sierra Music Festival.

Wilco is currently three shows into its five-night, hometown Winter Residency at Chicago’s The Riviera Theatre. Throughout its multi-night run, Wilco has promised to deliver the “complete Wilco catalogue,” including numerous songs the band’s current lineup has never publicly performed. To the surprise of many, each night Wilco has used the same core of songs from its most recent releases, Sky Blue Sky (2007), A Ghost is Born (2004) and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), as the nuts and bolts of its show, fleshing out that setlist with rarer material from A.M. (1995), Being There (1996), Summerteeth (1999) and the Woody Guthrie songs the group reworked with Billy Bragg for Mermaid Avenue Vol. I and II. The sextet has also offered a few additional rarities each night, including the Mermaid Avenue outtake “When the Roses Bloom Again” and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demo “Cars Can’t Escape” on Friday, and the More Like the Moon EP song “A Magazine Called Sunset,” as well as the never before played A.M track “Dash 7” on Saturday. Last night, the group focused in on its mellower material, unearthing rarities like “Bob Dylan's 49th Beard,” the Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2 number “Remember the Mountain Bed,” the A.M. single “Box Full of Letters” and former member Jay Bennett’s co-composition “My Darling,” which has not been played since 1999. Wilco also allowed bassist John Stirratt to take the central stage for his lone lead vocal on “It’s Just That Simple” Saturday.

On Saturday frontman Jeff Tweedy addressed the crowd’s disappointed reaction to the hefty number of repeats, saying “all we said is that we were going to the play the catalogue… we are still going to put on a rock show.” Tweedy appeared loose between songs, joking that “the next song is from the first Wilco album most of you bought,” before launching into “Jesus, Etc.” from the group’s breakthrough Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. His banter also helped Wilco segue between styles, as the sextet moved from the latent, alt-country of its early recordings to the upbeat, infectious moments included on Summerteeth to more avant-garde experimentation of A Ghost is Born and the more somber, reflective Sky Blue Sky. The group also picked up a few additional instruments on occasion, with multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone showing off his banjo skills and Tweedy breaking out his harmonica. On both Saturday and Monday, longtime friend Andrew Bird, who has collaborated with the members of Wilco since his time in Squirrel Nut Zippers, roamed on and off the stage, playing violin and joining Tweedy for “Red Eyed & Blue’s” whistling section. At various points, the group has also employed a horn section, which Tweedy joked was part of the world’s “fastest growing band.”

Perhaps the residency’s real surprises were the rearranged versions of both Wilco’s early material and it newer songs, particular tracks off Summerteeth like "I'm Always in Love" and "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)," both of which have been stripped of their trademark synthesizers. Guitarist Nels Cline also shifted his tone to reflect the group’s early country-influenced sound on “How to Fight Loneliness” and played pedal steel on “Blue Eyed Soul,” “Remember the Mountain Bed” and “Bob Dylan's 49th Beard.”

Wilco will return to the Riviera Theatre tonight and tomorrow to deliver the remaining 30% of the material included on its proper studio recordings. There is no word whether the group will dig deeper into its extensive collection of EPs or the Minus 5 collaboration Down with Wilco.

This past fall Eddie Vedder contributed the soundtrack to the Sean Penn film Into the Wild. Now he likely will showcase much of that material in a series of west coast shows that begins on April 2nd. Vedder's solo tour will open in Vancouver at The Centre an the travel south with stops in Santa Cruz (Civic Auditorium, 4/5), Berkeley (Zellerbach Theatre, 4/7),  Santa Barbara (Arlington Theatre, 4/10), Los Angeles (Wiltern Theater, 4/12 & 13) and San Diego (Spreckels Theater, 4/15). Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 22nd, while Ten Club Members will be able to participate in a pre-sale that will begin on Monday, February 18. Liam Finn will open all of the dates.

Warren Haynes’ fourth annual Mountain Jam Music Festival has expanded its roster of performers. Bob Weir & RatDog and Dr. Dog will make their first appearances at the festival which will take place at  New York’s Hunter Mountain from May 30- June 1. Umphrey's McGee, which performed at Mountain Jam 2007, in another addition to the line-up along with Pete Francis (Dispatch) and Larry McCray. They join a roster that already includes Haynes' Gov't Mule as well as Michael Franti & Spearhead, Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood, Citizen Cope, Drive-By Truckers, Dark Star Orchestra, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Galactic, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, JJ Grey & Mofro, The Greencards, Jim Weider, The Felice Brothers, Jackie Greene, Pnuma Trio, and Lotus. For the first time, Mountain Jam will also host outdoor late night performances by artists such as Galactic and the Dark Star Orchestra on Friday and Saturday nights. These starlit performances will complement the festival’s already popular late night offerings by dance bands like Lotus and the Pnuma Trio in the enclosed Hunter Mountain Lodge. Mountain Jam passes are now on sale at the Mountain Jam and Gov't Mule websites.