Guitarist Jim Weider, playing Musikfest Cafe with his The Weight Band, remembers his predecessor in The Band

• The Weight Band, featuring former The Band guitarist Jim Weider, will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks
• Tickets, at $25 and $30, are available on the SteelStack website
• Weider spoke recently about The Band's original guitarist, Robbie Robertson, whom he replaced. Robertson died Aug. 9

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Jim Weider had the unenviable task of following Robbie Robertson as guitarist in the rock group The Band and played in that position until it broke up in 1999 — technically longer than Robertson did.

But when asked how much interaction he had with Robertson, who died Aug. 9 at age 80, Weider — in a phone call from his Woodstock, New York, home — says, “None. None at all."

"He’s the only one" of The Band members to have not had contact, Weider said. "We never talked; might have been at the same funeral, but we never communicated.”

Nonetheless, Weider — who in just his second performance since Robertson's death on Thursday brings his current group, The Weight Band to Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem — said Robertson had an indelible influence on his playing and writing.
"One the greatest American — Canadian/American — songwriters," Weider said. "His music and the songs that he wrote and co-wrote will stand up, stand the test of time.

"I mean, their imagery and his guitar playing really influenced me right from the beginning. But the imageries of his songs and the stories, the way he would get an emotion out in a song, it makes no difference — you could visually see it. I mean, he was a great songwriter."

'He outlived them all'

Weider said he's intimately aware of the rift between Robertson and other members of the band, especially Helm, who before he died in 2012 said Robertson cheated him out of writing credits for songs to which he contributed.

“And a lot of it, too, [Robertson] might have gotten from Garth [Hudson, The Band’s keyboardist]," Weider said. Songs such as "‘Whispering Pines’ and stuff like that that goes from a minor key into a major … it’s musical stuff like The Beatles would do.

“Of course, all of his influences came from the guys — Levon from down South and what they got to say in the characters, you know? So, I mean, was he a great writer and worked hard? Yes, I know how hard it is to write songs."

"But as far as who wrote this and who wrote that, I just stayed out of it. I know how hard it is, and maybe more of the credit could have gone to some of the guys …that I stay out of."

Weider said he remains in touch with Hudson, the last living original member of The Band, who is 86 and in a caretaking facility.

“About a year ago we went and saw him. I want to go and see him next week and see how he’s doing," Weider said. "He outlived them all."

'A big influence on me'

The Band with Robertson broke up after its famed final 1977 show, captured in the documentary "The Last Waltz," but reformed without him — and with Weider — in 1985.

With Weider, it released three more albums: 1993's "Jericho," which hit Billboard's Top 50; 1996's "High on the Hog"; and 1998's "Jubilation." Weider wrote or co-wrote songs on all of those discs.

The Weight Band in its shows plays several of The Band's songs — "Up on Cripple Creek," "Life is a Carnival" and, of course, "The Weight," which gives the band its name.

Weider said Robertson' songs “were written for each person, too. When I write songs for The Weight Band, and when I wrote for The Band, I wrote a lot for [drummer] Levon [Helm] and [bassist] Rick [Danko], you know, and that’s exactly what he did.

"So he was a big influence on me with songwriting.

Weider points to the song "Remedy," the opening track on "Jericho," which he wrote with Colin Lindon: "I came up with those lyrics on the bus, the chorus, and I immediately thought of Levon singing it, and Levon ended up loving it, just like that, when we finished it.

“But I can’t say enough about his great songwriting and his imagery and it’s right on par with anything, like The Beatles — I mean the chord changes, too. He was also a great guitarist. … we lost a great one.”

Weider is no slouch of a guitarist himself — in addition to his time with The Band, he's toured in a Masters of the Telecaster show.

Of course, perhaps Weider's biggest tribute to Robertson is that The Weight Band is named after Robertson's song "The Weight," the song with its reference to Nazareth — the home of C.F. Martin & Co. guitars — in its opening line, "Pulled into Nazareth."

Surprisingly, Weider said he's never been to the Martin headquarters.

“I still have never gone," he said. "I’d love to go there.”

A new batch of songs, disc

Weider said he continued that writing style on The Weight Band's newest disc, "Shines Like Gold," its fourth disc, released in April 2022.

Weider said The Weight Band had finished touring for its 2018 album "World Gone Mad" when the coronavirus pandemic hit "and that was the end of live music."

“Everything was shut down, there was nothing to do, so I just started going downstairs and started writing," Weider said. "And I did it every day.

"It started getting easier and easier. Songs started coming to me, and I, happily, had literally nothing else to do — no road, no touring," he said with a laugh.

“And it started coming easier and easier to me. I started accumulating all these ideas — I still have a bunch left over."

He said asked Lindon to produce the disc, "and once we’d got enough tunes, we did," in December 2020 at Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York.

“I’m really proud of it, and we’re out playing it now,” Weider said.

He said The Weight Band will play cuts from the disc at Musikfest Cafe.