It just might be the perfect time of year for Bob Weir to bring his "Evening Moods" to Buffalo.

Weir admits that the temper of his band Ratdog's new release is a touch melancholy, although you wouldn't necessarily know that by the shows on the tour, which comes to the University of Buffalo Center for the Arts on Sunday, Nov. 12.

The CD, released late September by Grateful Dead Productions Inc., was recorded in winter-darkened December and January, leading to a laid back, mellow sound with a rock chaser.

"It might have been the time of year," Weir, former singer/guitarist with the Grateful Dead, says in a phone interview with JAM! Music before Tuesday's show in Indianapolis. "I guess I kind of tend to get that way at that time of year."

The first album by the five-year-old band began two years ago when drummer Jay Lane, bassist Rob Wasserman, guitarist Mark Karan and pianist Jeff Chimenti holed up with guitarist/singer Weir in his home studio, Ace's, emerging a few weeks later with enough material for "Evening Moods."

"We just went into the studio and started kicking stuff around. One by one by one would step up and lead the charge. Pretty soon we had a bunch of music written."

Sometimes the lyrics came first, sometimes last. The songs were deliberately created with room for growth, to continue the Dead's concert tradition of travelling to where the jamming takes you.

"That's the essence, one of the things you can come to expect from our mode of operation. If you leave plenty of room for exploration it's going to change over time.

"We started work on the tunes two years ago, and started recording at the same time. We had most of a record made before heading out on tour."

But when the tour was over, the jamming process had "morphed" the music into something different than what had been recorded.

With the help of guest artists Matthew Kelly, Dave Ellis, Kenny Brooks (who's been playing with the band since May), Eric Crystal, Robbie Kwock and Marty Wehner, they headed back to the studio, this time Coast Studio in San Francisco, and recorded the tracks in a live, jazz-like manner leading to a sound which is sometimes "smokey and blue."

But on the coast-to-coast six-week tour, the sound of "Evening Moods" may be "snappier, or spunkier or a little more up ... any given night" performing new songs including "Bury Me Standing," "Lucky Enough," "Odessa," "Ashes And Glass," "Welcome to The World," "Two Djinn," "Corrina" and "Even So."

"It's good music for the most part live, if you are interested in what we do. I've got the guys I want to have ... although I'd like to bring in a horn section sometime.

"We're having a good time," Weir says.

He's clearly inspired.

"We've got six or eight new tunes we're working on and by the end of this tour I hope we have three or four new songs," he says.

But the drive for new material won't keep Ratdog from their roots with Grateful Dead music.

"I love all that stuff. I wouldn't be playing it if I didn't. I'm playing those I can't live without. There's 30 or 40 in the rotation. My goal is to write new tunes of our own and work up an old chestnut and then back to new to keep it balanced.

"I don't want the songs we have to get tired -- we need more of our own tunes."

We can also expect a few surprises in the song rotation, but Weir refuses to name names.

"I'm not going to touch that one," he says, explaining that it will create too great a guessing game among dedicated fans.

That creative drive is sometimes inspired by others -- although he's been so busy writing, collaborating and performing to listen to much music in his spare time -- he professes a love of Bob Dylan and Dave Ellis, a lot of 1930s and '40s jazz and a sprinkle of modern classical. He also gets inspiration from how other artists approach his music. Only nights before, opening a cappella act The Persuasions -- travelling to support their "Might As Well" CD release of all Grateful Dead music -- joined Ratdog for the song "Liberty."

And then there's Hanson, the trio of young brothers who joined the Other Ones -- Weir's band with some members of the Grateful Dead -- on stage at Penn State in September for a turn with "I Know You Rider" and "The Weight."

"I might do a little writing with them," he says of Hanson, praising their maturing vocal, instrumental and writing abilities.

"I think those kids are the future of music. I'm not sure that rap qualifies as music for me. They kind of remind me of me.

"They are asking all the right questions. They have a profound respect and interest in musical traditions and heritage. ... they are going to make the Bee Gee's pale by comparison."

He'll also go back to the inspirational well with a New Year's Eve gig with The Other Ones in California's Oakland Coliseum.

"I'm not sure if it's been announced yet, but we wrapped the building up a few months ago," he says. When asked whether Toronto or west coast fans could expect to see him in a live show, Weir said it was "more of a logistical problem."

"We're going to have to do several shows because coming across the border is a lot like work."