Bob Weir and RatDog | RatDog.Org

Less than a week til RatDog takes the stage for its first U.S. shows of 2009, five long months after the band's last appearances down in Jamaica. Summer tour kicks off in Columbus on Sunday the 5th, where The Dog will share the bill with Jackie Greene and The Black Crowes. For dates, ticket info, show lengths, and other info, check out the Tour Dates page. Also be sure to sign up for Fantasy RatDog now; it'll run through both legs of the tour, which ends September 6 in Pozo, California.

Leading up to tour, Mark Karan and Jemimah Puddleduck will play a show on July 1 at KPFA (listen in at kpfa.org) to celebrate the release of Mark's new CD, Walk through the Fire. That same day, Jay, Wass, and the Band of Brotherz play a show in SF. Then, on Independence Day, Puddleduck visits Gratefulfest 10 in northeast Ohio, while Bobby, Jeff, and the rest of The Dead celebrate the Fourth at the Rothbury Festival in Michigan.

Other recent news can be found via the new 'site updates' link at the top of the homepage. Rather than packing the inboxes of folks who get RatDog.Org news by e-mail or holding news for these periodic e-mails, we've started posting frequent updates via that feature, which actually resides on Twitter. (We were resistant to the whole Twitter thing but the Iranian revolution turned us....) Updates from the past week include:

• RatDog.Org's new mobile site
• good news about RatDog Live CDs for this tour
• video of Bob, Jeff, Robin, and Mickey at a political fundraiser and Scaring the Children in Napa
• new side project dates