Here Comes Sunshine

The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. Dip your toe in the transformative waters with PACIFIC NORTHWEST '73-'74: BELIEVE IT IF YOU NEED IT, a compilation that highlights performances from our COMPLETE boxed set.

This nine-disc box set gathers music from a trio of consecutive Grateful Dead gigs – November 9 – 11, 1973 at their hometown hockey rink Winterland Arena. At the time the band consisted of Jerry Garcia (lead guitar/vocals), Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals), Keith Godchaux (keyboards), Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Phil Lesh (electric bass/vocals), and Bob Weir (rhythm guitar/vocals). In 1973, they atypically played a mere handful of gigs in San Francisco. According to Dennis McNally's liner notes, the run represented within could be considered over half of their Bay Area appearances for the year. That shouldn't suggest that the combo weren't keeping a full calendar, as they played about every five days or so for a total of 72 live shows. As the overwhelming bounty of strong performances on 2008's Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings substantiates, the combo were operating on all cylinders and – when applicable – at full velocity.

This unique 2CD compilation pulls together a slew of previously unreleased material from America's favorite band, The Beach Boys. The collection includes the new stereo remix of Wild Honey, as well as unreleased outtakes from the session recordings. Also included are unreleased session tracks from the Smiley Smile sessions and live tracks from Hawaii, Washington, DC and Boston.