Dead Chic Cuanto Cuesta

"And with this incredibly tight batch of prime 1987 Grateful Dead, we’re thrilled to bring you Dave’s Picks Vol. 36, matching the number that will be forever tied to Dick’s legacy. Thanks for sticking around this long, and for joining us through these past nine years of archival live Grateful Dead releases." - David Lemieux

3-LP on 180-gram vinyl, housed in a two-piece box. Limited-Edition of 9,000 (WW). Liner Notes By Jesse Jarnow & Michael Parrish. Audio timing and speed correction by Plangent Processes and newly mastered by Jeffrey Norman. Available for the first time on Vinyl. Not available in other official physical or digital formats. Produced for release by David Lemieux.

A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear.

The Grateful Dead may have released the band’s final studio album – Built to Last – on Halloween 1989, but that didn’t stop them from writing new songs for the following years, adding several new tracks to their live repertoire in the early ‘90s. Sadly, the group was unable to ever complete them in a studio before the death of singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995.