The Music Never Stopped

Double CD of live tracks from 1967 to 1995 selected by Phil Lesh.

Phil Lesh states in the CD notes;

It occurred to me a while back that since we'd been releasing more-or-less complete shows in our vault series, it might be interesting to search out some of the rarer material (PA tapes and other reference sources culled from shows that wouldn't have made it out complete), that could stand on its "historical relevance." I also was looking for an excuse to put out some of my old favorites…

The Grateful Dead forged its legend on the road, traveling countless miles between 1965 and 1995 to perform a world record 2,318 shows for millions of devoted fans. The band's refusal to ever play a song the same way twice has endeared generations of fans, many of whom prefer certain live versions of songs over their studio counterparts, and garnered the popular phrase among Dead Heads: "There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert."

The Grateful Dead celebrates its diamond 60th anniversary this year with ENJOYING THE RIDE, a sweeping 60-CD collection that maps an epic cross-country road trip along the "Heady Highway" with stops at storied venues where the music, the moment, and the magic of the Grateful Dead reliably converged. Spanning 25 years of legendary live performances, this expansive collection spotlights defining shows from 1969 to 1994 at 20 venues that consistently inspired the band to new heights—Winterland, Frost Amphitheatre, Madison Square Garden, and Hampton Coliseum, among them. Whether playing the intimate confines of Fillmore West or beneath the open skies at Red Rocks, the Grateful Dead never played the same show twice. ENJOYING THE RIDE is a thrilling testament to that adventurous spirit. With the exception of a few tracks from earlier releases, virtually all of the music on ENJOYING THE RIDE is previously unreleased, spanning more than 450 tracks and over 60 hours of music. Of the 20 shows in the collection, 17 are presented in full, with some featuring additional material from the same venue. The remaining three—Fillmore West, Fillmore East, and Boston Music Hall—are curated from multiple performances at each venue, capturing key moments on those legendary stages.

Are you ready for "Betty"? If you just said it's about time, we couldn't agree more! We’re pleased to announce JULY 1978: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, five incredible unreleased shows and the first official release from the long-lost “Betty Boards,” recently returned to the Grateful Dead’s vault.

So much more than just the archetypal jam band, the Grateful Dead grew to become an artistic and cultural institution that existed entirely on their own terms. While the band initially came out of a psychedelic revolution in the Bay Area's musically and chemically exploratory mid-'60s, they quickly evolved from their acid rock beginnings, incorporating elements of Americana and Bakersfield country into gently majestic albums like 1970's American Beauty. Their live shows were completely separate from their studio output, based on freeform improvisation borrowed from jazz and made up of extended performances and set list variations that ensured no two shows were exactly like. Though the band recorded only 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1989, an entire counterculture formed around their endless touring, and they even broke through to the mainstream with an unlikely radio hit in the MTV era. The Grateful Dead effectively ended with bandleader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, but their presence never faded. Spin-off projects continued decades later, and regularly released archival recordings of the group's more than 2,000 concerts help new generations of Deadheads discover the band's sound, spectacle, and community perennially.

The six CDs – seven, if you count the separate, limited-edition bonus disc – housed within the Vault Box (2007) include a trio of otherwise available From the Vault volumes. Each installment houses a (more or less) complete concert, presented in its entirety from very high fidelity multi-track sources. Interestingly, while the first and second sets were issued in fairly rapid succession in the early '90s, it took over a decade-and-a-half before Three from the Vault surfaced.

70's Rock Power is a 2021 compilation celebrating the power and strength (as well as power) of the type of rock that could be heard all over the airwaves. You may be able to still hear these songs today and if not, it's on this anthology. This was released by X5 Music Group/Warner Music Group.