GRATEFUL DEAD

GRATEFUL DEAD

PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS

3-CD Pacific Northwest ’73-’74 Compilation

And 6-LP Set Of Complete Portland ’74 Show Also Available

Dead.net Exclusive Limited Edition 19-Disc Boxed Set Features Six Unreleased
Concerts Recorded In Portland, Seattle, And Vancouver In 1973 And 1974

All Titles Set For Release On September 7

LOS ANGELES – During the Grateful Dead’s legendary 30-year run, the band often visited its northern neighbors in Portland, Seattle, and less-than-often Vancouver. Even so, official live recordings from those cities are something of a rarity but that’s all set to change soon when Dead.net releases PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, a new 19-disc boxed set that features six previously unreleased shows that spotlight two of the band’s tours through the region. This also marks the first Grateful Dead live archival boxed set to feature material across multiple years, aside from the 80-disc, career-spanning 30 Trips Around The Sun box.

The concerts in the set include: P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. (6/22/73); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (6/24/73); Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA (6/26/73); P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (5/17/74); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (5/19/74); and Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (5/21/74). Each show was mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The transfers from the masters were transferred and restored by Plangent Processes, further ensuring that this is the best, most authentic that these shows have ever sounded.

“This is a boxed set that’s a long time coming. A couple of the shows have come very, very close to being released on their own through the Grateful Dead’s archival release programs of the past 20 years, but we always held off in the hopes and expectations that they’d make a better boxed set,” says David Lemieux, Grateful Dead archivist and the set’s producer. “The music at each and every one of these six shows is unique, special, inspired, and at times transcendent. The shows contain some of the most famous moments in Grateful Dead live history, including the ‘Bird Song’ from Vancouver ’73, the Portland ’74 ‘Truckin’’ jam, and the 47-minute ‘Playing In The Band’ from Seattle ’74. Each of these six shows has a distinct musical personality, and we’re excited that you can get to know all of them in their entirety, sounding better than we’ve ever heard them.”

The set is available now for pre-order and will be shipped to arrive on September 7. Production of the set is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from dead.net for 9.98. The set will also be available in its entirety as a digital download in Apple Lossless (9.99) and FLAC 192/24 (9.99) exclusively at dead.net beginning on September 7.

On the same day, Rhino will release a compilation that highlights some of the best performances from the boxed set. PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: BELIEVE IT IF YOU NEED IT will be available as a three-CD set (.98) and on digital download and streaming services. The complete Portland Memorial Coliseum show from 5/19/74 will also be released on 180-gram vinyl as a limited edition (7,500 copies) six-LP set (9.98).

PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS comes in an ornate box created by Canada’s preeminent First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers. To complement the music, the set also includes a 64-page book with an in-depth essay by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether and photos by Richie Pechner.

During the period when the shows were recorded, the Grateful Dead included: Jerry Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. The recordings of the 1973 shows were made just a few months before the band released its sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood, which was its first without founding member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who died in March 1973, and the first on their new Grateful Dead Records label. Along with live staples like “Jack Straw,” “Sugaree” and “Brown-Eyed Women,” the band also previewed most of its forthcoming album, including “Eyes Of The World,” “Row Jimmy,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Stella Blue,” and “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.”

The 1974 shows were recorded just a few weeks before the band released its seventh studio album, From The Mars Hotel. The band once again took the opportunity to preview songs from its upcoming album, with performances of “U.S. Blues,” “China Doll” “Loose Lucy,” “Money Money,” and “Ship of Fools.” Another song from the album – “Scarlet Begonias” – was played on its own, three years before it would be linked with “Fire On The Mountain” in 1977.

In addition to mixing newer and older songs at all six shows, the band also slipped in a few rarities along way, like Donna Jean’s cover of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” the George Jones’ classic “The Race Is On,” and the blues standard “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” The collection also features two performances of the entire “Weather Report Suite.” Soon after these shows, the song’s “Prelude” and “Part I” were dropped for good, leaving behind only the final third of the composition, “Let It Grow,” which would continue to be part of the band’s live shows until 1995.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD:

PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: BELIEVE IT IF YOU NEED IT (3-CD)

UPC: 603497857258

PORTLAND MEMORIAL COLISEUM, PORTLAND, OR, 5/19/74 (6-LP Set, limitiert 7.500 weltweit)

UPC: 603497858125

VÖ-Termin: 7.9.2018