Late-Era Grateful Dead Songs Compiled for “Ready or Not”
The Grateful Dead began working on a new studio album in 1992 that never came to fruition. They broke up after the death of guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia in 1995, ending any new studio albums from the group. Now a live album called Ready or Not imagines what it could have been. Compiled by archivist David LeMieux, it features nine unreleased versions of late-period Dead songs that were debuted in 1992 and 1993.
“Ready Or Not has been a long time coming. It’s an album we’ve been working on for many, many years. This batch of ‘new’ Grateful Dead songs has never been compiled in one place and given its proper due as a huge part of the Dead’s late-era legacy,” says Lemieux. “Many of these songs can easily stand alongside some of the Dead’s oldest, most-loved songs as bona fide classics despite their short tenure in the repertoire. We’ve dug deep into the archive and listened to countless live versions of these songs to find the best, most definitive live performances. When the Grateful Dead were ‘on’ in their later years, their live concerts were as good as any era in their history. The nine songs on Ready Or Not exemplify how good the Dead could be in their later years of touring.”
The record features the Grateful Dead’s final lineup of Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and new Vince Welnick. Lesh’s muscular tone and exploratory bass lines tie the album together, but there’s also a hint of more bass influence. The bluesy track “Eternity” was co-written by Weir with bassists Rob Wasserman and Willie Dixon. Hear the song from a performance at The Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee on April 2, 1995:
Ready or Not is available now on CD, vinyl and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Ready or Not Track List:
- Liberty (Live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 10/14/1994)
- Eternity (Live at they Pyramid, Memphis, TN, 4/2/1995)
- Lazy River Road (Live at Dean Smith Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 3/25/1993)
- Samba in the Rain (Live at the Omni, Atlanta, GA, 3/30/1995)
- So Many Roads (Live at Star Lake Amphitheatre, Burgettstown, PA, 6/23/1992)
- Way to Go Home (Live at Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN, 6/28/1992)
- Corrina (Live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 10/14/1994)
- Easy Answers (Live at Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, 9/13/1993)
- Days Between (Live at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA, 12/11/1994)
