The Grateful Dead Ready or Not 180g 2LP

Stereophile: Performance 3/5 Stars / Sonics 3.5/5 Stars

"In the time between Built To Last (1989) and Jerry Garcia's death (1995), the Grateful Dead prepared a collection of songs intended for a new recording. The project did not survive Garcia, but the band did work up the songs in concert. Here, Dead archivist David Lemieux creates the album as it might have sounded, using the best live versions of those songs from 1992 to 1995. He leads with the strongest selection, the Garcia/Robert Hunter classic "Liberty". I remember hearing this version at Madison Square Garden on October 14, 1994, and liking it very much. It fits."

"There are three other Garcia/Hunter collaborations on the record - my favorite of the three is "Lazy River Road", with Garcia accompanying his gentle vocal with beautifully finger-picked guitar. This is an echo of the kind of music Garcia and Hunter made together in Bay Area coffee houses and backyards before the Dead existed, and it's good to hear Garcia bring that music full circle. "So Many Roads" is the kind of end-of-the-trail ballad that Hunter excelled at, and Garcia carries it home with is bittersweet, world-weary voice and a heartfelt guitar solo..." - John Swenson, Stereophile Magazine, April 2020

New Live Collection Features Nine Unreleased Performances From The Early '90s, Presenting What The Next Grateful Dead Studio Album May Have Been

The collection focuses on the best unreleased live versions of these late-period gems, all mastered from the original digital soundboard tapes. Recorded live between 1992 and 1995, READY OR NOT spotlights performance by the final Grateful Dead lineup: Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and new keyboardist Vince Welnick.