The Grateful Dead will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a massive 60-CD box set titled Enjoying the Ride. The limited-edition collection, which will be released May 30 exclusively at Dead.net, explores key live moments in the band’s history by offering performances spanning from 1969 through 1994, recorded at 20 different venues across the U.S.
Videos by American Songwriter
The vast majority of performances included on Enjoying the Ride are previously unreleased. The box set features more than 450 tracks, with a running time exceeding 60 hours.
The collection boasts 17 full concerts. They include shows recorded at the Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco; the Fillmore East and Madison Square Garden in New York City; the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York; Boston Music Hall; the Philadelphia Spectrum; Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado; Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin; and Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
In honor of the Grateful Dead’s tradition of allowing fans to tape the band’s concerts, the earliest show included in Enjoying the Ride is a cassette-only version of an April 5, 1969, performance at the of Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.
The CDs and cassette come packaged in a custom box inspired by fans’ experience of traveling from city to city to watch the Grateful perform across the U.S. The collection also includes a variety of photos and a tour guide featuring liner notes by Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast co-host Jesse Jarnow; a producer’s note from the band’s longtime archivist, David Lemieux; an essay by the Owsley Stanley Foundation, and more.
Advanced Tracks from the Box Set Available Now
Coinciding with the announcement of Enjoying the Ride, three performances featured in the box set, all from a July 13, 1984, concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, have been made available as advance digital tracks. They are renditions of “Scarlet Begonias,” “Touch of Grey,” and “Fire on the Mountain.”
A Statement from Lemieux About Enjoying the Ride
Lemieux, who curated the box set, explained that the collection celebrates the experience of being a devoted Dead fan.
As he noted in a statement, “On these 60 CDs, you’ll find music spanning more than 25 years, from 1969 to 1994, with the venues and the millions of journeys to get to them, making an essential part of the story. Going to see the Grateful Dead, following them from city to city, was likened to the modern equivalent of running away and joining the circus. These 20 venues are where the circus took us, and the show was something we never wanted to miss.”
Lemieux also has posted a lengthy video message on the Dead’s official YouTube channel featuring him discussing the box set.
An Abridged Version of the Box Set Also Will Be Released
The 60-CD Enjoying the Ride collection, which limited to 6,000 individually numbered copies, can be pre-ordered now. Digital versions of the box set also will be released on May 30.
Meanwhile, an abridged version of the box set titled The Music Never Stopped will be available via various retailers on May 30. The collection, which will feature highlights from Enjoying the Ride, will be issued as a three-CD set, a six-LP vinyl package, and digitally.
The Music Never Stopped, which can be pre-ordered now, will include at least one performance from every venue represented in the deluxe box set.
New Episode of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast Premiering Soon
The 11th season of the official Grateful Dead podcast, the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, premieres Friday, March 13. The new season will launch with a two-part tribute to Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who passed away in October 2024. The presentation will feature archival interviews with Lesh, Phish bassist Mike Gordon, and Dead & Co. bassist Oteil Burbridge, among other musicians who collaborated with Phil.
Starting on April 10, the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast will begin focusing on the band’s 60th anniversary, as well as the music featured in the Enjoying the Ride box set.
Here’s a list of all of the concerts represented in the Enjoying the Ride box set:
Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (4/5/69) (cassette)
Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/5/69)
Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/7/69)
Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/8/69)
Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/24/71)
Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/20/71)
Fillmore East, New York, NY (4/25/71)
Fillmore East, New York, NY (4/27/71)
Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA (9/15/72)
Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA (9/16/72)
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (3/16/73)
Winterland, San Francisco, CA (3/20/77)
Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA (5/13/78)
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO (8/12/79)
Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI (8/23/80)
Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI (7/11/81)
Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT (3/14/81)
Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA (5/1/81)
Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (8/20/83)
Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (7/13/84)
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA (11/21/85)
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA (11/22/85)
Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (9/16/87)
Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN (7/15/89)
Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA (12/27/89)
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA (5/12/91)
Capital Centre, Landover, MD (3/17/93)
Capital Centre, Landover, MD (9/15/82)
Boston Garden, Boston, MA (10/3/94)
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