Grateful Dead Announces ‘Ready Or Not’ Compilation

The Grateful Dead will issue a compilation entitled Ready Or Not via Rhino on November 22. Ready Or Not features nine previously unreleased live versions of songs the Grateful Dead debuted in 1992 and 1993 in a look at what might have been the band’s final studio album had Jerry Garcia lived.

The album features late era Garcia/Hunter gems “Liberty,” “Lazy River Road,” “So Many Roads” and “Days Between.” Also included are live takes on Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman’s “Eternity,” Bob’s “Corrina” collaboration with Robert Hunter and “Easy Answers” written by Weir, Wasserman, Vince Welnick and Bob Bralove. In addition, the compilation contains live versions of Vince’s “Way To Go Home” and “Samba In The Rain” collaborations with Hunter.

Ready Or Not will be released on CD, digital download, streating and vinyl. “Ready Or Not has been a long time coming. It’s an album we’ve been working on for many, many years,” GD archivist David Lemieux stated. “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.

“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,” added Lemieux. “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.”

Check out Lemieux’s seaside chat about Ready Or Not below:

Listen to “Lazy River Road” from the new compilation below:

Ready Or Not Tracklist

1. Liberty (Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY 10/14/94)
2. Eternity (The Pyramid, Memphis, TN 4/2/95)
3. Lazy River Road (Dean Smith Center, University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 3/25/93)
4. Samba in The Rain (The Omni, Atlanta, GA 3/30/95)
5. So Many Roads (Star Lake Amphitheatre, Burgettstown, PA 6/23/92)
6. Way To Go Home (Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN 6/28/92)
7. Corrina (Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY 10/14/94)
8. Easy Answers (Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 9/13/93)
9. Days Between (Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA 12/11/94)