"The Fillmore West in 1969 was home base to the Dead, who had operated the upstairs space at Market and Van Ness streets as the Carousel Ballroom only months earlier, before impresario Bill Graham took over the lease. The band arrived for the four-night run at the end of February to make the first live album ever to be recorded on 16-track equipment and 2-inch tape.

Dead archivist David Lemieux and engineer and co-producer Jeffrey Norman worked from 14 reels that had been stored in red and black Ampex boxes stacked on industrial shelves at the Dead's headquarters. Lemieux says he has been eyeing those multitrack masters since he first came to work.

"That's the holy grail corner of the vault," he said. He praised the "impeccable" quality of the tapes. "There were no sound issues," he said. "Nothing that ever made us cringe, nothing that gets in the way of enjoying the music. There might be a distorted vocal on this song or there's a crunchy sound on Billy's cymbal on another one. But we were very lucky. Great performances. Great recordings." - The San Francisco Chronicle

• 180g 5x vinyl pressing
• special Dead logo etching on the last disc
• spot-gloss accents on outer
• includes printed insert with essay by Jesse Jarnow
• limited edition
• music label: Rhino 2019