Grateful Dead Announce 17CD Box Set, ‘In And Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden’81, ’82, ’83’
Grateful Dead have announced a new 17CD box set, In And Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden’81, ’82, ’83, featuring six previously unreleased shows recorded at the legendary New York venue in the early 80s.
The collection is available now for pre-order and will be released on September 23. Production of the set is limited to 12,500 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from Dead.net. Full audio will also be available in its entirety as a digital download exclusively at Dead.net in Apple Lossless and FLAC 192/24.
The first taste of the set, a version of Feel Like A Stranger live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY from the 9 March 1981 show is out now:
There will also be a The boxed set includes six unreleased concerts recorded at Madison Square Garden on: 9 and 10 March 1981; 20 and 21 September 1982; and 11 and 12 October 1983. In And Out The Garden features newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes, was mastered by Jeffrey Norman and produced for release by Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.
On the same day, the 9 March 1981 show from the boxed set will be released separately at all regular retail outlets. Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (3/9/81) will be available as a 3CD set and digitally.
“As Jerry Garcia famously said, Madison Square Garden was ‘juiced.’ It had an energy unlike any other venue the Grateful Dead played, particularly of this size, owing to the symbiotic relationship between the Dead, the Dead Heads, and New York City itself, says Grateful Dead legacy manager and archivist David Lemieux. “The Dead didn’t play the Garden until 1979, almost the midpoint of their performing career. but once they got rolling, they made it a home away from home, playing 10 shows in the next 15 years. These performances from 1981, 1982, and 1983 are six of the best the Dead played at the Garden, any of which could have been released on their own. We’re thrilled, though, to allow these six complementary shows to be housed together, each one its own story, its own event, but all contributing to the story that is the entirety of the Dead’s 52 show run at Madison Square Garden.”
The set comes in a custom box featuring new artwork by Dave Van Patten celebrating the band’s eclectic fanbase, with a cavalcade of illustrated Dead Heads. The collection also includes detailed liner notes by award-winning music journalist David Fricke, who explores the band’s connection to the Big Apple. He writes: “Welcome to the unique, enduring phenomenon of the Grateful Dead in New York City, a mutual devotion, forged in concert, that ran for nearly as long as the band itself—from June 1, 1967, a free show in Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side (ahead of the band’s official, local bow at the Cafe Au Go Go), to the Dead’s last Garden run, six nights in October 1994…the Dead’s affinity for New York City…was instant and arguably their most profound with any city aside from San Francisco.”