The Grateful Dead’s contribution to Record Store Day is a a 2-LP vinyl version of live music from the group’s performance at P.N.E. Garden Auditorium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 7/29/66 (music from this show also appears on the 50th anniversary edition of the group’s debut album).

In John Patrick Gatta’s conversation with band archivist David Lemieux, which will run on the site this week, Lemieux explains, “I’ve always been really really high on this show. I’ve always loved it. The trouble with releasing it has always been that so many of our releases follow a format. I’m thinking of the Dave’s Picks in particular, which I love the format of it. It’s a complete show on three CDs but the thing with the Vancouver show is it fits very neatly on one CD. So, we really never had the venue to release that, which is why this new 50th anniversary album series we’re going to be doing something like this. It’s the perfect venue to get this out because the songs on it were certainly complementary to the Dead’s first record and so many of the songs on that first record are played at this Vancouver show. It’s an era that we don’t release very much music from partly because we don’t have a lot.

“So, we got it out and we also wanted to make sure that for those people who are big vinyl Heads. This is a 1966 Dead show, if ever there was an appropriate show to come out on vinyl it’s an album that would have only come out during the vinyl days, not on CD, not on digital download. We just thought it was a perfect thing. We’re really happy with the way this one came out.

“The side splits are perfect. I love this album. I’ve listened to it on LP many times now. As a vinyl release it works extremely well where you get three or four songs per side and they’re all really short songs — anywhere from three to five minutes.

“It’s one of these things that is perfect serendipity in terms of it being the perfect complement to the first album as a CD accompaniment and then as an LP stand-alone. It’s the perfect thing for your record collection because it’s a great listen. It reminds me of a perfect two-LP live album from back in the day.”

Tracklisting

SIDE A: 01 Standing on The Corner 02 I Know You Rider 03 Next Time You See Me 04 Sittin On Top Of The World 05 You Don’t Have To Ask

SIDE B: 01 Big Boss Man 02 Stealin’ 03 Cardboard Cowboy 04 It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue 05 Cream Puff War

SIDE 2A 01 Viola Lee Blues 02 Beat It On Down The Line 03 Good Mornin’ Little Schoolgirl

SIDE 2B: 01 Cold Rain and Snow 02 One Kind Favor 03 Hey Little One 04 New, New Minglewood Blues