Although the “road trips” might be coming to an end, it turns out that the Grateful Dead will keep the highway open with a new series of live releases curated by Dead archivist David Lemieux.

The legendary San Francisco group announced that Lemieux will be the mastermind behind the new set of releases, which will be called ‘Dave’s Picks,’ following on the heels of the similarly titled ‘Dick’s Picks’ library of shows that were handpicked by the late Dick Latvala, who was the Dead’s original archivist prior to Lemieux taking over in 1999. (Lemieux gave us a nice peek inside his world during an interview earlier this year.)

Lemieux says that the new series will mix the best aspects of both ‘Dick’s Picks’ and ‘Road Trips.’ “We’re getting back to the philosophy behind ‘Dick’s Picks’ by featuring complete shows whenever possible and combining that with the ‘Road Trips’’ tradition of offering rare photos, great liner notes and HDCD sound quality engineered by Jeffery Norman.”

The new series will launch in February with a release of the Dead’s complete May 25, 1977 concert from The Mosque in Richmond, Va.

“We wanted to start with a bang,” Lemieux says. “Few tours are as highly-regarded as the spring tour of 1977 and the Richmond show is one of the best. It features a magnificent jam sequence of ‘Estimated Prophet’ / ‘He’s Gone’ / ‘Drums’ / ‘The Other One’ / ‘Wharf Rat’ / ‘The Other One’ / ‘The Wheel’ that is one of the best sequences from the entire tour; both unique and inspired.”

‘Dave’s Picks’ subscriptions are available now at the band’s official website, which will also be the new home for ‘The Grateful Dead Almanac,’ which is moving to digital after years of being available via direct mail.

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