The Grateful Dead releasing 20-CD box set featuring seven early-'70s concerts in St. Louis

A limited-edition 20-CD live Grateful Dead box set, featuring seven full previously unreleased concert performances that the band played in St. Louis in 1971, 1972 and 1973, will be issued on October 1.

Listen to the River: St. Louis '71 '72 '73 includes audio of shows that took place December 9-10, 1971, and October 17-19, 1972, at the Fox Theatre, as well as October 29 and 30, 1973, performances at Kiel Auditorium.

The box set comes with an 84-page hardbound book that features several essays about the concerts, including one penned by The Dead's tour manager during that time, Sam Cutler.

The shows featured the band playing 60 different songs, including covers of three tunes by St. Louis' own Chuck Berry -- "Run Rudolph Run," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Around and Around."

"The seven shows in this boxed set perfectly summarize 22 months of Grateful Dead music, performances, and growth," says Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux, who also produced the collection.

Only 13,000 copies of the 20-CD box set, each individually numbered, will be available. You can pre-order copies now exclusively from Dead.net. High-res digital versions also are being sold at the website.

In advance of Listen to the River's arrival, a performance of "Sugaree" from the December 10, 1971, show has been made available digitally and via The Grateful Dead's official YouTube channel.

Also on October 1, the December 10, 1971, concert will be released individually at traditional retail outlets as a three-CD set, a five-LP collection, and digitally. In addition, the October 18, 1972, performance will be issued as a limited-edition two-LP set titled Light into Ashes: Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO (10/18/72) that will be available exclusively at Dead.net.

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