In roughly three and half hours of live and studio recordings, captured 
in various ways at a variety of locales between 1961 and 1964, Before the Dead documents the late Jerry Garcia’s
 formative years as a musician. Overflowing with meticulous attention to
 detail in sound, text and graphics, this 4-CD set reveals how this 
iconic musician nurtured those attributes that eventually stood him in 
such good stead as titular leader of the Grateful Dead, the namesake of 
the Jerry Garcia Band and the catalyst for the many other collaborative 
efforts over the course of his thirty-plus year career.


