Listen to the Grateful Dead’s ‘The Best of Fare Thee Well’

Grateful Dead fans are being offered their first listen to the band's upcoming Fare Thee Well live set more than a week before it arrives in stores.

The multi-format package, which collects audio and video from the Dead's series of sold-out 50th anniversary shows earlier this year, is set to make its debut Nov. 20, but NPR is now streaming the premiere of The Best of Fare Thee Well, which distills highlights from the concerts down onto a pair of CDs.

As previously reported, the Best Of collection skims the surface of a release that, in its complete form, sprawls across 12 CDs and seven DVDs/Blu-rays. That edition, available in a limited run through the band's website, is accompanied by a retail version that focuses on complete audio and video from one show.

The Fare Thee Well concerts were billed as a final farewell from the surviving members of the band, at least in terms of performing under the Grateful Dead banner, but three of the "core four" — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — are currently on the road with guitarist John Mayer as a new group that's calling itself Dead & Company. The band's next round of dates is scheduled for December, with plans to close out the tour Dec. 31 in Los Angeles.

You can listen to NPR's The Best of Fare Thee Well stream, which includes performances of "Box of Rain," "China Cat Sunflower," and "Cumberland Blues," among others, below — check it out now while you count down the days until Nov. 20.

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