Dan Healy provides a brief note with the album introducing the vault series;

“When we completed the recording and mixing of the Blues For Allah studio album at Weir’s studio, which this album was the maiden voyage for, we gathered up our instruments and equipment and moved to the Great American Music Hall. The idea was to perform live to the world, for the first time, Blues For Allah, in celebration of not only the completion of the album, but also the beginning of Grateful Dead Records. While this recording is one of the most widely collected, not until now has there been a high-quality good-sounding mix released. This represents the beginning of the release of the vault tapes. More to come.”

Don Pearson provides technical notes on the original recording and on the subsequent digital preparation in 1990 and 1991.