Trey Anastasio
Trey Anastasio
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As the leader of Phish, the quirk happy jam band, Trey Anastasio led his followers through endless improv sessions and even more miles on the road. The legacy was large, picking up slack where the Grateful Dead left off when Jerry finally kicked. After thrilling audiences far and wide for more than a decade, Anastasio declared Phish was going to take a 'vacation in limbo' after completing their fall 2000 tour.

Anastasio's solo project, which he has been toying with in one way or another for the past half dozen years, uses some of the musical elements that brought Phish to the top of the underground. The maestro's smokin' guitar work and unusual lyrical approach are very much present. But on this self titled solo debut, Anastasio pushes the rhythm factor up several notches.

On songs like "Push On Till the Day," "Cayman Review" and the album's first single, "Alive Again," Anastasio's Vermont based nine piece band stirs up funk grooves, jazzy licks and a blast off horn section into an amazing New England stew. These top notch players push and grind African, Cuban and Caribbean rhythms on nearly every track. While songs like "Flock of Words" or "Night Speaks to a Woman" ante up complex melodies and soulful female back-up vocals, the magic of the music here is always the energy and mystery at the core of the jam.

Even on tracks like "Last Tube" and "Mr. Completely," where Anastasio revs up a full orchestra into a subliminal symphony, the spark that calls for your attention is in the frantic possibilities of the jam.

To record this disc, Anastasio ran tape at every rehearsal, every performance and every session in the studio. The result is pure bottled lightning. So, it's no wonder that the twelve songs on Anastasio's solo debut squeal, melt, groove, froth and wiggle in a hundred different ways. It's a sonic explosion that just happens to be captured on CD. Just in case you can't get a ticket to the show

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