Portland, OR 4/20/25 was my 70th Phish concert

When Laura and I were getting ready to move to the Portland area in 2024, there was a rumor that Phish might play Providence Park, home of the Timbers and Thorns soccer teams, that summer. It didn't pan out, so when rumors resurfaced of Phish playing The Moda Center this spring I didn't get my hopes up too much until it was officially announced. For once I didn't have to worry about booking accommodations because we can walk to the MAX light rail from our house and take it all the way to the Rose Quarter stop where the Moda Center be. 

I got a pair of tickets in the Phish lottery that weren't ideal, and being the greedy person that I am, I tried again the moment they went on sale through Ticketmaster and found two pretty darn good seats in a small mini-section on its own rail above the crowd looking diagonally at the stage. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the day to come.

I woke up on the day of the show with butterflies in my stomach. This was going to be a big deal: the first time Phish has played Portland, OR since 1999. And it was on a 4/20 - which is kind of like a hippie holiday - in a state where cannabis is legal, and on Easter which is some other kind of holiday. Songs such as Buried Alive, Makisupa Policeman, and Jesus Just Left Chicago were among our pre-show speculation.

I hung around the house that morning, played Irish tenor banjo, took the dog for a walk, and then when I couldn't take it any more I convinced Laura to leave an hour earlier than planned. Once we got on the train I checked my stats for the first time in a while and noticed that this was going to be my 70th show. I knew it was around that number but I wasn't sure that it was 70 until I checked.

We got off one stop shy of the Moda Center to have pizza at our favorite place in Old Town. Once we sat at the bar and I got a beer in me I could finally relax a bit. After a while we got back on the train with our next destination being Upright Brewing. I believe Upright Brewing is the closest brewery to the Moda Center. Each time we've been there to pre-game Winterhawks hockey games they were always playing Phish music on the speakers. This time it was more like a chill dub reggae mix but that's actually better than being directly on the nose. Upright wasn't crowded at all when we got there, but it was still not even 5:00pm yet.

Upright is named after the instrument played by upright bassist Charles Mingus, with pictues of Mingus and other jazz musicians such as Sun Ra and Rahsaan Roland Kirk for the eye to see. I like Upright's beers...they have styles like Irish red ales, bitters, and pale ales with a couple varieties always on cask. It quickly got crowded after we got there and soon the line was out the door.

In true Portland fashion, the weather this day was pretty classic. As chilly as you would expect and slightly overcast or partially sunny. Suddenly, it decided to rain while we were in the brewery. Portland gotta be Portland. It didn't last long though and soon we were walking toward the venue through a maze of nitrous balloon vendors. Not to be distracted, we went fairly straightly through one of the the Moda Center entrances.

Having scoped it out during a Trail Blazers game, I knew that cheap beer could be found in Section 303 at the Low Bar for $5.50 a can. Absolutely no line, so it was a good place to double fist it. Then we went back down to the 100's to be impressed by our seats. Nobody was going to be standing in front of our short selves today!

Time passed quickly. I was currently in a good mood, I had previously been in a good mood, and I remained in a good mood. Lights go down and here comes Phish. They opened with 46 Days and that was an instant highlight because it sounded to me like they were quickly taking it to new places and trying out new effects and sounds. 

Unlike Black-Eyed Katy, Moma Dance has historically been a meh song for me but I wasn't going to let it occupy that space on this evening. Cities was well received by the Portland crowd. Plasma seemed to be not as well received. Bouncin' is a song I can appreciate and on this occasion I did. Sigma Oasis went deep, vying with 46 Days for best jam of the set. Antelope came next and was intelligently designed to crush. I'm sorry but Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S. felt like a tacked on afterthought. Not that I didn't enjoy it though. Set break.

A Wave of Hope is not really an A-list song, at least not for me, but within the jam Phish did that thing where you lose track of what song it is. Twist was good and I enjoyed trying to wooh in both the right and wrong places. Scents and Subtle Sounds was a surprise and was probably my favorite song of the entire night. I kept my clothing on. Everything's Right gave me a moment to be critical for the first time of the evening, which I then quickly corrected myself. All was made good when it segued into Boogie on Reggae Woman. My previous show in Philadelphia in 2023 also had a well placed Boogie on Reggae Woman. 

Having seen some great 2001's in the 90's, I'm a bit of a 2001 skeptic, but I succumbed to its tension/release as always. Trey gave his all for A Life Beyond the Dream. Then it was time for the elephant in the room - Harry Hood. Portland got its Hood! 

A lot of things had combined into my mind by this point so the encore is a little hazy. It was Wilson and Slave to the Traffic Light. That could have been an encore in 1994 but here it is 2025. I have no complaints whatsoever. Do I have attendance bias??? Maybe. Although Phish is so good and so consistent these days there are no bad shows.

Getting out of the Moda Center didn't go as planned. Okay, we managed to find and bring with us our now empty water bottles. I think I was visualizing a different side of the building than where we came out on. For a few minutes we just walked with the flow of foot traffic, living in the moment. Then when it was time to find the train stop it wasn't where it was supposed to be, nor were we. I'm pretty sure the train had stopped running by that point in the evening anyway. No problem, part-time stand-up comic Dan the Uber man to the rescue. I have his number if you need it.

***

Dandelion Puff: Constructing and Deconstructing a Melody

The A-Part (similar to Venus In Furs)

On Monday morning I sung a melody into my phone's voice recorder that in hindsight bears some resemblance to the Velvet Underground song Venus In Furs. I didn't give myself a chance to work on this melody until Wednesday morning when I had about ten minutes to review it before leaving for work. During those ten minutes I was able to locate and transcribe the musical notes on a keyboard based on the intervals I had sung.

The musical notes I happened to choose were: G G G C D C D Bb G.

I don't think in terms of chords or harmony, but I do think in terms of scales - the major scale specifically. So as soon as I transcribe notes like this I like to find out which major scale(s) they might conform to.

By analyzing the notes in this little melody I came to the conclusion that these notes could fit into either the Bb major sale (Bb C D Eb F G A) or the F major scale (F G A Bb C D E). Using numeric scale notes, my G G G C D C D Bb G melody was either 6 6 6 2 3 2 3 1 6 or 2 2 2 5 6 5 6 4 2. (It wasn't until I started writing this post that I realized it could also be Eb major as well: Eb F G Ab Bb C D.

The B-Part (loosely based on the 12/29/19 Bathtub Gin jam)

I like for my tunes to have at least two alternating sections. So after transcribing this melody I tried out a sequence of notes based on something that Trey Anastasio played during Bathtub Gin on 12/29/19 that I had already been messing around with by ear. 

In recent years Trey has developed a knack for landing on simple, fleeting melodies during "Type II" improvs. Phish songs like Light, Ghost, Tweezer and Carini are prime places for these. Just beyond eleven minutes into this version of Bathtub Gin, Trey - prompted by Page - comes up with an interesting melody of this sort. It only goes around for a few bars but it was enough for me to make note of it and by New Year's Eve I was playing my own thing based on that sound.

The musical notes I used for this melody were: G Bb C D, G Bb C F D, F D C D C Bb C G.  

Note that all of the notes from my first melody (G C D and Bb) are found in this B-part melody. That was a happy coincidence. The only additional note in the B-part melody was F, but that note is found in both the Bb major scale and the F major scale that I spoke about above. So just like in the A-part, my scale here is ambiguous (to me at least). It could still be either B-flat or F. (or, as I realize now, E-flat).

The thing about these little melodies that Trey happens upon during Phish jams is that they sound great in the context of the jam, but after being isolated it is sometimes difficult to find something to pair them with. They almost paint themselves into a corner. That had been the case with this Bathtub Gin melody. I had been sitting on it for a week without successfully coming up with something to go with it. But as soon as I matched it up with my "Venus In Furs" style A-part it seemed to jive.

Transposing the A-Part

I started playing these A and B parts together and instantly knew that I had a new tune. The parts fit well together. The only thing that nagged at me was how both melodies were using a lot of the same notes, and/or were living under the same piano keys or banjo frets. I wanted a bit more flavor there. Then I remembered how I had analyzed my A-part melody to discover that the first note of the melody (G) could either be note 6 of the Bb scale or note 2 of the F scale. 

So what if I assume for a moment that the scale I'm in is Bb, but move my A-part melody from starting on note 6 of that scale (G) to note 2 of that scale (C)? Now the notes in my A-part melody switch from G G G C D C D Bb G to C C C F G F G Eb C. Boom! I'm definitely not in the key of F anymore but all of these notes still fit into the key of Bb! Remember that B-flat major scale is Bb C D Eb F G A. The only note I'm not using is the 7th one: A.

My tune was basically done and ready to be recorded at this point. I had an A-part and a B-part, and each conformed to the same major scale: the B-flat major scale in this case. But, even cooler, I wasn't really even hovering around the note Bb as the tonal center for much of the tune. It's got more of a minor feel, meaning that in music theory it's probably more like the G aeolian or C dorian scale. That's getting a little heavy for me though. I only think in terms of the major scale.

About Those (Mississippi) Half-Steps

This is basically the process I go through almost any time I write a tune. My A-parts and B-parts (or C-parts) often come from different, unrelated sources. In order to pair them I try to put them into the same universe. Unless I am purposefully trying to write something "out", "blue" or exotic, I otherwise like for my A-parts and B-parts to each utilize notes from the same major scale. The same universe, if you will. In this case that universe was the notes of the Bb major scale: Bb C D Eb F G A. It's all relative though, man.

A neat thing to know about the major scale is that it's mostly whole steps. There are only two places in the whole scale where notes are going to be directly adjacent on your fretboard. These are called semi-tones or half-steps. These half-steps are always between notes 3 and 4 of the scale, and between notes 7 and 1 of the scale (or 7 and 8 of the scale in music theory, if I'm not mistaken, but I don't think about it that way). In the Bb major scale the half-steps are found from A to Bb (7 to 1) and from D to Eb (3 to 4). Anywhere else in the scale is a whole step.

Me, I'm A Part of Your Circle of Friends

I like to think of a scale as being continuous. 

Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb..... and so on.

You can also start on any note of the major scale. That is when a scale is called a mode.

G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A Bb C D Eb F G A B C D Eb F G..... and so on.

Once you get going both of the above sequences start to look pretty darn similar. In fact, they quickly become exactly that same. If you start getting too loopy you might get lost. That's OK because the half-steps can bring you back whenever you want. The half steps in your melody are the guideposts, the major clues helping to provide direction. (My tunes don't have definitive chords as far as I'm concerned. I only hear and think in terms of melody, so my scale knowledge and where this melody falls within the major scale is all I have to go on. For example I know that an Eb chord in this scale contains the notes Eb, G and Bb. No duh, right? I just have no idea if or when that or any chord should be used under the melody, nor do I care. If I really had to think about it I would conclude that any number of scalar notes could be used to harmonize with the melody note, each with their own peculiar coloring. Who can say which one sounds better than the other? I don't have a preference.)

Name That Tune

I already expected my next tune title to be either Fungie (after the Dingle dolphin) or Dandelion (after the bard character in the Witcher). I went with Dandelion, which became Dandelion Puff.

To re-cap, Monday I hummed a melody that is similar to Venus In Furs. Wednesday morning I transcribed that melody. Wednesday evening I paired it with a stray melody I had played by ear the prior week based on something I heard during the Phish 12/29/19 Bathtub Gin. Once paired together I realized that the intervals being used allowed for one of the parts to be shifted to different notes within the same universe, or scale. After that, done!

Here's a recording made last night over a quick drum machine "beat" that I spent mere seconds assembling. I used a baritone ukulele because I like the way it sounds on that instrument.

***

Phish As Music Curator

Season 1 Episode 8 of the podcast Long May They Run - a season dedicated to the band Phish - discusses how Phish served a music curator and influencer for its fans. It made me think of some ways that Phish directed or confirmed my musical interests.

Halloween Albums
The most obvious example for anyone would have to be the full albums they have covered on Halloween. I was ignorant and agnostic about Talking Heads during the mid-90's so when Phish covered Remain In Light in 1996 that really exposed me to that band and caused me to seek out Remain in Light and other Talking Heads albums on CD. In my case, learning about Talking Heads would quickly turn me toward David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts album with Brian Eno.

Learning about Brian Eno leads directly to his Music for Airports album and ambient music in general, even before Phish started playing its own Siket Disc brand of ambient. Eno's Music for Airports was eventually covered in the studio by the new-music ensemble Bang On A Can All-Stars and that version of Music For Airports quickly became an all-time favorite album of mine. Bang On A Can will be at the 2020 Big Ears Festival, my present day favorite festival. So there you go. Learning about Brian Eno leads to Cluster and other directions too. Maybe that's even how I got to Tortoise.

Circling back to Talking Heads, they were part of the New Wave or No Wave music scene of early 1980's New York. Learning about this scene brought me to Liquid, Liquid, a band I would never have known about otherwise!

None of the other Halloween albums really had the same impact on me as Remain In Light, although I remember really liking Loaded after they covered that Velvet Underground album in 1998. My local library at the time had Loaded on CD so I burned a copy. Unfortunately that's really the only Velvet Underground album I ever got to in that pre-streaming world. Worth exploring now?

Bluegrass
I was fortunate to already really be into the flatpicker Norman Blake as early as 1991 or 1992, before I had ever even heard of Phish. So as I was learning about Phish I also learned that they did a cover of Ginseng Sullivan. This was so out of left field that it really increased my appreciation for this new awesome band I was getting to know. Same with the bluegrass band Hot Rize. I already loved the self-titled album with Nellie Kane on it before I knew that Phish played that song. And I'm pretty sure I already dug The Flatlanders (the legendary Lubbock, TX band with Jimmie Dale Gilmore in it) before I knew that My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own was a Jimmie Dale Gilmore cover.

I also think I had seen the Del McCoury Band open for the David Grisman Quintet before I made the connection that Beauty of My Dreams was a song that Phish got from Del McCoury. I guess I was pretty up to speed on bluegrass back in those days without any help from Phish. Or at least the same kind of bluegrass that Phish was choosing to cover.

Leo Kottke and Jamie Masefield
I couldn't have been the only Phish fan who became a fan of Leo Kottke after Mike Gordon collaborated with him on Clone and Sixty Six Steps. I wonder if it worked the other way; if Kottke fans became fans of Phish after hearing Mike play with their guy? Likewise it didn't hurt Jamie Masefield's Jazz Mandolin Project to have Trey and Fishman join him in 1994 for a handful of performances as Bad Hat, or to have Fishman join them for some tours and an album or two. Where is that Tour De Flux album? I remember it being awesome. Is it not online? Might have to remedy that if I can find my old CD copy.

Medeski, Martin and Wood
For Medeski Martin and Wood I'm pretty sure I first heard of them after reading a review of of It's A Jungle In Here or Friday Afternoon in the Universe in an issue of Relix magazine. The magazines Relix, Dirty Linen and No Depression were my primary sources for finding out about new music back then. That and the All Music Guide book (before it was a website). I got both of those MMW CDs and very soon after that heard Friday Afternoon in the Universe being played over the PA either pre-show or during the set break at some Phish show. Hey I said, I recognize that music said I. It's no stretch of the imagination to see how learning about MMW could lead to learning a teeny tiny bit about the whole New York "downtown" jazz scene that had happened just prior: Zorn, Frisell, Ribot, Lounge Lizards, and so on. And then staying tuned to what's happening there on through the 2010's meaning Mary Halvorson.

Ween
I think a lot of Phish fans were exposed to Ween when Phish started covering Roses Are Free in December 1997. I already knew about Ween by then and already loved the albums 12 Golden Country Greats, The Mollusk and Chocolate and Cheese. In fact I already had live Ween "bootleg" tapes as early as summer 1997 and remember playing one on a boombox in the parking lot of the VA Beach Phish show that summer. Since this was pre-Roses Are Free it only drew dirty looks and frowns from passersby. Whatever I was playing it was not cool...yet. Back then you only had like two or three acceptable choices for pre-show boomboxes: Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, Grateful Dead or Phish. Maybe Zappa if you had the gumption for that. I liked to push the envelope and would jam stuff like Miles Davis Agharta or Tony Rize Manzanita in the lot. That seems pretty tame by today's standards but it sure felt like it was pushing it back then.

Sun Ra and King Sunny Ade
There was a time in the 90's when Trey seemed to mention Sun Ra or King Sunny Ade in every interview. I made note of those names and first chance I got I obtained copies of Sun Ra's Lanquidity, On Jupiter and Sleeping Beauty albums. This is when a lot of Sun Ra stuff was still out of print so I had to use extreme means to obtain them. King Sunny Ade wouldn't sink in until later, but it was still a direct result of Trey planting that name in my memory ten, fifteen years prior. That may be why I'm so open to African music to this day, including Mulatu Astatke, Hailu Mergia, Manu Dibango, Kokono No. 1, Idris Ackamoor, and more.

Learning about Sun Ra also opens one up to accepting Trey's very experimental Surrender to the Air project, which featured Marshall Allen, Michael Ray, and Damon Choice of The Sun Ra Arkestra. Surrender to the Air also included John Medeski and Marc Ribot, making another connection back to that downtown New York jazz scene. If you can tolerate Surrender to the Air you're ready to be absolutely free. Years later I would get to see the Sun Ra Arkestra with Marshall Allen at the Richmond Folk Festival, my other favorite music festival. That was one of the best musical experiences of my life.

Obscure Cover Songs
I first learned about Phish in 1993 and didn't see them live until 1994. I would hear a song like Ya Mar, Timber, Avenu Malkenu or Back at the Chicken Shack and not know whether it was a cover or original. I guess Ginseng Sullivan was an unknown song to a lot of people. Perhaps this technique stemmed from the Grateful Dead who had several cover songs that they had made their own such as Jack-A-Roe, Peggy-O or Going Down the Road Feeling Bad. Eventually you learn that Ya Mar is not a Phish original but a cover of a song that Mike Gordon heard a calypso band called the Mustangs play while on vacation in the Caribbean as a young man. Or you learn that Avenu Malkenu is an arrangement of a Hebrew prayer, ahem, arranged by Phish in 5/4 time signature because why not? Could this early exposure have led me to my present day love of Caribbean and Klezmer music?

The Necks

Phish Festival Secret Sets
The last thing that comes to mind are the late night unannounced sets of all-improv instrumental music that Phish would play at its campout festivals. Talk about Type II. The infamous Tower Set from the 2003 It festival for example. I remember thinking that Phish should just do that type of music for a whole tour. But since that wasn't going to happen I wanted to know where else I could turn for that kind of music, if in fact that is a "type" of music? Well there's an Australian band called The Necks that to my knowledge pretty much does just that - every show is all improv music in a somewhat similar vein. The Necks will be at Big Ears 2020 as well.

I've mentioned Big Ears a couple times in this post. That high-brow culture of experimental art music might seem far removed from Phish's brand of crowd pleasing heady show-biz, but to give credit where credit's due plenty of that Phish jamming from 1994 through 2004, if viewed from an unbiased lens, could have more in common with Steve Reich or Ornette Coleman than it does many of the common jamband festival bands of today. Whether it's music for 18 musicians or music for four musicians, nobody else does that in-the-moment improvisation that's so good it sounds like it must be composed, but it's not it's improvised type music better. You can go looking for alternatives but you'll always return to the source that is Phish.

Coventry and its Aftermath
I did not have a positive experience at Coventry by any stretch of the imagination and so when Phish came to an end in 2004 I was simultaneously done with all-things Phish for a little while there. Good riddance in a way. Rather than a band dictating how I budgeted my life I was now free to explore other interests like travel simply for the sake of travel, beginning with a trip to Ireland in November 2004 that, not surprisingly, was my first exposure to actual Irish traditional music. Or greater than that, it was where the concept that music as something that amateur hobbyists can do for fun for their own enjoyment hit home. I realized that music was not just the sacred domain of these idolized figures that we have put on a special pedestal for our entertainment and hero worship.

So by 2006 I had started trying to play Irish tenor banjo, an instrument I had seen played in Ireland during my trips there. I quickly realized that the repertoire that works for Irish tenor banjo is not necessarily strummed versions of Neil Young or John Prine songs but plucked or flatpicked melodies to instrumental jigs, reels, hornpipes and other types of "fiddle tunes".  Further travels to Jamaica would generate an interest in Mento and other Caribbean music forms.

By the time Phish came back in 2009 I was more than ready to return to them with a clean slate, but I was also way down a path that had formed during the five year breakup. The primary thing driving my music taste now was the knowledge that I can play music for my own enjoyment. You can pluck a string and create sounds that way. In other words there are more options than just clicking play on a recording or waiting for a band to perform on stage in front of you at a preordained time. I may not have arrived at this epiphany had it not been for the post-Coventry five-year hiatus where we all had to reevaluate what to do with our lives. Could I perfectly cover all the parts of Guyute? Of course not. But could I learn the basic melody to common folk tunes like Kesh Jig or Arkansas Traveler and then learn how to sit in at open-minded Irish sessions or old-time jams anywhere in the world? You bet. That's a different type of music appreciation.

These days at age 45 it's all come back around and merged into one. When you start playing music for the first time at age 32 it doesn't matter how much music you have listened to up until then, playing it is still hard. Developing your ear is still hard. I'm only just now developing the ability to get out my instrument and figure out by ear the little melody that Trey happened upon briefly during the 11/29/19 version of Light for example. It's that potential that allows me to appreciate Phish even more and fit it into my current obsessions. I'm not working toward being able to play a note for note recreation of Horn on my tenor banjo. But an improvisation or melody-line hidden in a Light or Stash or Limb By Limb or Brother can certainly provide the fuel for me to then create my own melody inspired by it.

That's enough.

Tunes 62 Through 70

Back on June 10th I posted about a year of writing tunes.  In the three months since then I've added 8 more pieces to my catalog, bringing the total to 70.  That matches the number of compositions published by Thelonious Monk.  Just sayin'.

Time for a rundown I suppose.

Number 62: Emily Redoux, written on 6/24/18
For the A-part of this one I believe I took some of the notes from the written vocal melody to portions of Phish's album version of the title track to Story of the Ghost and re-arranged the rhythm and pacing to match a sound I had in my head.  Then the B-part seemed to just play itself.  There might be a tag at the end that was totally stolen from a melody that came up on Spotify.

Number 63: Show Ponies, written 6/28/18

I had the name Show Ponies before I had the tune.  So I had to write a melody to fit.  I gained inspiration by listening to Gitkin's 5 Star Motel.  However, one part of this tune may actually be completely original that I came up with on my own!

Number 64: Beach Breeze Motel, written 7/5/18

This piece was written to commemorate a vacation to Nova Scotia.  Played here on K-Board using the SampleTank app "Alto Sax" sound.  Ideas in this have been borrowed from or at least galvanized by Eamon O'Leary's song The Second Bottle.

Number 65: Yam Cakes and Ackee, written 7/23/18
Beginning with Yam Cakes and Ackee, I got on a little three-tune Caribbean kick.  I came up with this tune after listening to some St. Croix Quelbe music and the reggae group Black Uhuru. It was fairly effortless.

Number 66: Bye Bye Sol, written 8/9/18
I had a head full of ideas after seeing Phish for three nights in Alpharetta, Georgia in early August 2018. Bye Bye Sol and its sister tune La Luz are both composed almost entirely of sounds I heard (or thought I heard) in the music played during those three nights.  I couldn't wait to get home and get these ideas onto paper.

Number 67: La Luz, written 8/9/18
As mentioned above, tunes 66 and 67 were both distilled from music played by Phish on their stunning Summer 2018 tour.  With a name like La Luz, it's likely this tune owes its existence to the version of the song Light played by Phish on 8/7/18 in Camden, NJ.  Hot off the press.


Number 68: The September March, written 9/3/18
Sometimes for a song written by someone else, if I really want to know what the notes are, I'll request a transcription from Built to Last Music Notes.  I did that a few weeks back for a ragtime sounding number from the year 1916 called Guatemala-Panama March by the Hurtado Brothers Royal Marimba Band.  However, soon after sending that for transcription I decided to come up with my own melody based on the sound of that Hurtado Brothers composition.  Four days later this had become The September March.  I'm curious to see what the actual notes are when I get the transcription.  That'll help me know how "original" this one is.


Number 69: Not a Care in the World, written 9/12/18
For some reason this week I thought of and then felt like listening to the album of O'Carolan music released by mandolinist Butch Baldassari back in 2007.  The very first track - a set of two tunes for Young William Plunkett - caught my ear and made me want to write a melody just like it.  So I did.  Maybe this is too much like it!  What I ended up with was a notey, three-part, repetitive tune.  It's called Not a Care in the World because I was writing it on the Wednesday before Tropical Storm Florence was supposed to arrive.  I like that major to minor transition which happens between the two tunes in Baldassari's setting. Something similar happens here but it is between parts A and B.

Number 70: Little Cat Nicholas, written 9/12/18
On the occasion that a melody comes to me out of the blue, I'll usually try and hum it into my phone's voice recorder for later use.  Forget about that for a moment.  Earlier this week, late in the evening just before bed, I was putting away my banjo when I pulled it back out and began improvising a quiet, pretty, waltzy melody on the instrument for a few minutes. I didn't record it. I put the banjo away and went to sleep.  A day or two later - this would have been 9/12 - I decided to recall that melody.  I'm pretty sure this is that. I called it Little Cat Nicholas:  our temperamental cat Nicholas is approaching 20 years of age and is not long for this world, so this tune is dedicated to him.  Anyway, after all that I noticed a recording on my phone titled generically as "hummed melody" and it's pretty much this same tune.  So this was floating around for a little while and needed documenting.

Biting Cat Nicholas having a typically lazy day.  September 15, 2018.

Seventy.  Whew.  These are so much fun to play!

Mary Halvorson and Phish

What is a band?  For three nights in July my two favorite musical artists had overlapping residencies in New York city.  July 21, 22 and 23, 2017, guitarist Mary Halvorson was playing the last half of her six night stint at the Village Vanguard, while on those same dates Phish was starting their 13 night Baker's Dozen run at Madison Square Garden.  I didn't go to either event.  But that's not really the point.

I have seen Phish 60 times over the last 23 years.  They've been my favorite band from 1994 until now.  That has remained constant.  What has varied over the years is how I listen to and view Phish compared to other musical artists.

In my  20's, when I wasn't listening to Phish or the Grateful Dead, I still wanted to listen to some of the tumble-down bands associated with the jamband genre, including moe., Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band and Sector 9.  In my 30's, indie-like bands such as My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog and Ween got in line behind Phish.  Now, in my 40's, I'm not really looking for the next band to really get into, and Phish has only increased the distance between themselves and the other standbys.

With so many places to hear and consume music, both old and new, I do probably listen to a wider variety of stuff now than ever before.  Definitely heavy on jazz and older, ethnic folk music.  However, it's also easier now than ever before to simply listen to Phish, with access to so much of their live shows online.  Phish plus everything else.  With one exception.

Around 2013 to 2014 I started checking out a little known New York-based avant-garde guitarist named Mary Halvorson.  Her angular, unsettling playing requires some major recalibration of the ears, but I stuck with it and have been slowly delving deeper and deeper into her surprisingly vast and constantly expanding output ever since.  (Her discography includes 40+ albums findable on Spotify plus many more through other sources).

Phish's complex compositions and inclination toward 20+ minute improvisations helped prime my senses for something really out there, and Mary Halvorson stepped in and opened a door I didn't even know was there.

Where Phish has a whole community surrounding it, Mary seemingly has none of that baggage. Phish you can at least peg as being a form of "rock".  It's difficult to tell what Mary Halvorson is.  Experimental jazz is the closest term we have to encapsulating her untethered creativity, but I don't think it can be branded.  She's more about practicing her instrument than marketing her product.

Poster art, performance art, phan art, inside jokes, engaged online forums, a killer light show, setlist analytics, "Shakedown Street", goo balls, parking lot scene, bootleg t-shirts, blissed out jams, audience participation, hippie white person dancing, and more are all part of the Phish experience.  With Mary Halvorson I don't know that you even get a sticker.  She sits there on stage looking at a music stand that has some sort of written notation on it that helps elicit the unmistakable sounds coming out out of her guitar to her amp.  No frills.  No negative bias from critics.  No preconceived guidance.

Phish can go to deep outer space and bring a crowd of 20,000 right along with them, but Mary's music seems bent on shaking off even the most ardent, or not even concerned with that at all.  It's a totally different set of emotions being triggered when I listen to her music.  Both have their faults: Phish and their predictable tension/relief peak jams; Mary Halvorson and the when-in-doubt revert to noise and call it free jazz card.  But hey.

There is no connection between the two, other than both seem like the culminations of pathways that can lead forward or backward.  They aren't stopping points along the way.  They are the journey and the destination.  Still, Amazon is not going to recommend one if you like the other.  You're not going to hear Mary Halvorson on the Jam_On channel.  The connection I'm making is based on the appeal they each have to me.  Basically, I just typed the words "Mary Halvorson and Phish" in the post title and then had a blank screen below that needed some more words, a couple images and a couple videos.

Jazz Age Phish

Last month I decided to see if I could transcribe the vocal melody line to some Phish songs on my tenor banjo just by listening and assigning a note to each sung syllable in the lyrics. To my surprise and delight, this came rather easy. Years of familiarity with Phish’s music probably helped.

I soon thought of the Ran Blake book Primacy of the Ear.  I’ve mentioned this book before. The main point of Primacy of the Ear is putting your ear, rather than the fingers (technique) or the brain (theory) at the center of your musical learning. In doing so you are encouraged to focus on a couple divergent musical interests and study them both in depth. For one person this might be the music of Eric Dolphy paired with Cretan traditional music, for somebody else maybe Arvo Pärt and Aretha Franklin.

It’s taken me years to develop the mindset to give learning anything by ear a legitimate shot but the fun I had transcribing Phish vocal melodies made me consider following the advice in Primacy of the Ear by using Phish’s songbook as a means for improving my aural skills. Then I remembered a 2012 album called The Jazz Age by The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, where Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry songs are re-imagined in a 1920’s big band style. A musician named Martin Wheatley plays what sounds like 4-string banjo on most of the tracks on that album.

I had never heard of or listened to Roxy Music before discovering The Jazz Age, but I created a playlist in Spotify, alternating the original song with the 1920’s jazz version to hear the comparison. These artsy pop/rock songs work incredibly well as 1920’s jazz numbers (or even standalone pieces) and it sounds like Martin Wheatley didn't really change anything about his banjo technique for that recording. He is using the usual 1920's style rhythm playing.

This helped me realize that I could pair the learning of Phish songs by ear and the learning of traditional New Orleans/Creole banjo playing by ear into one study.  One example might be figuring out the vocal melody and general chord structure to the song Lawn Boy and then strumming over those changes in the standard "straight fours" jazz banjo rhythm.  Freedom through limitation.

Making Room for Mercury on Phish's Big Boat

Phish has several top-shelf songs that have never made it onto a proper studio album, including Harry Hood, Slave to the Traffic Light, Tube, The Curtain, Halley's Comet, Carini, Strange Design and more.  Now we can add Mercury to that list.

The multi-part composition was recognized as an instant classic when it debuted in July 2015, so it seemed like a shoo-in for inclusion on Phish's new studio album, Big Boat.  However, producer Bob Ezrin cut the fan-favorite from the track-list, presumably due to time constraints.  This is a questionable decision, especially considering that there are much weaker songs on the finished product.  Mercury could have taken Big Boat from good to great.

If time really was an issue, then what other songs could have been cut to make room for Mercury?

Big Boat kicks off with Friends, a Fishman sung number that doesn't get any less bizarre the more you listen to it.  Maybe it's about alien conquistadors?  Although it's not a monumental song, the opening notes to Friends do start things off in a bold, distinctive fashion.  Songs with Fishman on lead vocals are rare, so this one earns its keep on that fact alone.

Breath and Burning is the first of many Trey Anastasio contributions.  It has a tropical vibe, which is a bit unusual for Phish.  The lyrics are strong and the TAB style horn part adds the right amount of hook.

Home is the first of three Page McConnell songs on Big Boat and it's the least compelling of those three.  Home might be catchy, but I don't know that there is a strong need for this song in the Phish oeuvre.  The experimental part at the end isn't enough to save it.  Although, cheers to Page for the burst of creativity.

Track 4 is Blaze On, which would not sound out of place on a 1970's Little Feat album.  This is a feel good, grooving song that borders on jamband 101 territory, but because this is Phish that rudimentary path has a lot of skill behind it.  Blaze On qualifies as one of the best new songs in Phish's repertoire.

Trey was obviously trying to write a Motown song with Tide Turns, and from what I can tell he succeeded.  For a song that may not always go over well in a live setting, it works well enough in the studio and adds diversity to the styles represented on Big Boat.

There's always room for a bluegrass song at a Phish show, so Page's Things People Do will easily fill that void.  The low-fi demo version that ended up on the album would have easily fit on 1992's Picture of Nectar.

Waking Up Dead is a total Mike Gordon song and you need at least one of those on every Phish record.  It has potential and the spicy sonority is appealing, but more time could have been spent fine tuning it.  Mike's other new song, Let's Go - which like Mercury was left off of Big Boat - might have been a better choice for him.

Running Out of Time is OK enough, if a little lightweight, but hasn't Trey already written other songs that sound like this and dwell on the same themes and emotions?  Apparently this song dates back to the Round Room writing sessions and finally found a home here.

For some reason I'm not a huge fan of No Men In No Man's Land, although a song with this type of improv potential is an asset.  The looseness of the studio cut captures some of its off-the-cuff versatility.

My appreciation of the ballad Miss You grew tremendously after hearing the live recording from 10/18/16 in Nashville with Bob Weir sitting in and tackling the lead vocals.  That interpretation took the song from insular to inclusive.  Phish has struggled to add crowd-pleasing ballads in recent years, but this one might do it.

Now that it's been played live, I Always Wanted It This Way has perhaps had the warmest fan reception of any of the songs from Big Boat.  Hopefully this synth-focused all-star burns its way into our collective consciousness with just as much merit as the decades old Phish classics.

It may always sound cheesy, but More, with its "gotta be something more than this" refrain, is a timely reflection on the current Phish worldview, in much the same way that "was it for this my life I sought" captured our emotions decades ago.  Even cynics occasionally need to vibrate with love and light.

Petrichor gets an A for effort.  It succeeds where Time Turns Elastic tried and failed.  This ambitious composition hearkens back to the Junta days when Trey studied with composer Ernie Stires to create complex masterworks that formed the foundation of all things Phish.  In Petrichor's case, the sophistication of the music is offset by the zen koan simplicity of the lyrics.

That's a rundown of all the songs on Phish's Big Boat.  So, which one(s) should get axed to make room for Mercury?  I think you could easily drop Home and still have two great Page songs in Things People Do and I Always Wanted It This Way.  Mike Gordon's flawed Waking Up Dead needs to stay because without it you wouldn't have a Mike Gordon song unless you replace it with Let's Go.  Of the Trey selections, Running Out of Time is the most expendable, although I still kinda like it.  If I had to give up two songs to make room for Mercury, it would be Home and Running Out of Time.

Ten Takeaways from the 2016 LOCKN' Festival

Photo by @jtolg

My Morning Jacket Crushed It
The best set of the weekend belonged to My Morning Jacket.  It was all about love, sweet love.  That Steam Engine was maybe the best thing I have ever heard.  All that set was lacking was a cover of "Love TKO" by Teddy Pendergrass.  Next time, Yim Yames, next time.

My Love for Ween was Rekindled!
To the surprise of Ween fans nowhere, Ween's Thursday headlining slot quickly went deep and dark.  The elemental notes coming out of Deaner's guitar that night were the work of a master.  Friday's set contained even more Ween songs.  Behold...the Boognish.

Phish Was Disappointing
The king of jambands was not a personal highlight of the Lockn' festival.  I loved every minute of My Morning Jacket and Ween, but Phish just didn't hit me in the same way.  Phish could have sprinkled their sets with more weird songs like Weigh, Guy Forget, Glide, Manteca, Mock Song, Lengthwise, Fikus, et cetera.  Phish might have also been better off conforming to the standard festival formula of one long set that starts immediately after the previous band.

Is Vulfpeck Some Kind of Joke...Band?
I only saw Vulfpeck's Thursday set but it was awful, right?  Two thumbs down.  I will say, that upon the 10th listen, it does start to be less awful.  Wait, why do I keep listening to their stupid set!!!???

Twiddle Rhymes with Did Ill
OK I get it.  You sound like a jamband heavily influenced by Phish who also likes to throw in the occasional reggae groove into every single one of your songs.  Your lyrics are uplifting in a way that should be more ironic than it is.  You've got a cool looking guitar (not a Languedoc) and a cool hat and Page hangs out in your trailor (note: trailer is spelled trailer).  Mr. Twiddle, you've been around for ten years so none of these observations are new, I'm sure.  Yeah I'd probably go see you guys again if you came through town on tour, but I might also double dip and go see Vulfpeck too.  That's your competition right now.

JRAD is the Best Thing Going in the Grateful Dead World

Aside from whatever Phil Lesh continues to do, which is bound to be good, JRAD is the best thing happening in Grateful Dead music right now.  Maybe Brown-Eyed Women doesn't always need to go Type II, but I'll take that over a manlike sexpot playing generic blues licks in a nostalgia act or a post John K DSO.  The way that JRAD toys with these songs through fearless full band improvisation is what makes it so endlessly entertaining.

Bringing Water, Food and a Pop-Up Shower Saved The Day

Our campsite was literally a mile walk to the stage.  No joke.  It was probably almost a half-mile to the nearest porta-potty and still farther to the closest water spigot.  Not exactly convenient.  Friday was the hottest day I have ever spent entirely outside.  The mission that day was to stay alive.  My drink of choice was a Coors Light - on ice!  Fortunately we had plenty of water and food and I had brought a pop-up shower for, well, showering by virtue of a DIY pump sprayer.  The shower proved to have at least 1 other important use.

Photo by Vickey Higgins Goff

Some People Can Dance For Hours In the Hot Sun and Still Rage Late Night (Not Me)

The intense heat crippled my interest in making more than one trip per day back and forth to the stage.  This meant that I missed a lot of the bands that played before Ween on Friday, including Turkuaz and Charles Bradley, but energy had to be conserved.  On Saturday I finally made it down for the whole day of music and found a shady spot to take it all in.  There, from the comfort of a low-profile chair, I could witness crazies dancing in the mid-day sun for hours on end.  My apologies to those mofos if they were still on their feet for MMJ. I had saved my energy so I could let loose a little bit by the end of the day on Saturday.

How You Feeling Out There?
Thanks for asking Michael Franti, I mean Galactic.  If you really want to know...I feel like I have a dangerously high core body temperature and an altered mental state or behavior.  I've been sweating excessively for days, have flushed skin, a rapid heart rate, a headache, and I feel kind of dizzy, as if I'm car sick but I haven't been in a car for over 48 hours.  It's 3:30 in the afternoon in August in Virginia and the heat index is above one hundred degrees.  If you really want me to get up and dance right now then you don't have my best interest at heart.  I feel bad for you Galactic for even being on that stage.  It's the best I can do to put my hands together.  I suppose I could make some noise.

That's Only Nine
Go listen to 12 Golden Country Greats.  Actually there is a ten.  I made a LOCKN' music mix for listening at the campsite and for some reason it called for vintage rhythm and blues and soul, such as the Staple Singers, Aretha Franklin, Allen Toussaint and more.  So it's had an unexpected impact on my future music listening.  Hitting the record stores tomorrow to search out more of this.

Getting Excited About Seeing Phish In Chicago

I've started to get that feeling again.  You know, that feeling of anticipation that comes when a Phish show is looming on the horizon just a few weeks or days out.  I've seen Phish 54 times over the last 22 years and it's always been like this.  The excitement builds until it's showtime and the band comes on stage for that first set.

The upcoming shows in Chicago at Wrigley Field later this month will be numbers 55 and 56 for me.  Chicago is definitely a city I would like to visit but never had the impetus to do so until now.  This should be especially cool because it's a destination event.  I'm not really expecting Phish at a major league baseball stadium to be all that mind blowing in and of itself.  The setup certainly won't be as conducive to a concert experience as a theater or outdoor music venue.  But it's more than that.

For one thing it's at Wrigley Field in Chicago.  That is exciting, unique and historic.  It's also a downtown setting meaning that you can walk from your accommodations to the concert while bar hopping along the way.  In my case, nobody has to worry about driving or working on the days of the concerts.  You're basically on holiday in a new city where the only thing for sure happening for two evenings in a row is Phish is playing.  We'll probably also go to breweries, Irish pubs, some jazz clubs, a few dive bars and ethnic restaurants.  Maybe an art gallery.  Who knows?

In a lot of ways this is like the perfect way to see Phish at this point in my life (short of the unbelievably awesome Riviera Maya trip earlier this year).  It inspires me to get a quick glimpse of a classic American city I haven't really been to yet.  This isn't a camping/festival situation, so you get to sleep as late as you want in a comfortable bed, if you are lucky enough to do so, with easy access to bathroom/showers.  Plus there are oodles of bars, restaurants, museums and other sights to check out.  In other words, "culture".  It won't be like Hampton Coliseum for example where, although the venue and music is almost guaranteed good, the environs are bland suburbia.

Basically you get to be a tourist and see Phish at the same time.  I can see myself doing more of this in the future -- integrating travel and Phish.  One thing I'm wondering is how much will a beer at Wrigley Field cost?

Who Else Can They Get For LOCKN'?

Phish, Ween and My Morning Jacket.  Independently, these are probably my top 3 active, performing rock bands, and they are all playing this August at Lockn', a music festival in Virginia that takes place about 90 minutes from where I live.  I've never been to Lockn' before but I have to go now.  Is Yim Yames going to sit in with Ween on Homo Rainbow?  One can hope.

Even if they don't add any other performers it would be enough for me, but the website says "More Artists To Be Announced".  I wonder who those could be?  What other artists would be a good fit for that festival and also be on the top of my personal list the way those big 3 are?  Since I'm 3 for 3 already, maybe I'm not that far off base, so I might as well think of some more preferable add-ons to the lineup.

I'm not clamoring for Dead and Co., or Ratdog, or Bisco, or Widespread or String Cheese (or any of your token classic rockers that Lockn' alumni might be bummed about missing), and I'm no longer into the bluegrass-tinged acts that show up at places like this.  My tastes run a little different than the typical jamband route, despite the fact that the 3 headliners happen to be tailor made for me.  What I would dig is the inclusion of Camper Van Beethoven or The Meat Puppets...a couple of out there, underground 1980's bands that don't normally play festivals like this but who could sneak in on the Ween vibe.

Someone who would pair well with My Morning Jacket is John Prine.  The singing mailman ain't that jammy, but his songs come from a deceptively counter cultural perspective.  This wrinkly living legend would definitely charm the crowd and be a nice break from your standard everyday funk grooves.

Tortoise could play late night after Phish and melt the faces of anyone brave enough to listen; and Marc Ribot and the Young Philadelphians featuring Mary Halvorson would hoist a heaping helping of noise in the guise of classic soul.  But I doubt either of those are gonna happen.

More within the realm of possibility are modern rockers like Dr. Dog or Dawes.  Even though I like both of these bands, I'm not sure how excited I would be to see them in that setting.  What would get everyone off - and still be a great addition to the lineup - would be a Talking Heads reunion.  Talk about a ground score.  That would really light things up.  Or how about Tom Waits?  He would add a different type of trippyness to the happenings.

Lockn' could go really, really big and court the likes of Springsteen, U2, Pearl Jam and the Stones, but that might be getting too far removed and mainstream.  Let Bonnaroo do stuff like that.  Or they could go more grassroots in the vein of Floyd Fest, Shakori Hills and Red Wing Roots.  No, I happen to like them right where they are this year - with a finger on the pulse of bands with a certain throbbing psychedelic sensibility who still bring the heat rather than a nostalgic shuffle beat.  So hey, what about Prince?!

Phish's A Live One 33 1/3 book by Walter Holland

I am happy that there is now a book about Phish in the 33 1/3 series of novella-length essays on music albums.  The album chosen - A Live One - makes sense.  Although Phish does make good studio albums, that type of work would have been too far removed from the improvisatory concert experience that makes Phish Phish.

As their first officially released live recording, 1995's A Live One retains the feel of an album due to its purposeful order of cherry picked selections from various 1994 concerts, but still allows for a jumping off point to discuss Phish as a whole.  For one thing, the band had already moved on by the time A Live One came out the summer after the recordings were made, and would move on again and again before the 90's were over.

Author Walter Holland says that his imagined reader is an interested non-fan who's heard of Phish but knows little of their music, without much experience listening to improvisation.  He also says that he resisted the urge to sell this reader on Phish.  In my view, it's a mistake to believe that the reader needs selling at all.  Such a perception only perpetuates an assumed negative popular/critical opinion that we should be past by now.

I do like the musical terms Holland occasionally employs to describe what is going on during jams, like when he says "in this context A7, as the dominant, leans hard toward the D-minor chord that grounds the whole song".  However, too much of the time is spent on clunky, cluttered writing and unrelated tangents.  There are footnotes for things that don't need footnotes and plenty of things that could use a footnote but don't have one.

On page 8 he says "Maybe A Live One isn't a great album", which he is probably right about.  But then on page 68 he says "Go ahead and put on the A Live One 'Tweezer' if you have it.  If you don't own the album go buy it (it's good)".  I find that to be frustrating.  Holland does make some good observations, such as his explanation of the hose as "anthemic major-chord catharsis after a tension-building passage".  Such matter of fact language is refreshing.

It's hard for me to be too critical of someone who set out to write a Phish 33 1/3 book because that person had to know he was going to be under intense criticism just by doing so.  I admire his effort.  Near the end of the book Holland provides perhaps his best synopsis:

"I like how they've aged.  A Live One has long had a terminal quality, to me - without meaning to, it concisely sets out the terms of a musical close-packing problem that their later explosive--minimalist improv authoritatively solved, and they've never gone back to their early combative style.  Nowadays the borders between their improvisatory episodes are more porous, transitions more gentle, improvisations less inclined to wander aimlessly--beauty is the chief imperative in Phish's late music, and novelty is all but set aside.  There's no didactic or antagonistic point, as there was in (say) the A Live One 'Stash' and 'Tweezer,' which run long and loud and play tricks on the listener partly for the sake of extremity itself; that is, for a laugh".

In my case I was so psyched for there to be a book like this that I pushed on through despite/because of some irritations.  It's a pretty quick read and if anything it might allow you better interpret your own opinions of this band.  Although, don't be surprised if you get to the end wondering if much, if anything, has been said.

What are the Cliché Mexican Songs?

The band Phish announced earlier this month that they will be playing three nights on Mexico's Caribbean coast in January 2016!  This has inspired me to learn some Mexican songs.  I'm looking for the most cliché, or at least the most recognizable, of all Mexican sounding melodies...the Irish Washerwomans and Old Joe Clarks of that region or style.  So far, I've found six that I like and over the last couple weeks I've been learning them.  This morning I did some quick recordings of each on my tenor banjo and mandola.

La Cucaracha means "the cockroach".  It is perhaps the most famous of all Mexican folk songs.

South of the Border (Down Mexico Way) was written by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr.  There have been many recordings of this cowboy song, including those by Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Flaco Jimenez, Chris Isaak and even Bill Frisell!

Jarabe Tapatio, AKA "The Mexican Hat Dance", is another of Mexico's most recognizable folk songs.  You may have heard it played on organ at a baseball game.

Tequila is a latin-flavored 1950's rock and roll song recorded by The Champs.  Pee-wee Herman famously dances to this song during Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

Besame Mucho is a Mexican bolero written by Consuelo Velazquez.  The title translates to "kiss me a lot".

Sobre Las Olas is a Mexican waltz, also known as "Over the Waves" in the United States.  It was written by Mexican composer Juventino Rosas.  Sobre Las Olas is often played at circuses where trapeze artists are performing.

Can you think of any other well known, classic or fun Mexican (or Mexican sounding) songs I should add to this list?

Five Questions with DeadPhish Orchestra's Paul Murin (High Country Guitar)

Paul Murin

Paul Murin is the guitarist for DeadPhish Orchestra, a tribute band that bridges the gap between the music of Phish and The Grateful Dead. He is also the creator of High Country Guitar, an online resource for guitar players interested in improvising and composing. His formal study has included the Jazz and Commercial Music program at the Lamont School of Music at the U. of Denver, where he graduated in 2002.

These qualifications mean that Paul knows as much about the music of Phish and the guitar playing of Trey Anastasio as anyone not named McConnell, Gordon, Fishman or Anastasio. Plus, he is approachable and affable. So, fortunately, he was happy to answer the following Phishy questions.

How does Phish’s improvisation differ from jazz improvisation? How is it similar? 
Well, if you're talking about the classic, bebop style of jazz improv, which most true jazz musicians are familiar with (and I, by the way, do not consider myself a jazz musician at all, although I have studied jazz fairly extensively), then I would say it's a LOT different. Jazz is very sophisticated, harmonically--chords tend to be complex, and there are usually a lot of them in a typical jazz piece. Phish's harmony tends to be much simpler, more in the vein of rock, blues, etc., and more static harmony and mode-based as opposed to improvising over a long series of chord changes.

However, jazz did take a turn for the simpler (largely thanks to Miles Davis) starting in the late '50s, and even more so in the 60's and 70's. The crazy-complicated chords of the bebop era got scrapped, and improvisation became more modal, and more groove-based. Here, I do think you could draw some parallels in Phish's improv style, and I would imagine the guys in Phish would cite much of this music as being influential. But Phish's influences come from a lot of places, and this is only one of them. 

Are there specific songs or performances that exemplify Phish’s improvisational style(s)?
I would look to some of their best-known jams as being exemplary. Like the 2013 "Tahoe Tweezer" or the "Tweezer > Prince Caspian" from the Magnaball Festival this summer. I guess some people call these "Type II" jams, though I'm frankly not 100% certain what that means, exactly. The jams start with the key and groove of the song, but before long they stretch out into different feels, and different keys and modalities. And they may or may not return to the original feel. 

I have noticed some interesting chord progressions in some of their newer songs--Waiting All Night has a really interesting chord progression for Trey's solo, as does Wingsuit and Halfway To The Moon. So it seems to me like they are trying to explore some new improvisational territory. 

Compositionally, are there any traits or themes you’ve noticed in Phish’s written music that you’d like to point out?
Off the top of my head, one thing that I see frequently in Trey's older compositions is that a melody will be cycled through several different keys. It happens in David Bowie, Golgi Apparatus, Squirming Coil, Foam, etc.--the same melody played in several different keys. Sometimes there will be slight variations, making things less predictable. 

Another "trick" that you see is that phrases will sometimes be odd lengths. Normally stuff happens in twos, fours, etc., but in Mango Song, for example, each phrase is 5 measures long. And in Runaway Jim, the phrases of the guitar solo are 3 measures long. Again, I think this makes things a little less predictable. 

As a musician, what is the biggest thing you’ve learned by listening to Phish?
They taught me that it's worthwhile to get as good as you can at your instrument, and to never stop learning and improving. 

How might one go about incorporating some of Phish’s writing style and improvisational techniques into his or her own music?
That's actually a tough one--I was in a band in my 20's that was heavily influenced by Phish in our songwriting, and when I listen to it now, it mostly just sounds like second-rate Phish to me. So you do have to be careful, if you're influenced by Phish, not to make that influence too direct. Instead I would recommend reading up on the guys in the band and looking at the music that influenced them. Absorb some of that stuff, as well as the other music that you love. Study it all (at least a little bit), learn to play as much of it as you can. And as you do that, hopefully your own voice develops out of it.

Remembrances of 50 Phish Shows - Numbers 41 through 50!

Here are my memories of the 41st through 50th Phish shows I've been to.  For numbers 31 through 40 click here.

2010-06-15 (nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA)
The nTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth is a fan-friendly venue in an urban setting.  The general admission seating and laissez-fare attitude of the surrounding lot and neighborhood seems to work out.  This was the first of many stupendous shows here.  I especially remember the early 1st set Slave and the Tom Waits song Cold Water.  Most people didn't recognize it but I love the Mule Variations album so this song was a treat to hear, even though it didn't really fit in.

2010-07-01 (Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek , Raleigh, NC)
The friends that we met up with at this show brought with them a saying that some weird guy had said the night before...not at a Phish show.  It went "Mike Jordan, he retired".  Which morphed into "Mike Gordon, he retired", which eventually morphed into "Mike Gordon, he retarded".  It was fun to say that as we were walking into the show.  A Llama opener is kind of like getting thrown a curveball.  Roses Are Free and Time Loves A Hero were good to hear.  Divided Sky always pulls me in.  Our group of friends cozied up in the same row during the 2nd set so as not to take up any more space than we were supposed to.  It was all very cordial.

2010-07-02 (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Charlotte, Charlotte, NC)
The saying "Mike Gordon, he retired" was still going strong this next day.  Buried Alive was an awesome opener.  Vultures kicked ass.  What was going down was the best band in the world was playing live music and I was there to hear it!  During the 2nd set we got down pretty close on the Mike side.  Man, I love that song The Lizards.  YEM went over well as a 2nd set ender.

2011-06-18 (Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek , Raleigh, NC)
Starting with two instrumentals is unusual.  This show's catchphrase became "Go back to Mexico!".  I think we told that to Curtis Loew.  It doesn't really make any sense.  I'm a sucker for 2nd set Prince Capsians and My Friend My Friends.

2011-06-19 (nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA)
Hey cool.  We're back at Portsmouth.  Maybe I was becoming one of those jaded vets, but the cynic in me thought the Phish songcatchers overreacted to the Harpua opener.  I was like, "uhmmm...I saw that one in '94".  Also, why they gots to play Alaska?  That 2nd set had the fire though.

2012-08-26 (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Charlotte, Charlotte, NC)
I haven't mentioned this yet but it's kinda my thing to go pee during Moma Dance whenever that song comes up, whether I really have to go or not, but I usually do have to so it all works out.  Especially if it's in the first set.  What you see going on while walking to the toilets while that song is playing is just as entertaining as the music itself.  So, I remember doing that this show, but it's all kind of groggy.  No details whatsoever of the drive there, hanging out, post-show or anything.  I do remember the Alumni Blues > Letter to Jimmy Page, and I remember the Big Black Furry Creature From Mars, and Trey poking fun at Fishman's songs Tube and My Sweet One like he did at the Asheville show a few years earlier.  I think this is the only show from 2012 that I went to.  We skipped the Portsmouth shows.

2013-10-19 (Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA)
The Bathtub Gin opener kicked serious ass.  Moma Dance was next - time to pee.  It was nice to hear something new like Steam being played.  The Wingsuit/Fuego songs wouldn't debut until Halloween and we didn't know of their existence yet, so new songs were few and far between at this point and welcomed when they did appear.  Steam is not a bad song.  It kind of reminds of the Stephen King Gunslinger books.  I must apologize to my friends Mike and Vickey for puking all over the hotel room later on in the middle of the night.  (Note to self: don't drink liquor during the show).  They have kids and they're used to my foolishness so they know how to handle that situation.

2013-10-20 (Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA)
A greasy, waterside breakfast helped remedy my hangover.  Fresh friends who hadn't been the night before joined our tired old selves for night two of this stand.  Halloween was looming and rumors of what album they would play were swirling around.  Was that a Traffic style jam during Tweezer?  I think I heard some Allman Brothers in there.  That Tweezer got out there.  It rivals the more famous one from Tahoe this same tour.  What was the deal with that Takin' Care of Business?  Ginseng Sullivan and Paul And Silas in the same show?  I was liking it.  This was the Hampton we were used to.

2014-07-29 (nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA)
Summer 2014.  Laura and I spent a lovely morning in Norfolk enjoying the downtown area, harbor and museums before taking the ferry over to Portsmouth and meeting up with our friends in the infamous unofficial Portsmouth parking lot that we always manage to hang out in pre-show.  Everyone there was cool.  Getting to know some intelligent, funny and obsessed younger fans was a bonus.  Mike Gordon rode through on a golf cart and I shouted a request for Yarmouth Road which he obliged the next night.  I loved, loved, loved this show.  While it was happening I enjoyed it in the moment as much as any show ever.  That's all you can ask for, right...being in the moment?  Every aspect of this show reinforced my love for this band.  We have family in VA Beach so we cabbed it back.  Our cab driver was an old black lady named Rosetta who said she liked "writing poems and playing with water in her backyard".  I quote.  I think she was an angel sent from on high.  Oh wait a second...I'm an atheist.  Nevermind.  Rosetta gave me her card and said to call her the next day when we needed her services again.  Then she took my 40 bucks.

2014-07-30 (nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA)
Back at it up and early this day.  Another pleasant morning in Norfolk and then we met up with our friends at the Bier Garden in Portsmouth just after lunch time and laughed about how crazy the night before was.  Back to that same parking lot for some more socializing and strange coincidences.  Then, sure enough, it was showtime and this one rocked as well.  I remember being in a really good mood, perpetually.  Nothing too serious or pensive...just goodness.  After the show we wanted to keep hanging out with our friends so we piled in a car and went back with them to their hotel, only to discover that their hotel was only 4 blocks away from where we had been earlier in Norfolk each day before taking the ferry to Portsmouth.  That would have been good to know in advance.  When it was time to leave I called up the cab driver Rosetta from the night before, but instead of her again she dispatched some crazy white dude to give us a ride.  He was all over the road; I think just to see what our reaction would be.  It wasn't a pleasant escort back to the beach like the night before.  Oh well...he got us there, and didn't charge as much!

That's it.  That's all 50 shows.  (Today becomes number 51 by the way).  Sorry I couldn't be more descriptive of the actual music but I'm lucky that I can even remember the dates and locations.  I really should get back to playing banjo now.