Trey Anastasio
Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III is an American guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, which he co-founded in 1983. He is credited by name as composer of 152 Phish original songs, 141 of them as a solo credit, in addition to 41 credits attributed to the band as a whole.
In addition to his work with Phish, Anastasio has released 11 solo albums. He has also been part of several side projects; these include the Trey Anastasio Band, Oysterhead, Ghosts of the Forest, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Surrender to the Air.
He has performed his own compositions with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and many others. With Amanda Green, he wrote the score for the Broadway musical Hands on a Hardbody. In 2013, they were nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score at the 67th Tony Awards, and were awarded the 2013 Dramatists Guild Frederick Loewe Award for best theatrical score composition.
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Anastasio at number 53 on their list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time.
Early life and career
Anastasio was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, when he was three. His father, Ernest Anastasio Jr., was an executive vice president at the Educational Testing Service. His mother, Dina, was a children's book author and editor of Sesame Street Magazine. He grew up with his sister Kristy. In 1967, Trey was the inspiration for the lead character in the children's book What Does The Cloud Do?, which was written and illustrated by his grandparents, Jean and Cle Kinney.Anastasio attended Princeton public schools through the fourth grade, then transferred to Princeton Day School. He graduated from the Taft School along with Steven Pollak, better known as the Dude of Life, who later helped pen such Phish compositions as "Suzy Greenberg", "Fluffhead", "Run Like An Antelope", "Slave to the Traffic Light", and "Dinner and a Movie". At Taft, he formed his first two bands, Red Tide and Space Antelope.
He enrolled at the University of Vermont as a philosophy major, where he met original Phish bandmates Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, and Jeff Holdsworth. On December 2, 1983, the group played their first gig at a dance in the Harris-Millis Cafeteria at UVM. The setlist consisted of cover songs, including "Long Cool Woman" and "Proud Mary" which was performed twice. The band was very primitive at this time and used hockey sticks as mic stands. After performing one set, Michael Jackson's Thriller album was put on by a party-goer to drown out the band. The band would not return to play but were still paid for the performance. At UVM, he hosted an early morning radio program, Ambient Alarm Clock.
While living at home for a semester he attended Mercer County Community College. While there, he reconnected with his childhood friend Tom Marshall, and the pair began a songwriting collaboration and recorded material that would appear on the Bivouac Jaun demo tape. In addition to Marshall, Anastasio also reconnected with another childhood friend, Marc Daubert, who also became a collaborator. After seeing a Phish show, pianist Page McConnell joined Phish in the autumn of 1985. Anastasio, along with Jon Fishman, transferred to Goddard College.
During this time he began a musical association and close friendship with composer Ernie Stires, who taught him composition, theory, and arranging. While at Goddard, he composed the song cycle The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday as his senior project. These songs became mainstays of the Phish catalog. He graduated from Goddard in 1988.
Career
Phish
Anastasio is a founding member of the rock band Phish, serving as lead guitarist and vocalist since their inception. Phish is noted for their musical improvisation, extended jams, exploration of a broad range of genres, and original live performances. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983, the band includes bassist and vocalist Mike Gordon; percussionist, vacuum player, and vocalist Jon Fishman; and keyboardist and vocalist Page McConnell. Phish performed together for over 20 years, releasing 10 studio albums, disbanding in August 2004. They reunited in March 2009 for a corresponding tour, released a reunion album Joy and have since resumed performing regularly.Phish-related projects
- Bivouac Jaun in 1984 was a project featuring Anastasio, Phish lyricist Tom Marshall, and one-time Phish collaborator Marc Daubert. The group recorded a four-track project during Phish's short hiatus in the summer of 1984. Much of the project would be retooled and later featured on the first Phish album, The White Tape, in 1986.
- Bad Hat, formed in the spring of 1994, included Jon Fishman on drums, Jamie Masefield on mandolin, and Stacey Starkweather on bass. They casually played improvisational jazz around Burlington, Vermont, for a few months, with the first of several shows at Last Elm Cafe. They billed themselves as "the quietest band around".
- Surrender to the Air was a free jazz ensemble led by Anastasio and featuring Fishman, as well as Marshall Allen, Damon Choice, and Michael Ray of The Sun Ra Arkestra, John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Oteil Burbridge and several other musicians. The group performed two concerts at the New York City Arts Academy in April 1996 and disbanded shortly thereafter. The concerts, like the group's sole album, consisted of completely improvised music.
- 8 Foot Fluorescent Tubes, played a show on April 17, 1998 at Higher Grounds featuring Anastasio, Tom Lawson, Heloise Willimas, Tony Markellis, and Russel Lawton.
- Phil Lesh and Friends in 1999 featured Anastasio and Page McConnell, Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh and Donna Jean Godchaux, guitarist Steve Kimock, and drummer John Molo performing three nights of Dead and Phish material at The Warfield in San Francisco. It was the first time members of both Phish and the Dead shared the stage together. On February 12, 2006, Anastasio joined Lesh again for a full show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. He did so again on October 20, 2007, in Glens Falls, New York.
- SerialPod is a trio featuring Anastasio, Gordon and Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann. On December 17, 2005, the band performed at the 14th annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam in Asheville, North Carolina. The group performed a series of Grateful Dead and Phish classics, plus covers from Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and others. Ivan Neville joined the group on keyboards for much of the performance.
- A quartet consisting of the Benevento/Russo Duo, Gordon and Anastasio traded opening and closing spots with Phil Lesh and Friends during their co-headlining summer 2006 tour before touring on their own for a number of shows in July 2006.
- Ghosts of the Forest is a side project for Anastasio and Fishman, which also features vocalist Jennifer Hartswick, guitarist Celisse Henderson, bassist Tony Markellis, and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski. The group was formed in 2018 and performed a short tour in the spring of 2019. The Ghosts of the Forest album, which is credited to Anastasio as a solo artist, was released on April 12, 2019.
Trey Anastasio Band
On August 10, 2008, Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB played a set at the All Points West Music & Arts Festival at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. They opened with "Sand" and played a few other classic Anastasio/Markellis/Lawton compositions including "Gotta Jibboo" and "Heavy Things".
On the twentieth anniversary of the original Eight Foot Fluorescent Tubes show, April 17, 2018, Anastasio, Markellis and Lawton embarked on a tour featuring performances of Anastasio songs previously performed by Phish, such as "No Men In No Man's Land", "Camel Walk" and "Party Time".
Solo work
Anastasio was featured on the album True Love by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe, and The Skatalites. Anastasio can be heard playing guitar on the song "Sweet and Dandy".In September 2004, he performed with the Vermont Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
In 2006, Anastasio toured with Mike Gordon and the Benevento/Russo Duo. The project, known unofficially as G.R.A.B. played a number of shows with Phil Lesh.
In July 2007, he released another instrumental album, The Horseshoe Curve, via his own Rubber Jungle Records.
On August 14, he made a surprise guest appearance in Saratoga Springs, New York during Dave Matthews Band's performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. He sat in and jammed with the band during "Lie in Our Graves".
In June 2008, Anastasio guested on the Robert Randolph Band's set, who opened for an Eric Clapton concert.
On August 7, 2008, he played his first post-rehab electric show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York debuting: "Alaska", "Peggy", "Gone", "Backwards Down the Number Line", "Valentine", "Greyhound Rising", and "Light". Four of these seven songs have found their way into the Phish live repertoire and on official studio releases.
On September 27, 2008, Anastasio debuted Time Turns Elastic, an orchestral epic co-created with composer Don Hart, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Tennessee. The east coast premier of "Time Turns Elastic" was performed on May 21, 2009, with conductor Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. The performance also included the debut of the orchestral version of Anastasio's "First Tube".
On September 12, 2009, Anastasio performed "An Evening with Trey Anastasio and the New York Philharmonic" at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan with the New York Philharmonic, playing various compositions including "Divided Sky","You Enjoy Myself", and "Time Turns Elastic". This concert was a benefit for his sister, through the Kristy Anastasio Manning Memorial Fund and the New York Philharmonic.
While not touring with Phish, Anastasio performs tours with both TAB and acoustic solo concerts.
On July 30, 2020, Anastasio released Lonely Trip, a collection of original songs written during the COVID-19 pandemic and recorded at his home studio in New York. The LP was mixed by Bryce Goggin and features lyrical collaborations with Tom Marshall and Scott Herman. Anastasio says the project reminded him of his pre-Phish 4-track home recordings.
In October 2020, Anastasio performed an eight-week residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The eight concerts were performed without an audience and streamed live every Friday from October 9 to November 27 for free on Twitch. Anastasio raised $1.2 million of donations from the Beacon Jams for his Divided Sky Foundation, which used those funds were used to purchase a property in Ludlow, Vermont to act as a drug rehabilitation center.
On March 11, 2022, Anastasio released his first all-acoustic solo album, Mercy. The nine-song album was produced by Bryce Goggin and Robert Stevenson, and mixed by Mike Fahey. It was intended as a follow-up to Lonely Trip, with Anastasio saying the songs were inspired by further time spent in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic: " is like a bookend. It's two years since we went into hiding. This is still going on, and it's an even lonelier trip." Upon the album's release, Anastasio described songwriting as one of his greatest joys.
Anastasio recorded train announcements for the MTA New York City Transit's Subway system in December 2025 to promote Phish's New Years Eve concerts at Madison Square Garden.