Archived entries for
Trey Anastasio Tells the Story of “Farmhouse”
For the past few months Tom Marshall has been releasing the original recordings of many notable Phish tracks on his Soundcloud account.
With each track is a blurb about it…when it was written, why it was written, where it was recorded, etc. It’s been an incredible treasure trove of information that phans have been waiting many years for.
Last Friday, another tune popped up on Tom’s account and it was “Farmhouse” …however Tom did not provide the blurb for this one…Trey did…
I’ll post it here for listening/reading purposes but I highly recommend going over to Tom’s Soundcloud page and exploring it. Some great stuff there and hopefully more in the future:
Hi everyone,
I know Tom is writing these blurbs, but I wanted to write one. Tom and I have been writing and four-tracking together for over thirty years now, and I have so many incredible memories of our adventures: I could probably fill a book writing about them. One of my favorites is about the songs Farmhouse and Bug.
In the nineties Tom and I began renting houses in the Stowe area of Vermont and disappearing for long weekends to hang out together and write. To be perfectly honest, the hanging out part was even more important to me than the writing. With Phish’s exponential growth in the mid nineties came a whirlwind of confusion and frantic energy that I don’t think any of us in the band were completely prepared for. Our quiet little scene in Burlington and on the road exploded. Suddenly the idea of hiding out alone for three days and nights on a farm with one of my oldest friends became a precious idea that I anxiously looked forward to for weeks in advance of our trips. At that time I had neither a cell phone nor a computer, so when we disappeared, we really disappeared.
Farmhouse was written and recorded in the first five minutes of one of those trips. I picked up Tom at the airport in this cool old 1970′s RV that I had bought that had an eight track player in it, and we drove to the farmhouse we had rented. It was kind of late since Tom had left from work, and we pulled over for a second and jumped out next to a field. When we looked up at the sky, it was exploding with these deep greenish colors that we soon realized were the northern lights. We stood there and just stared in awe. We continued on, and found our house down a long secluded dirt road. We walked in and I ran over to the gear and picked up a guitar while Tom plugged in a Mic. there were some sliding glass doors that we opened, and though it wasn’t as intense as it had been when we pulled over, we could still see traces of the northern lights thru the door. Mostly, we were both buzzing from that magical feeling of being completely alone, and knowing that we didn’t have to talk to or see a single soul for three whole days and nights, which to both of us was heaven.
I started strumming and Tom started singing, and since he didn’t have any lyrics, he reached over and grabbed the note that the owner of the house had left for us and began reading it, verbatim.
“Welcome! This is a farmhouse, we have cluster flies, alas, and this time of year is bad…”
And on it went from there. I love the chorus, “I never ever saw the northern lights, I never really heard of cluster flies!”
After that I quickly constructed all the instruments. I will always to this day believe that this version of Farmhouse is the perennial version, mostly because of the genuine joy in Tom’s inspired and spontaneous vocal. Also, for the record, of course we immediately recognized that it sounded similar to “No woman no cry”, and sort of threw that “be all right” thing in specifically for that reason, amidst the frenzy of laughing and singing. It felt like the perfect sentiment for our escape. “in the farmhouse things will be alright”.
I don’t think Tom and I have ever written a single song for any reason other than to entertain ourselves. We don’t really think about the fact that anyone will ever hear this stuff. It’s in the moment. If we took the time to think about it more, we would probably edit ourselves into submission, and take a lot of the joy and spontaneity out of the songs. I know for a fact that if Tom had his way, “Yanked on my tunic and dangled my stash” would not be in the public consciousness. Personally, I happen to love that line. -Trey.
[TOM'S note: I added the "alas", that wasn't on the note. No one has written "alas" -- and meant it -- since the 19th century. Some of the songs I'm posting, this one included, were released in 2000 on a CD of 25 demos that Trey and I recorded in 1997 called "Trampled by Lambs and Pecked by the Dove" which is available on LivePhish.com. Also...Trey didn't write much about Bug, so I'll release that if/when he writes another "blurb"...or I'll write one...soon!]
Mountain Jam 2012 Lineup Announced
Ahhh my favorite festival in the Northeast is back and with an early lineup vengeance!
Usually it’s the same recurring cast of characters at this festy…albeit a great mix of genres…but you’re pining for additions to be announced in the future.
THIS TIME…it’s great right out the gates:
Mountain Jam 2012 Lineup
Steve Winwood
Gov’t Mule
Michael Franti & Spearhead
the Roots
Ben Folds Five
the Word (Ft. Robert Randolph, John Medeski, & North Mississippi Allstars)
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
the Travelin’ Mccoury’s (Ft. Keller Williams)
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
Dawes
Gary Clark Jr.
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Givers
Charles Bradley
Mariachi El Bronx
Bustle in Your Hedgerow (Ft. Joe Russo, Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz & Scott Metzger)
Eoto
Anders Osborne
Sara Watkins
Zach Deputy
Break Science
Planet of the Abts
the Lee Boys
Marco Benevento
Wolf!
Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds
the Sheepdogs
the Brew
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real Ground up
Pedrito Martinez
Zee Avi
Aunt Martha
Kopecky Family Band
Lauren Shera
Uncle Lucius
Connor Kennedy Band
Turquoise Jeep Records on Tour
The artists of Turquoise Jeep Records are planning to tour a few cities around the country. Thankfully for me…NYC is included in the list.
For those not in the know…please watch the brilliance below:
(Thanks to Eric Feezy for the tip!)
Anthem Blue Cross Guitar Grandpa Commercial
I’ve said it before…and I’ve ALWAYS been right.
One of the funniest videos on Youtube that I don’t think is attempting to be funny.
“Sometimes…you just have to pull the plug.”
…and is there anything better than the face he makes after, “Give it to me…” and begins shredding?
Doug’s Heart Will Go On
Made this for an old co-worker…
…and who can forget the great “Santa Claws” experiment where you controlled an actual claw machine online! I actually won too!
New Work Computer
Today In the next couple of days I should be getting the new computer I asked for at work. There’s really nothing WRONG with the current one per se…ok yes there is…it’s an old Pentium 4 with minimal memory. Initially I requested it so I could run my favorite linux distro, Ubuntu
I would like to take a moment to wish Ubuntu a healthy future. It was fun while it lasted, what 3 years or so. Alas, me being a web developer and your lack of compatibility with Photoshop just don’t mix and I’m moving on to greener Mac Mini pastures.
So now I’m in the process of backing up all the files from this box so I don’t lose anything important. This means there will be a lot of posting on here in the coming days as I come across long forgotten funny pictures or videos.
You’ve been warned!
Anyways…I’ll treat this post like any other. Today I’m addicted to the song “Cousin Corona” by Yuck. You should be too:
Hello From 2012!
It’s taken me a while to get back into the swing of things here! (With a domain like ‘worldISending’ you’d think 2012 would be an important one. #mayans #rapture)
Anyway I’m back and off to an amazing start. Good friends, good times aplenty already and I met/shook hands with Phish bassist Mike Gordon last Friday. Gordo and a few other musicians did a live re-imagining of, “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks” which is a tribute Brian Eno did about the NASA moon landings. They played the original movie on a screen in the background and they all just jammed some slow spacey/drone sounds. Not what you would expect at all and that’s what he said when Jen and I spoke to him. “Well that was different huh?” then went on to say that him and Fishman used to listen to the original soundtrack a lot back in the day and stuff.
…still speechless. What can top that in 2012?
TIME TO FIND OUT
A Very Dubstep Christmas
I could sit here for a while coming up with dubstep related xmas puns but I won’t.
Thomas Edison must be rolling
…in his grave…IN HIS GRAVE!
Saks Fifth Avenue Projected Light Show Christmas 2011
Saks Fifth Avenue is mostly known for their awesome window displays during Christmas. They also adorn the front entrance with elaborate decorations. This year, was an incredible light projection with animated gears, snowflakes, bubbles, and other things. It tied into the fantasy theme for this years window display, “Land of the Bubblemakers”