Trey Anastasio   

Less than a month after Trey's triumphant return at ROTHBURY and in the midst of all sorts of Phish reunion speculation, Big Red returned to the stage again today for a solo acoustic set at the legendary Newport Folk Festival.

Trey's Newport setlist was filled with plenty of Phish tunes and included a bunch of songs that weren't played at ROTHBURY — namely Bouncing Around the Room, Heavy Things, Shine, Bathtub Gin, and Wilson.

Trey also debuted two songs at Newport: Peggy and If I Could Be a Sailor. The latter was written 10 years ago with, and dedicated to, Tom Marshall. It was described on Glide Magazine's Twitter stream as sounding like Dan Hill's 1977 ballad Sometimes When We Touch.

Scroll down for audio and videos from the show. And be sure to to check back once in a while as I'll be adding more audio sources and videos from Trey's Newport set as soon as I find them.

Phish’s Trey Anastasio, one of the day’s least folky performers in theory, was the only act to play unplugged and solo. He sounded as gentle as a mountain dulcimer.
— Daniel Gewertz, Boston Herald

Update (August 7th, 2008): See our post about Trey & Classic TAB at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Update (August 10, 2008): See our post about Trey & Classic TAB at the All Points West Festival in New Jersey.

Update (September 11, 2008): Catch Trey's “Northern Exposure” Tour 2008 with Classic TAB band mates Russ Lawton, Tony Markellis and Ray Paczkowski) for eight shows. Search for Classic TAB tickets right here on Jamtopia.

Photo by Katy Batdorff/
The Grand Rapids Press
(more pics)

Despite a few sit-ins over the last year and a half (see Trey with Phil & Friends and Trey with Robert Randolph for example) we haven't seen much from Trey Anastasio since his auspicious arrest in December of 2006.

But all of that was behind him on Sunday as Trey returned to the stage for a solo acoustic set on July 6th at the inaugural ROTHBURY Festival in Rothbury, Michigan.

Trey's ROTHBURY setlist included about a dozen Phish tunes, a Trey tune, and a GRAB tune. And as an added (though expected) bonus, Mike Gordon sat in for a few songs including two new ones — Backwards Down the Number Line and Alaska — though no official word on whether or not these are intended to be “Phish songs.” According to Trey he taught Mike both these of these songs to five minutes before the show.

You can download the entire Trey ROTHBURY set in lossless flac format on etree (Chris Davis and Col. George's Peluso cemc6/ck4 source | Nakguy's Milab VM-44 Link source) or you can download a lossy mp3 version of Trey's ROTHBURY set from mediafire. And stay tuned to this space for more concert videos from Trey's appearance at ROTHBURY.

UPDATE (July 6, 2008): After Trey's set, Mike had a set just a short distance away, and Trey returned the favor by joining Mike on stage (with a Stratocaster) for a jam and Meat. Then, just when you thought it couldn't get any better, there was a ¾ Phish reunion as Fishman joined Mike and Trey on stage for a cover of the Beatles song She Said, She Said!

Update (August 2nd, 2008): See our post about Trey's solo acoustic show at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.

Update (August 7th, 2008): See our post about Trey & Classic TAB at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Update (August 10, 2008): See our post about Trey & Classic TAB at the All Points West Festival in New Jersey.

Update (September 11, 2008): Trey's going on an eight show Fall Tour with Classic TAB band mates Russ Lawton, Tony Markellis and Ray Paczkowski. Search for Trey Anastasio tickets right here on Jamtopia.

The “Big Red Comeback Tour” has officially begun as Trey Anastasio joined Robert Randolph and The Family Band for a guest appearance on June 5th, 2008 at Jones Beach. The sit-in lasted four songs including A Little Sister, Deliver Me, Bo Diddley, and I Need More Love.

On some message boards I noticed a few attendees lamenting that Trey didn't play with Eric Clapton as well, but from the reviews I've read they still got their money's worth and then some!

And if you were one of the lucky ones in attendance, please post a comment with your review of the show. In the mean time, I'll keep searching YouTube for more (and better) concert videos from Trey's guest appearance with Robert Randolph at Jones Beach.