Search - Trey Anastasio, Trey / Marshall, Tom Anastasio, Trey / Pollack, S. Anastasio :: The String Quartet Tribute to Phish

A classical groove for the Phish Phan!

Saul Michael Korin | Culver City, CA | 09/20/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For the dinner party when you want to get your Phishy Groove on, but don't want your guests to know you are a Phan, this cd is perfect. String quartet covers of Phish tunes are perfect for sunday morning lazing in bed with your mountain girl, for long drives with your parents, basically any situation where you want to be the undercover wolfman's brother. If you've listened to a lot of Phish, it will be hard not to sing along with YEM, Julius or Down with Disease. Whie farmhouse and billy breathes could have been replaced with more poignent selections (Chalkdust? Twist?), Rift has wonderful bluegrass flavor, and run like an antellope closes the set classicly. If you enjoy Bela Fleck's Perpetual Motion or any of the Pickin' on series you will enjoy this CD."

Holy Macaroni!!

Paul Bieler | Petoskey, MI United States | 08/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After trying a few lackluster flavors of the "Pickin' On" series of bluegrass cover discs, I stumbled across this here on Amazon. This seemed to have some possibilities. String quartet covers band whose songs contained elaborate composed sections, often times incorporating classical style elements like counterpoint and fugues. OK, I'm hooked, and out comes the wallet.



Wow! This disc was the most pleasant surprise experience I've ever had. Two years later and I find myself consistently listening to this (and have found many entertaining times to work it into people's lives around me.) And no, my opinion is not due to the fact that I am a rabid phishhead. I got my rabies shot long before I had the honor of being their phan, thank you very much. This album has some fine strong points.



True, Julius, Cavern, and Farmhouse don't translate very well here (at least they didn't choose I Saw It Again), but that's it. The rest range from interesting to inspired to channeling the band.



Divided Sky, while somewhat of a disappointment since it stops before the dynamic jam, is wonderfully done, and the fugue in the second section is far more clean than the band ever executed.



You Enjoy Myself is the masterpiece you'd expect, in all its composed grandeur. The quartet really translates the ambient transitional noise in Phish's music well and they effectively build the complex emotional climaxes that is YEM.



Down With Disease is something that shouldn't work in a string quartet, with all of its stops and choppiness, but the chorus is very smooth and the outro finds the quartet morphing their arrangement with each pass of the chord progression. An inventive arrangement, and quite effective.



Rift is a bit of a no-brainer, what with the fiddle being so prominent in bluegrass and this song's similarity in tempo and style. I've always found this song to be a bit of a chore to listen to, since it is so repetitive. Still, they are very effective in giving two different voices to the call and response in the verses.



Now we come to the gold....



Squirming Coil. This is why I bought the album. I could hear the counterpoint done by a quartet in my head and thought it would be great, and boy is it ever. All the sections shine, whether exact replicas, or somewhat revised. There's even the "heavy metal scream". But the lovely, lovely outro steals the show, as does Page's soliloquy in concert. The cresendo chorus devolves over a minute's time as the players fade the song to black. My personal highlight.



Julius and Cavern didn't really work because they are played very close to the original arrangement and that doesn't translate. Billy Breathes, however, is almost note for note, and from the first few uber-high tones, is like silk across your ears. Beautiful blends of the quartets different pairings give this beautiful melody the perfect venue to shine. A lovely ballad.



And they end the disc with Antelope. I was very skeptical when I saw this on the track list, but they fully understand what they are capable of. With the addition of a distorted tone this rollicking jamfest is pure Phish tradition, with the players falling over each other and obscuring the beat only to fall snap back into form.



I cannot say enough about this disc. Well concieved, played, and produced. Money truely well spent. Thank you musicians. Thank you Amazon.



...and thank you Phish."

Fun to be enjoyed with a grain of salt

schmoogie | Tampa, Florida | 12/02/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

""The String Quartet Tribute to Phish" is an enjoyable listen. Phish songs are arranged and performed by a string quartet that includes violin, viola, cello and bass. The song choice is good, although the group seemed to shy away from Phish's more challenging material. An exception to this is the inclusion of 'You Enjoy Myself.' Then again, the quartet only plays an abbreviated version of the phan favorite. 'The Squirming Coil' and 'Divided Sky' are other demanding tunes that the quartet took on. The group brings orchestral warmth to 'Farmhouse' and 'Billy Breathes.' As if ending the first set, 'Run Like An Antelope' closes the disc. The retellings tend to be note for note. Indeed, the listener won't have any epiphanies listening to "The String Quartet Tribute to Phish." This is part of the new cottage industry of doing string quartet albums based on popular music. This Phish tribute is one of hundreds of similar projects by Vitamin Records. I can only imagine the quartet's studio schedule: Enya on Monday, Fleetwood Mac on Tuesday, 2Pac on Wednesday, Slayer on Thursday and Phish on Friday. As a testament to the hasty corporate effort, the back of the CD case features a write-up that's riddled with both grammatical and spelling errors. Issues aside, "The String Quartet Tribute to Phish" is good fun."