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91-464: Created by Andy Ridenour, Larry Groce and Francis Fisher, Mountain Stage originally aired in 1983. All three founders continued in their original roles until 2011, when Executive Producer Ridenour retired after 28 years. Mountain Stage is now produced by Adam Harris, who began working for the show in 2005 as an unpaid intern. Each year between 24 and 26 two-hour episodes are produced. Most are recorded at

182-518: A Billboard top-ten hit and led to appearances on The Tonight Show , The Merv Griffin Show , American Bandstand , The Midnight Special , The Rich Little Show , Nashville Now , The Disney Channel , Dr. Demento , and A Prairie Home Companion . Between 1979 and 1990, Groce performed on nine Disney albums, one of which was certified gold and five certified platinum . His first Disney recording, Winnie-the-Pooh for President ,

273-523: A 1970s kung fu -inspired poster for the opening date in Las Vegas. The 21-date tour is considered one of the group's most popular and acclaimed tours, and several concerts were later officially released on live album sets such as Live Phish Volume 11 in 2002. Phish ended 1997 as one of the ten highest grossing concert acts in the United States that year. In April 1998, the band embarked on

364-645: A Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.phish, which launched in 1992. Aware of the band's growing popularity, Elektra Records signed them that year after they were recommended to the record label by A&R representative Sue Drew. In the summer of 1991, the band embarked on a 14-date tour of the eastern United States accompanied by a three-piece horn section dubbed the Giant Country Horns . In August of that year, Phish played an outdoor concert at their friend Amy Skelton's horse farm in Auburn, Maine that acted as

455-400: A certain manner based on a particular musical cue from the band. For instance, if Anastasio " teased " a motif from The Simpsons theme song, the audience would yell, " D'oh! " in imitation of Homer Simpson . In 1992, Phish introduced a collaboration between audience and band called the "Big Ball Jam" in which each band member would throw a large beach ball into the audience and play

546-477: A coffee-table style book, "20 Years of Mountain Stage", was published in honor of the radio show's 20th Anniversary. Between 2001 and 2003, Mountain Stage taped thirty-nine episodes of a nationally syndicated television series for public television. In 2007, an additional series of nine, one-hour specials, filmed in high-definition , were also recorded for public television. The TV series featured John Pizzarelli , John Mayall , Richard Thompson , Nanci Griffith ,

637-561: A collection of hymns called Peace and Joy and Power for The First Church of Christ, Scientist , of which he is a member, was recorded in 1969 while he was still a college student at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois . After graduating in 1970, he moved to New York and became a regular performer at a "Focus", an Upper West Side organic food restaurant and coffeehouse co-owned by future Hollywood producer and manager Larry Brezner . (Brezner's wife at that time, musician Melissa Manchester ,

728-629: A concert scheduled for Halloween night. In October 1994, Crimes of the Mind , the debut album by Anastasio's friend and collaborator Steve "The Dude of Life" Pollak , was released by Elektra Records; The album, which had been recorded in 1991, was billed to "The Dude of Life and Phish" and features all four members of Phish acting as Pollak's backing band. On December 30, 1994, the band made their first appearance on national network television when they performed " Chalk Dust Torture " on Late Night with David Letterman . The band would go on to appear on

819-507: A day thinking about nothing but Phish" and began discussing a reunion with the other members of the band. Phish received the Jammys Lifetime Achievement Award on May 7, 2008, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden . All four members attended the ceremony and gave a speech, and both McConnell and Anastasio performed, although not together. In response to a June 2008 rumor that Phish had reunited to record

910-516: A friend of Anastasio's, in the fall of 1984. Daubert ceased performing with the band in early 1985. Keyboardist Page McConnell met Phish in early 1985, when he arranged for them to play a spring concert at Goddard College , the small university he attended in Plainfield, Vermont . He began performing with the band as a guest shortly thereafter, and made his live debut during the third set of their May 3, 1985 concert at UVM's Redstone Campus. In

1001-465: A hot dog. The stunt was reprised at their 1999 New Year's Eve concert before the hot dog was donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . At the end of 1994, Phish appeared on Pollstar ' s list of the highest grossing concert tours in the United States for the first time, as the 32nd highest grossing act, with $ 10.3 million in ticket sales. Following the death of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in

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1092-550: A hundred West Virginia artists. Mountain Stage is heard on over 270 NPR stations nationwide, as of June 2024. The full-length show is available on demand as a podcast. Select guest artist segments, including songs not heard on the radio, are posted at the NPR Music website. Video performances of select shows can be found on the West Virginia channel at LiveSessions.NPR.org. Thirty albums compiling live performances from

1183-407: A new album, McConnell wrote a letter on the band's website updating fans on the current relations between the band's members. McConnell wrote that while the members remained friends, they were currently busy with other projects and the reunion rumors were premature. He added, "Later this year we hope to spend some time together and take a look at what possible futures we might enjoy." That September,

1274-669: A note each time his ball was hit. In so doing, the audience was helping to create an original composition. On occasion, performances of " You Enjoy Myself " and " Mike's Song " involved Gordon and Anastasio performing synchronized maneuvers and jumping on mini- trampolines while simultaneously playing their instruments. Fishman would also regularly step out from behind his drum kit during concerts to sing cover songs, which were often punctuated by him playing an Electrolux vacuum cleaner like an instrument. The band released their second album, Lawn Boy , in September 1990 on Absolute A Go Go,

1365-507: A performance that was simulcast throughout the Boston area by radio station WBCN . The concert was filled with several new "secret language" cues they had taught their audience in order to deliberately confuse radio listeners. Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released their fourth album, Rift , a concept album which featured a cover painted by David Welker that referenced almost all of

1456-461: A prototype for their later all-day festival events. In 1992, the band released their third studio album, A Picture of Nectar , their first release for the major label Elektra. Subsequently, the label also reissued the band's first two albums. Later in 1992, Phish participated in the first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival, which provided them with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. The lineup, among others, included Phish, Blues Traveler ,

1547-530: A radio program on WGDR with Pollock. Phish adopted a number of Nancy's songs into their own set, including "Halley's Comet", "I Didn't Know", and "Dear Mrs. Reagan", the latter song being written by Nancy and Pollock. In his book Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America , music journalist Jesse Jarnow observed that Wright and his music were highly influential to Phish's early style and experimental sound. Wright amicably ended his association with Phish in 1989, but Pollock has continued to collaborate with Phish over

1638-502: A regular guest host. Mattea first appeared on Mountain Stage in November 1985 and has appeared on the show more times than any other female artist, and she is second to Tim O'Brien for total number of appearances. On September 9, 2021, it was announced that Mattea will be the permanent host of Mountain Stage, succeeding Groce. The radio show begins with its theme, "Simple Song", written and performed by founding host Larry Groce . Under

1729-619: A room and jamming for hours on end. One such jam took place at Anastasio's apartment, with a second at Paul Languedoc's house in August 1989. They called these jam sessions "Oh Kee Pa Ceremonies", a reference to the film A Man Called Horse . In July 1988, the band performed their first concerts outside of the northeastern United States, when they embarked on a seven-date tour in Colorado. These shows are excerpted on their 2006 live compilation Colorado '88 . On January 26, 1989, Phish played

1820-597: A small independent label that had a distribution deal with the larger Rough Trade Records . The album had been recorded the previous year, after the band had won studio time at engineer Dan Archer's Archer Studios when they came in first place at an April 1989 battle of the bands competition in Burlington. Phish, along with Bob Dylan , the Grateful Dead , and the Beatles , was one of the first bands to have

1911-586: A studio album. Four days after the release of Round Room , the band appeared as a musical guest on the December 14 episode of Saturday Night Live , hosted by former Vice President of the United States Al Gore . During the episode, the band debuted the song "46 Days", appeared in a comedy sketch, and their song "You Enjoy Myself" was featured in a TV Funhouse cartoon segment. During their return concert on December 31, McConnell's brother

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2002-725: A ten-day festival of music, dance, theater and visual arts in West Virginia's capital city Charleston . Larry Groce resides in Charleston, West Virginia , having relocated there in 1972. He is married to Sandra Groce (née Armstrong), a classically trained violist . They have two daughters, Virginia (also a violist) and Bonnie. Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont , in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio , bassist Mike Gordon , drummer Jon Fishman , and keyboardist Page McConnell , all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being

2093-523: A unique instrumental identity. As his senior project for Goddard College, Anastasio penned The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday , a nine-song progressive rock concept album that would become Phish's second studio experiment. Recorded between 1987 and 1988, it was submitted in July of that year, accompanied by a written thesis. The song cycle that developed from the project – known as Gamehendge – grew to include an additional eight songs. The band performed

2184-483: A year, stemming from Anastasio's suspension from the university following a prank he had pulled with a friend. Anastasio returned to his hometown of Princeton, New Jersey following the prank, and reconnected with his childhood friend Tom Marshall ; The duo began a songwriting collaboration and recorded material that would appear on the Bivouac Jaun demo tape. Marshall and Anastasio have subsequently composed

2275-719: The Island Tour - a four night tour with two shows at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on Long Island and another two at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island . The four concerts are highly regarded by fans due to the band's exploration of a jazz-funk musical style they had been playing for the previous year, which Anastasio dubbed "cowfunk". The band performed

2366-783: The Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine , near the Canada–United States border . In October 1997, the band released their second live album Slip Stitch and Pass , which featured selections from their March 1997 concert at the Markthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany . Following the Great Went, the band embarked on a fall tour that was dubbed by fans as the "Phish Destroys America" tour after

2457-543: The Paradise Rock Club in Boston ; the owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so the band rented the club for the night. The show sold out due to the caravan of fans that had traveled to see the band. The concert was Phish's breakthrough on the northeastern regional music circuit, and the band began to book concerts at other large rock clubs, theaters, and small auditoriums throughout

2548-612: The Spin Doctors , and Widespread Panic . That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured Europe and the U.S. with Santana . Throughout the latter tour, Carlos Santana regularly invited some or all of the members of Phish to jam with his band during their headlining performances. The band ended 1992 with a New Year's Eve performance at the Matthews Arena in Boston, Massachusetts ,

2639-761: The 1990s. Phish has developed a large and dedicated following by word of mouth, the exchange of live recordings, and selling over 8 million albums and DVDs in the United States. Phish were signed to major label Elektra Records from 1991 to 2005, when the band formed their own independent label, JEMP Records , to release archival CD and DVD sets. Phish was formed at the University of Vermont (UVM) in 1983 by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth , bassist Mike Gordon , and drummer Jon Fishman . Anastasio and Fishman had met that October, after Anastasio overheard Fishman playing drums in his dormitory room, and asked if he and Holdsworth could jam with him. Gordon met

2730-426: The 400 Unit. In 2008, NPR signed an exclusive on-line distribution deal with Mountain Stage. Larry Groce Larry Groce (born April 22, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and radio host. From 1983 until 2021, Groce served as the host and artistic director of Mountain Stage , a two-hour live music radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed by NPR . He first entered

2821-553: The Culture Center Theater in Charleston, West Virginia; however, the show has traveled to New York City , Boston , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Ann Arbor, Michigan ; Ashland, Kentucky ; Athens, Georgia ; Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia ; Winnipeg Folk Festival (Canada), Lexington, Kentucky; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kerrville Folk Festival (Texas); Harrisonburg, Virginia ; and Fairbanks, Alaska . In 2003

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2912-613: The Ghost , Phish performed several songs from the album on the public television music show Sessions at West 54th in October 1998, and were interviewed for the program by its host David Byrne of Talking Heads . In the summer of 1998, the band held Lemonwheel, their second festival at Loring Air Force Base in Maine. The two-day event attracted 60,000 attendees. The band played another summer festival in 1999, called Camp Oswego and held at

3003-444: The Great Went festival and the recording of The Story of the Ghost . Phish were nominated in two categories at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001: Best Boxed Recording Package for Hampton Comes Alive and Best Instrumental Rock Performance for "First Tube" from Farmhouse . During Phish's hiatus, Elektra Records continued to issue archival releases of the band's concerts on compact disc. Between September 2001 and May 2003,

3094-521: The Heart .) Groce also co-wrote the title song with Webb Wilder , who also appeared in the film with country musicians Porter Wagoner and Johnny Paycheck . Groce co-wrote a musical theatre version. Groce owned The Morgantown School of Ballet from 1980 to 1985. He was part owner of West Virginia's only statewide arts and entertainment alternative tabloid, Graffiti , from 1990 until 2004. In 2005, he became executive director of FestivALL Charleston ,

3185-912: The Holmes Brothers , Odetta , Arlo Guthrie & the Guthrie Family Legacy, Martina McBride , Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Yonder Mountain String Band in 2014, John Hammond and Jorma Kaukonen . Mountain Stage began its 28th season in Glasgow, Scotland as part of the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival. Its 750th show was recorded in September, 2011, at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Episode 800

3276-621: The Mountain Stage series have also been released on Blue Plate Music , a division of Oh Boy Records , and are still available through Amazon.com . In 2024 the vinyl club, Heady Wax Fiends, pressed a limited release blue/green swirl colored vinyl of the compilation album: Live From Mountain Stage - Outliers & Outlaws featuring live performances from artists such as Wilco, Molly Tuttle, Tyler Childers, Margo Price, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, John Prine, Steve Earle, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washington, Sierra Ferrell, Jason Isbell and

3367-573: The Oswego County Airport in Volney, New York . Unlike other Phish festivals, Camp Oswego featured a prominent second stage of additional performers aside from Phish, including Del McCoury , The Slip and Ozomatli . In July 1999, the band released an album of improvisational instrumentals titled The Siket Disc . The band followed that release with Hampton Comes Alive , a six-disc box set released in November 1999, which contained

3458-461: The Phish website that the band would disband at the end of their 2004 summer tour. He wrote that he had met with the other members earlier that month to discuss the "Strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course, and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note." By the end of the meeting, he said, "We realized that after almost twenty-one years together, we were faced with

3549-449: The United States, and remains their best selling album to date. Phish ended 1995 with their first New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. The concert was released in its entirety on the live album Phish: New Year's Eve 1995 – Live at Madison Square Garden in 2005. In early 1996, Anastasio and Fishman formed a free jazz side-project called Surrender to the Air , inspired by

3640-686: The album was issued in October of that year. The album's first single, "Free", peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and was their most successful song on both charts. By 1997, Phish's concert improvisational ventures were developing into a new funk -inspired long form jamming style. Vermont-based ice cream conglomerate Ben & Jerry's launched "Phish Food" that year. The band officially licensed their name for use with

3731-579: The area, such as the Somerville Theatre , Worcester Memorial Auditorium and Wetlands Preserve . That spring, the band self-released their debut full-length studio album, Junta , and sold copies on cassette tape at their concerts. The album includes a studio recording of the epic " You Enjoy Myself ", which is considered to be the band's signature song . Later in 1989, the band hired Chris Kuroda as their lighting director. Kuroda subsequently became well known for his artistic light shows at

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3822-467: The band has reunited. Phish's music blends elements of a wide variety of genres including funk , reggae , progressive rock , psychedelic rock , folk , country , jazz , blues , bluegrass , electronic music , and pop . The band is part of a movement of improvisational rock groups, inspired by the format of the Grateful Dead 's live performances and colloquially known as " jam bands ", that gained considerable popularity as touring concert acts in

3913-471: The band held their first festival, The Clifford Ball , at the decommissioned Plattsburgh Air Force Base on the New York side of Lake Champlain . The festival attracted 70,000 attendees, making it both Phish's biggest concert crowd to that point and the largest single concert by attendance in the United States in 1996. Phish recorded their sixth album Billy Breathes in the winter and spring of 1996, and

4004-419: The band made no reference to the hiatus, and left the stage without saying a word following their encore performance of "You Enjoy Myself", as The Beatles ' " Let It Be " played over the venue's sound system. Bittersweet Motel , a documentary film about the band directed by Todd Phillips , was released in August 2000, shortly before the hiatus began. The documentary captures the band's 1997 and 1998 tours,

4095-486: The band planned to end their hiatus that December with a New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. They also recorded Round Room over the course of four days in October and released it on December 10. The band had initially planned to record the new album live at the Madison Square Garden concert, but instead felt that demos they had recorded of the material were strong enough to merit release as

4186-694: The band played three songs at the wedding of their former tour manager Brad Sands. Later in 2008, the band reconvened at The Barn , Anastasio's farmhouse studio in Burlington, Vermont , for jamming sessions and rehearsals. On October 1, 2008, the band announced on their website that they had officially reunited, and would play their first shows in five years in March 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia . The three reunion concerts were held on March 6, 7, and 8, 2009, with "Fluffhead" being

4277-460: The band released an experimental short-subject documentary called Tracking , also directed by Gordon, which depicted the recording sessions for the album. Foreshadowing their future tradition of festivals , Phish coupled camping with their 1994 summer tour finale at Sugarbush North in Warren, Vermont , that show eventually being released as Live Phish Volume 2 . On Halloween of that year,

4368-791: The entirety of their performances on November 20 and 21, 1998 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia . The set marked the first time that complete recordings of Phish concerts were officially released by Elektra Records. To celebrate the new millennium, Phish hosted a two-day outdoor festival at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Florida in December 1999. The festival's climactic New Year's Eve concert, referred to by fans as simply "The Show", started at 11:35 p.m. on December 31, 1999, and continued through to sunrise on January 1, 2000, approximately eight hours later. The band's performance of

4459-466: The festival were released on a DVD set, also called It , in October 2004. In November and December 2003, the band celebrated its 20th anniversary with a four-show mini-tour of shows in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The December 1 show at Pepsi Arena featured a guest appearance by former member Jeff Holdsworth, who sat in with the band on five songs, including his compositions "Possum" and "Camel Walk". On May 25, 2004, Anastasio announced on

4550-722: The full version of the Mountain Stage theme song, "Simple Song." In 2017, Groce was named West Virginian of the Year by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and in 2020, was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame . In 1990, he starred in Paradise Park , a low budget feature film made in West Virginia about life in a Mountain State trailer park . (It was later re-released as Heroes of

4641-569: The group in March 1986 following a religious conversion. Anastasio and Fishman relocated in mid-1986 to Goddard College after a recommendation from McConnell. Phish distributed at least six experimental self-titled cassettes during this era, including The White Tape . While based at Goddard College, Phish began to collaborate with fellow students Richard "Nancy" Wright and Jim Pollock. Pollock and Wright were musical collaborators who made experimental recordings on multi-track cassettes, and had been introduced to Phish through McConnell, who co-hosted

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4732-501: The group promised to don a fan-selected " musical costume " by playing an entire album from another band. After an extensive mail-based poll, Phish performed the Beatles ' White Album as the second of their three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center in upstate New York. The "musical costume" concept subsequently became a recurring part of Phish's fall tours, with the band playing a different album whenever they had

4823-472: The group's concerts. A profile on Phish appeared in the October 1989 issue of the Deadhead magazine Relix , which marked the first time the band had been covered in a major national music periodical. By late 1990, Phish's concerts were becoming more and more intricate, often making a consistent effort to involve the audience in the performance. In a special "secret language", the audience would react in

4914-400: The hiatus. In April 2002, Phish guest starred on the episode " Weekend at Burnsie's " of the animated series The Simpsons . The episode marked the band's first appearance together, albeit as animated characters, since the hiatus began. Phish provided their own voices for the episode and performed a snippet of "Run Like an Antelope". In August 2002, Phish's manager John Paluska announced

5005-436: The horn section of R&B group Tower of Power . To promote the album, Gordon directed the band's only official music video, for its first single " Down with Disease ". "Down with Disease" became a minor hit on rock radio in the United States, and was the band's first song to appear on a Billboard music chart when it peaked at #33 on the magazine's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart that summer. To further promote Hoist ,

5096-641: The influence of Groce's tenure as artistic director , the program showcases diverse music, from the traditional to the brand new, including roots music to indie rock and jazz . Usually, five musical guests will appear on any given show. Among the luminaries who appeared on Mountain Stage before they were famous or whose first national-exposure in the US on Mountain Stage are Sarah McLachlan , Norah Jones , Crash Test Dummies , Barenaked Ladies , Ben Harper , Paula Cole , Nickel Creek , Cassandra Wilson , Counting Crows , and Phish . In April 1991, R.E.M. appeared on

5187-563: The label released 20 entries in the Live Phish Series . These multi-disc sets featured complete soundboard recordings of concerts that were particularly popular with the band and their fanbase, similar to the Grateful Dead 's Dick's Picks archival series. In November 2002, the label released the band's first concert DVD, Phish: Live in Vegas , which featured the entirety of the September 2000 concert at which Anastasio announced

5278-439: The late 1980s and experienced a rise in popularity in the mid 1990s. In October 2000, the band began a two-year hiatus that ended in December 2002, but they disbanded again in August 2004. Phish reunited officially in October 2008 for subsequent reunion shows in March 2009 and since then have resumed performing regularly. All four members pursued solo careers or performed with side-projects and these projects have continued even after

5369-488: The lead vocalist. The band is known for their musical improvisation and jams during their concert performances and for their devoted fan following. The band was formed by Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth , who were joined by McConnell in 1985. Holdsworth departed the band in 1986, and the lineup has remained stable since. Most of the band's songs are co-written by Anastasio and lyricist Tom Marshall . Phish began to perform outside of New England in

5460-474: The majority of Phish's original songs throughout their career. Anastasio returned to Burlington in late 1984, and resumed performing with Gordon, Holdsworth and Fishman. The quartet named themselves Phish in October 1984, shortly before they performed their first concert together following Anastasio's return to UVM. Anastasio designed the band's logo, which featured the group's name inside a stylized fish. The band's members have given several different origins for

5551-553: The music of Sun Ra , which also featured Marshall Allen , Michael Ray , John Medeski , Oteil Burbridge , Kofi Burbridge , and Marc Ribot , among other musicians. The group's only album, Surrender to the Air , was released in March. Following an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April 1996, Phish spent the summer of that year opening for Santana on their European tour. In August 1996,

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5642-431: The name Phish. In Parke Puterbaugh's 2009 book Phish: The Biography , the origin is given as a variation on phshhhh , an onomatopoeia of the sound of a brush on a snare drum. In the 2004 official documentary Specimens of Beauty , Anastasio said the band was also named after Fishman, whose nickname is "Fish." In a 1996 interview, Fishman denied that the band was named after him, and said the onomatopoeic inspiration behind

5733-460: The name was the sound of an airplane taking off. In late 1984, Phish began to play regularly at Nectar's bar and restaurant in downtown Burlington, and performed dozens of concerts across multiple residencies through March 1989. The band's 1992 album A Picture of Nectar was named in honor of the bar's owner, Nector Rorris, and its cover features his face superimposed onto an orange. The band would collaborate with percussionist Marc Daubert ,

5824-407: The national spotlight in 1976 when his novelty song " Junk Food Junkie " became a Top Ten hit. After that, Groce's voice became well known by children and parents alike as a result of his Platinum recordings of children's folk songs for Walt Disney Records Children's Favorites four-volume series: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 and Volume 4 (released from the late 70s-1990). Groce

5915-666: The official book Phish: The Biography , Anastasio expressed that "Coventry itself was a nightmare. It was emotional, but it was not like we were at our finest. I certainly wasn't". The festival weekend was beset by logistical issues, including heavy rain, muddy conditions in the festival area and a traffic jam on Interstate 91 . Following the break-up, the band's members remained in amicable communication with one another. The members also occasionally appeared on each other's solo albums and collaborated on side-projects. In 2005, Phish formed their own record label, JEMP Records , to release archival CD and DVD sets. The label's first release

6006-582: The opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude." The band's eleventh – and at the time final – studio album Undermind was released in June 2004. The band's summer 2004 began with two concerts at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, New York . The first concert was recorded for the live album and concert documentary Phish: Live in Brooklyn , while

6097-510: The product, the only time they have ever allowed a third-party company to do so, and were directly involved with the creation of the flavor. Proceeds from the flavor are donated to the band's non-profit charity The WaterWheel Foundation , which raises funds for the preservation of Vermont's Lake Champlain . On August 8, 1997, Phish webcast one of their concerts live over the internet for the first time. On August 16 and 17, 1997, Phish held their second festival, The Great Went, over two days at

6188-597: The program seven more times before David Letterman 's retirement as host in 2015. For their 1994 New Years Run, Phish played the Civic Centers in Philadelphia and Providence as well as sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden , which marked their debut performances at both venues. For the December 31 show at the Boston Garden, the band rode around the arena in a float shaped like

6279-584: The second featured a guest appearance by rapper Jay-Z , who performed two songs with the band. Later that summer, the band appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and performed a seven-song set from atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater for fans who had gathered on the street. The 2004 tour finished with the band's seventh summer festival on August 14 and 15, which were billed as their final performances. The Coventry festival

6370-751: The show, bringing national attention to the West Virginia-based program. Over the years, the show has featured such international luminaries as Tori Amos , Phish , Barenaked Ladies , Toad the Wet Sprocket , Cake , Galactic, Bruce Hornsby , the Derek Trucks Band, Chris Thile, Bell X-1, Judy Collins , They Might Be Giants , Norah Jones , Hubert Sumlin & Pinetop Perkins, Charles Brown, Martina McBride , Little Big Town, Amos Lee, Joan Baez , Patti Smith , Jakob Dylan and Regina Spektor , as well as Mattea, Tim O'Brien and over

6461-640: The song "Heavy Things" at the festival was broadcast live as part of ABC 's 2000 Today millennium coverage, giving the band their biggest television audience up to that point. 75,000 people attended the sold-out two-day festival. In 2017, Rolling Stone named the Big Cypress festival one of the "50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years". Following the Big Cypress festival, the band issued their ninth studio album Farmhouse in May 2000. "Heavy Things", which

6552-537: The songs on the record. The album was the band's first to appear on the Billboard 200 album chart, debuting at #51 in February 1993. In March 1994, the band released their fifth studio album Hoist . The album featured an array of guest performers, including country singer Alison Krauss , banjoist Béla Fleck , former Sly & The Family Stone member Rose Stone , actor and trombonist Jonathan Frakes , and

6643-574: The sound of the show. Mountain Stage was the first nationally broadcast radio or television program to feature live performances by Lyle Lovett , Mary Chapin Carpenter , Sheryl Crow , Barenaked Ladies , Alison Krauss , Ani DiFranco , Phish , Counting Crows , Ben Harper , Ryan Adams , Sarah McLachlan , Tori Amos , Ben Harper , Lucinda Williams , David Gray , the Avett Brothers , and Laura Nyro , whose performance at Mountain Stage

6734-447: The suite in concert on six occasions: in 1988, 1991, 1993, twice in 1994, and in 2023, without replicating the song list. The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday has never received an official release, but a bootleg tape has circulated for decades, and songs such as "Wilson" and "The Lizards" remain concert staples for the band. Beginning in the spring of 1988, members of the band began practicing in earnest, sometimes locking themselves in

6825-493: The summer of 1985, Phish went on a short hiatus while Anastasio and Fishman vacationed in Europe; during this time, McConnell offered to join the band permanently, and moved to Burlington to learn their repertoire from Gordon. McConnell officially joined Phish as a full-time band member in September 1985. Phish performed with a five-piece lineup for about six months after McConnell joined, a period which ended when Holdsworth quit

6916-428: The summer of 1995 and the appearance of "Down with Disease" on Beavis and Butt-Head , the band experienced a surge in the growth of their fan base and an increased awareness in popular culture. In their tradition of playing a well-known album by another band for Halloween, Phish contracted a full horn section for their performance of The Who 's Quadrophenia in 1995. Phish's first live album, A Live One ,

7007-515: The tour in the middle of studio sessions for their seventh album, and were inspired by the quality of their performances to further incorporate the cowfunk style into subsequent sessions. The resulting album, The Story of the Ghost , was released in October 1998. The album's first single " Birds of a Feather ", which had been premiered on the Island Tour, became a #14 hit on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart. To promote The Story of

7098-431: The trio shortly thereafter, having answered a want-ad for a bass guitarist that Anastasio had posted around the university. The new group performed their first concert at Harris Millis Cafeteria at the University of Vermont on December 2, 1983, where they played a set of classic rock covers, including two songs by the Grateful Dead . The band performed one more concert in 1983, and then did not perform again for nearly

7189-399: The years, designing some of their album covers and concert posters. By 1985, the group had encountered Burlington luthier Paul Languedoc , who would eventually design custom instruments for Anastasio and Gordon. In October 1986, he began working as their sound engineer. Since then, Languedoc has built exclusively for the two, and his designs and traditional wood choices have given Phish

7280-503: Was Phish: New Year's Eve 1995 – Live at Madison Square Garden , which was released in conjunction with Rhino Records in December 2005. The album was named the 42nd greatest live album of all time by Rolling Stone in April 2015. The label subsequently released several other archival live box sets, including Colorado '88 (2006), Vegas 96 (2007), At the Roxy (2008) and The Clifford Ball (2009). In December 2006, Anastasio

7371-671: Was aired in October. In the summer of 2000, the band announced that they would take their first "extended time-out" following their upcoming fall tour. Anastasio officially announced the impending hiatus to the band's fans during their September 30 concert at the Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada . During the tour's last concert on October 7, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California ,

7462-557: Was also a regular.) Later that year, Groce signed a recording contract with Daybreak Records, a subsidiary of RCA Records . His first album of original songs, The Wheat Lies Low , was released in 1970. From 1972 to 1985 he was a National Endowment for the Arts sponsored "musician-in-residence", visiting schools in twenty US states. One of those residencies brought him to West Virginia in 1972, where he continues to make his home. In 1976, his satiric novelty song "Junk Food Junkie" became

7553-462: Was arrested in Whitehall, New York for drug possession and driving while intoxicated, and was sentenced to 14 months in a drug court program. In 2007, while Anastasio was undergoing rehabilitation, the other members of Phish surprised him on his birthday with an instrumental recording they had made for him to play along with on guitar. During his rehabilitation, Anastasio said he "spent 24 hours

7644-656: Was born in 1948 in Dallas, Texas , to H.T. and Bobbie Groce, the eldest of three children. He had a younger brother, Gary (born July 7, 1951), and a younger sister, Janna (born April 8, 1961). Groce became interested in music while in elementary school. The family resided in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, and he attended Adamson High School there. Classmates included singer-songwriters Michael Martin Murphey , Ray Wylie Hubbard and B. W. Stevenson . Groce's first album,

7735-424: Was introduced as actor Tom Hanks . The impostor sang a line of the song "Wilson", prompting some media outlets to report that the actor had appeared at the concert. At the end of the 2003 summer tour, Phish returned to Limestone, Maine for It , their first festival since Big Cypress. The event drew crowds of over 60,000 fans, and was the band's final festival to be held at Loring Air Force Base. Highlights from

7826-511: Was named for the town in Vermont that hosted the event, which was held at the nearby Newport State Airport . The concerts were simulcast in movie theaters and on XM Satellite Radio . "The Curtain With" was the final song the band performed at their then-final concert on August 15. After Coventry, the members of the band admitted they were disappointed with their performance at the festival; In

7917-435: Was nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Recording for Children" in 1976. In 1983, Groce co-founded Mountain Stage , a two-hour live music program produced by West Virginia Public Radio and distributed nationally and internationally by NPR and Voice of America 's satellite radio service to over 200 stations. He was its host, producer and artistic director. His musical tastes have been instrumental in defining

8008-864: Was recorded in 2013 with Dawes, Ani DiFranco, Dave Mason and Red Baraat. The show recorded episode 900 in July 2017 with Steve Earle & The Dukes, The Mastersons, The Sherman Holmes Project, Steelism and West Virginia storyteller Bil Lepp. The 35th Anniversary of Mountain Stage was celebrated in December 2018 with the Amy Ray Band, Crash Test Dummies, Anais Mitchell, Parker Millsap and William Matheny. Mountain Stage has welcomed six Guest Hosts since 2014, beginning with Grammy-winning musician Tim O'Brien, former Assistant Producer Joni Deutsch, who guest-hosted twice, WV Singer-Songwriter Todd Burge, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton, and Tony Award winner and WV native Michael Cerveris. Since March 2018, country music singer and West Virginia native Mattea has been

8099-632: Was released as the album's first single, became the band's only song to appear on a mainstream pop radio format, reaching #29 on Billboard' s Adult Top 40 chart that July. The song also became the band's biggest hit to date on the Adult Alternative Songs chart, reaching #2 there. In June 2000, the band embarked on a seven-date headlining tour of Japan. In July, they taped an appearance on the PBS music show Austin City Limits , which

8190-501: Was released during the summer of 1995 and featured selections from various concerts from their 1994 winter tour. The album charted at number 18 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and was reported to have sold around 50,000 copies in its first week on sale. A Live One became Phish's first RIAA -certified gold album in November 1995. In 1997, A Live One became the band's first Platinum album, certified for sales of 1 million copies in

8281-513: Was released on CD three years after her death. The show has also featured musical pioneers such as Bill Monroe , Ralph Stanley , Doc Watson , Pops Staples and Brownie McGhee as well as modern superstars R.E.M. , Martina McBride and Norah Jones . Groce retired from hosting Mountain Stage in 2021; his successor is Kathy Mattea . In 2016, Groce released his first recording in 27 years Live Forever with his wife, violist Sandra Groce. It includes four originals and eight covers, and includes

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