It seems like Jam is a four letter word these days, with all the great jam band pioneers breaking up right and left. The new Trey Anastasio album Bar 17 is a great anecdote to all the bad jam karma lately. Its not quite as radio friendly as last album Shine was but is considered by Trey to be an accompanying album to Shine. Trey is in the company of some killer musicians on this album including Skeeto Valdez, Mike Gordon, Joe Russo, Marco Benevento and John Medeski. Most of the lyrics were penned by Trey’s old friend Tom Marshal. The sound on this album has more of a big jam band sound than on Trey’s last two releases and features more bass and drums. Bar 17 is chock full of signature Trey guitar style but you can also hear an evolution of Trey’s solo sound. I know Trey is feeling the backlash from the Phish breakup still, but Bar 17 is excellent and deserves a listen even by the most critical of Phish phreak.
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