Recently Trey has been playing a lick that many describe as Allman Bros sounding, Mountain Jam-esque in particular.
My first observation of this lick was in Crosseyed from 9/4/16
phish.in/2016-09-04/crosseyed-a … less?t=12m
When I first heard this I was mildly obsessed over it for several weeks, unable to put my finger on why I was familiar with it. Was convinced it was a Little Feat riff. Until, one day…
phish.in/2017-07-14/harry-hood?t=6m
After this appearence in the 7/14/17 Hood, I saw a number of people on Twitter and here on .net refer to this as a Mountain Jam tease, which ultimately was enshrined in the phish.net setlist notes. After not appearing all of Fall tour, we were now on the cusp of the emergence of this riff as a theme of 2017.
The riff next appeared in Dayton, in the midst of a classic current age 3.0 Disease bliss jam.
phish.in/2017-07-18/down-with-disease?t=17m45s
The first time Trey touched on this riff during Baker’s Dozen was on Coconut night, during the only Tweezer of the summer.
phish.in/2017-07-21/tweezer?t=10m
The riff reared it’s delicious head another two times as part of the legendary residency. The next occurrence came as a part of what many consider to be the strongest show in 3.0 in Jam Filled. Again appearing around the 12-13 minute mark of a monster Crosseyed. This time there’s a gradual build into the riff, almost as if it were planned. I’m including a few more seconds ahead of the riff itself, to demonstrate how Trey builds up to it.
phish.in/2017-07-25/crosseyed-a … s?t=12m25s
The third and final appearance of the riff at Baker’s Dozen occurred on the very next night (Powdered) during Mr. Completely.
phish.in/2017-07-26/mr-completely?t=11m10s
Leading into night 13 of BD, I thought the flavor would be peach and they would cover Mountain Jam. Alas the riff, either as part of Mountain Jam or standalone, did not make another BD appearance. While Peaches night wasn’t to be, Trey did eventually play Mountain Jam with the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
The next few examples aren’t complete versions of the riff.
First in Dick’s Ghost we hear the initial few (3?) notes of the riff.
phish.in/2017-09-01/ghost?t=13m25s
And then again in Hood later in that same set.
phish.in/2017-09-01/harry-hood?t=9m9s
Once more on 12/28/17 in Roggae Trey plays a riff that gently veers away mid-riff from Mountain Jam:
phish.in/2017-12-28/roggae?t=4m40s
In these last 3 examples it sounds to my ears that Trey catches himself mid-riff and decides to avoid what some might call a “crutch.” (For the record, I don’t subscribe to the “crutch” idea, I love continued use of similar riffs over a tour/tours)
Anyone notice appearances of this riff that I haven’t included here? Would love to find more examples.
Any knowledgeable musicians able to identify more of what’s going on at a technical level?
