The pianist and composer Holly Bowling has become a well-loved figure in the Phish community, gaining fame for her solo piano translations of Phish and Grateful Dead jams. The classically trained pianist has been captivating audiences across the country with her takes on these jam band giants in recent month, though Bowling made her way back to New York City at the end of July to start a residency at the Cutting Room, which coincided with Phish’s own historic residency at Madison Square Garden for their Baker’s Dozen run.
Holly Bowling Performs Phish’s ‘Billy Breathes’ Album In Its Entirety [Full Video]
After Bowling’s opening performance, which featured her famous arrangement of the “Tahoe Tweezer” from July 31st, 2013, the pianist returned to the Cutting Room the next day, on July 23rd, performing her own piano interpretation of Phish’s epic Gamehendge Suite—the now-mythic collection of songs from Trey Anastasio’s senior thesis, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday. Over the course of an hour and a half, Bowling worked her way through a majority of the songs off Anastasio’s early concept album as well as a number of songs not on The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday but that still fall within the Gamehendge mythology, such as “McGrupp and the Watchful Horsemasters” and the encore of “Divided Sky”.
Holly Bowling Debuts Phish’s “Miss You” In Honor Of A Lost Life [Audio]
You can watch a video of Holly Bowling performing “Col. Forbin’s Ascent” below, as well as check out the full audio from her performance of the Gamehendge Suite on July 23rd below, courtesy of Jeffery Bowling.
Setlist: Holly Bowling | Cutting Room | New York, NY | 7/23/2017
Set: The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Lizards, Tela, Wilson, AC/DC Bag, Col. Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Sloth, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday