In December, Trey Anastasio announced an April tour with his new band, Ghosts of the Forest. The band features Anastasio, his Phish bandmate Jon Fishman, Trey Anastasio Band members Jennifer Hartswick, Tony Markellis, and Ray Paczkowski, and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Celisse Henderson, who was featured alongside Hartswick as a backup singer at Phish’s 2016 Halloween performance of Ziggy Stardust.
Now, in a snippet entitled “Trey Anastasio’s Emotional Rescue,” Rolling Stone‘s Patrick Doyle reports that Ghosts of the Forest will release their debut album on Friday, April 12th.
Last January, Trey Anastasio lost one of his oldest and closest friends, Chris Cottrell, also known as C-Cott. The two of them attended Taft boarding school together in Connecticut, and heavily influenced each other’s musical tastes. Cottrell lost his battle to adrenal cancer on January 27th, 2018. Ghosts of the Forest’s new album was inspired by Trey’s lifelong friendship with Cottrell according to the initial report.
Read the full blurb from Rolling Stone below:
From his teenage years to the ups and downs of his time with Phish, Trey Anastasio had one constant friend in his life: Chris Cottrell, who he camped, hiked and checked in with for decades. “He was my tether to childhood and to a life before Phish happened,” says Anastasio. Cottrell died of cancer last year. After sitting with him for his final days, Anastasio made an album of songs he thinks his friend would have loved: psychedelic guitar liftoffs, ambitious arrangements and extremely personal lyrics. ‘I went through a period of deep self-doubt after recording it,’ Anastasio says. ‘I didn’t want to put it out. Maybe I was scared.’ The album will now come out April 12th, and Anastasio will take it on the road with his new band, Ghosts of the Forest, featuring Phish drummer Jon Fishman and a crew of jam-world all-stars. Despite no released music, the band’s tour still sold out; Anastasio has been working with production designer Abigail Holmes, whose work includes Stop Making Sense. Anastasio considers himself fortunate his fans allow him to take these risks: ‘The amount of trust that they’re exhibiting in me just makes me want to cry.’
[Screengrab via Reddit]
Ghosts of the Forest will open up their inaugural tour with a performance at Portland, ME’s State Theatre on Thursday, April 4th.
For a full list of Ghosts of the Forests upcoming tour dates and ticketing information, head to Trey’s website.