“Divided Sky” - Phish

6.18.94 - UIC Pavilion, Chicago IL

Happy 44th Birthday, Trey Anastasio! You’re one of - if not the - most talented rock guitarists of the past twenty five years, and a brilliant musical mind. You wrote over 150 original songs for Phish and have brought joy and love to audiences in ways that only very few musicians have ever been able to experience. There were moments where your music has transcended time and space, and took thousands of people to a place where not a thing in the world mattered, where all the worries and stresses of life were absent.

Your down to earth personality and dorky humor strike a chord within us all, and the 6+ hour set you led to bring in the new millenium is what many consider to be a peak moment in rock and roll history. Like so many other guitar legends you have also fell victim to drug addiction. However, unlike your hero Jimi you have survived, coming clean with yourself, your family, friends, and fans.

And like your name (Greek for resurrection) by many accounts are also on the verge of announcing a Spring 2009 comeback for Phish, with something to prove not only to those of us that have supported you through the bad times, but to yourself - that you still have the Jedi force within you. We know it’s still there, and welcome its return.

This song is one of Trey’s favorite moments from Phish, and one of his most expressive moments as a guitarist in my opinion. The last few minutes he just pours his soul out through his guitar. Here’s how he described it to Charlie Rose in 2004:

“We were at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. And we were playing “Divided Sky,” and we got down to this quiet part where it gets silent. And we were getting quieter and quieter, and then became silence. And I had my eyes closed, and I could feel the crowd, and I started to — because improvising is, you`re trying to translate the — what`s out there already, greater pattern of things. And sometimes it feels like it`s coming through the hole, and you couldn`t play a wrong note if you tried; you`re just floating.

And at that moment, you are in the middle of it, and I started to see those colors, like I`m not kidding, floating around there, and I realized that I could almost — it was silent, but I could see what we were translating. And as soon as I could see them, I started improvising, but I didn`t play anything. I did everything in the sense of improvisation, except for the actual notes, and as soon as I did it, the whole place erupted. It was like, whoa, and just tears started rolling down my face, and it was at that moment that I knew that it was truly bigger than me. It. You know what I mean? There were probably a lot of moments like that, but those two just come to mind. It was amazing.”

(Photo by Barry Brecheisen)