Phish's Mike Gordon Primes Fans for Solo Disc With Double Live LP

After wrapping up a tour with Phish in December, Mike Gordon is taking time to do things his own way for the next few months. On Friday, the Phish bassist will head back on the road with his five-piece band for an eight-date club tour, which kicks off with a sold-out show in Troy, New York. To get fans pumped for the shows, Gordon has just released a live recording from his 2009 tour. The two-disc set (which is also available at LivePhish.com) captures Gordon and his band at an October gig in Buffalo, New York, and features pitch-perfect covers of Radiohead's "15 Step" and the Talking Heads' "Cities," along with Phish tunes like "Meat." For the upcoming tour, expect plenty of spirited improvisation and some surprise covers. "I like to experience musical moments that aren't planned," Gordon tells Rolling Stone.

After wrapping up the tour, Gordon will finish up his next solo album, the follow-up to 2008's The Green Sparrow. Gordon says the new record will be more groove-oriented, with an emphasis on drums and bass. "With my last album, the focus was on the electric guitar. I want this one to be a more pared down than before with less sounds per second," he says. "It's more introspective."

As for Phish, Gordon says it's likely that the jam-band kings will head out for a tour this summer. "It's looking like that kind of thing is in the talks," he says. "We knew we wanted to wait until summer to do something. Nothing's set in stone yet but I think it's a promising thing."

Mike Gordon Tour Dates:
March 5 - Troy, NY @ Revolution Hall
March 6 - New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
March 7 - Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theatre
March 9 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!
March 11 - Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theatre
March 12 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
March 13 - Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
March 14 - Lebanon, NH @ Lebanon Opera House

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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