Temporary Mayor Phil Lesh Folds To Lobbyists (Phish Fans), Pardons Trey Anastasio

Election Day came early in Glens Fall, New York, where the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh was named honorary mayor of the town for a day before his Saturday-night concert there. Lesh's first order of business: pardoning Phish's Trey Anastasio, who was arrested more than a year ago in nearby Whitehall for driving under the influence of drugs and possessing narcotics and pharmaceutical drugs. While Lesh overstepped his honorary mayoral capabilities (he couldn't actually pardon anyone, but he could pose in ceremonial pictures), Anastasio didn't really need the assist anyway: The guitarist had already pleaded guilty and accepted a drug-program deal. Regardless, perhaps to repay Lesh for the attempted pardon, Anastasio joined Phil Lesh & Friends' show and performed two of his own songs, "Shine" and "Plasma." It marked only the second time Anastasio has performed live since his arrest; Anastasio also sat in with the Dave Matthews Band at a Saratoga Springs show in August. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it's that Phil Lesh should be mayor full-time.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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