Benjy: First of all, let's talk about Wednesday night. It was the opening of the tour, and it was Grammy night. First Tube was nominated for a Grammy. It was a song Trey wrote, based on a beat you gave him. Did you feel a part of that nomination at all?

Russ: Yeah, I felt proud of it. It was a performance Grammy which meant that it was a performance of that song, from the CD. But I felt a part of it, yeah. I felt really proud of it because, as we talked about in our last interview when we talked about that song, it's that same beat. It changes ever so slightly throughout the song, but it's all attitude. The groove is a big part of it and what Trey put on top of it made it complete, because otherwise that beat could still just be sitting there, but yes I definitely felt part of it. It looks good on the resume. I felt really proud of that.

Benjy: You were on Conan O'Brien last night. What was that like?

Russ: Oh it was great.

Benjy: Walk me through the experience.

Russ: Well, we got into New York at 7:30 in the morning, because we came down from Syracuse. Checked into the hotel. My drums were at the Roseland so we had to rent a kit. Somebody picked me up at a quarter to eleven. Went over to NBC, set up the kit and tried to tune it up, because Carini was over at the other place (he's all apologetic and I'm like "Don't worry about it man, I'll deal"). After I set up the kit, I walk around Manhattan waiting for those guys to come. They show up, we do the soundcheck, go to the Roseland, do soundcheck over there, learn a song.

Benjy: What song?

Russ: Some cover or something. We ended up not even playing it. I think it was a Stevie Wonder song or something. We always do that kind of stuff. Trey's great like that ("Here we go boys!"). It opens your ears. Then we go back and hang at Conan and wait for them to go through Ted Danson and Chris Cattan, the guy from Saturday Night Live. He's really good. Then we played that and it was really great. I was more nervous for Boston than I was for Conan to tell you the truth, but you get up there and it's like "If I mess this up, it's on TV." But I thought it was good. And actually Conan commented to Trey I guess that he liked the rhythm section, which I thought was kind of neat. I agree (laughs) - it's all Tony [Markellis]. I haven't seen it yet though. Everybody back home was watching.

Benjy: Let's rewind. Let's go back to the last Trey tour. The tour ends. What happens?

Russ: For me? Other than the depression setting in? No. (laughs)

Benjy: Did you start right up with Gordon Stone?

Russ: Yeah. As a matter of fact we ended up doing some festivals and some things. I kind of picked up where I left off, you know. I came back from Boulder and all I had were my cymbals and my snare drum because we had a rental kit in Denver. I'm just sitting in my living room. It was dark. I had both things right beside me. I'm just sitting there going, "That was really great. Now what do I do?" And I was psyched to play with Gordon again, but was just that tour was really fulfilling and a very positive thing. It was great and I was hoping that we'd do it again, you know?

Benjy: It's been two years. Did you keep in touch with Trey?

Russ: Yeah, I'd call him periodically and we'd just say "hey." When Farmhouse came out, we talked about that and some of the songs that are on there. I mean, he was pretty busy with Phish and they were out touring and stuff, but we definitely talked here and there. After the tour he sent me this little Leatherman thing. I guess he gave one to everyone on the tour. My name was on it. It was really special because it was like "Hey man, this guy really cares."

A friend of mine is a tour manager for all these bands and at the end it's sometimes like, "See you. Bye. Thanks." You know, after you get done touring with somebody for like four years it's just "Yeah. Goodbye." Some people are a little more special. He tours with Loudon Wainwright's son, Rufus Wainwright and after the last tour the guy gives him a shaker with his name on it, because he's kind of like a bartender on the road. It means a lot, you know? It really does.

With Trey it was great and I was just dying to do it again. And hoping that he wanted to do it again and I think he did. It was just that Phish went back on the road and then, what's the sequence of events? They started doing another album and that takes time. I was telling somebody the other day how in the music business, a year can go by very quickly.

Benjy: Before Phish started playing the songs, was there ever any talk of you guys recording an album?

Russ: Not really. I mean I know we had a lot of live tapes. Paul always has tons of those DA-88's under the board and I never really heard much of those until the other day when I heard some of the stuff from the last tour. Oh, the quality! People get the mics in the room and they sound good, but I was listening to "Ooh Child" and I was like, "Wow! This sounds good!!" It was like, "Yeah, we could probably put the live album out." That was talked about. But whatever - the guy's got a lot of ideas, man, and that's great. But then people were telling me, "Hey I heard Phish do 'First Tube'" and I'm like "Wow!" It was cool. They held up, you know? I was hoping we could maybe do something, but Phish made an album and that's his priority.

Benjy: Let's talk about how things got started again, this time.

Russ: Well what happened was we got together in December. It was informal. "Let's get together and just see if we've still got it." We went up there and Carini was there because now the barn's a studio. It's beautiful. So we did the same thing as last time. "Give me a beat" or "What do you got?" And everything's on tape. I just did my thing and Carini's like, "We have four hours worth of tape." It was so cool. Then six o'clock rolls around. Trey went home to go hang with his family. I went downtown, hung out with my friends, got some dinner and drove home. Then that Youth Orchestra thing was kicking in, so he was definitely busy with that. Then when he called me to tell me about the Grammy thing, we talked about maybe getting together one more time. We went to his house this time, because somebody was at the barn recording. I was down in his cellar using brushes and we were all looking at each other like, "Wow, this really feels good," and we were all walking away with smiles on our faces. The next day I wasn't home and I got a couple messages, "Russ, I gotta talk to you.I want to do a tour." So he got inspired and he did it.

Benjy: Everything came together in a compressed time period, then?

Russ: Yes. We got together whatever time that was, I can't even remember. After the holidays maybe? Probably. And then we went up for two days. Sometimes we'll do that. We'll show up on Tuesday morning and we'll go until Wednesday afternoon and then we'll take off. We'll do a day and a half. And he got inspired. Again man, I'm putting down these beats or grooves and he's coming up with these cool songs. It's really cool because some of this stuff I have filed in the back of my mind and he'll be like "What else you got?" and I'll be like, "Oh yeah, I've got this thing I used to play that I like." And then I'll come back and it's this really cool song.

Benjy: It sounds like the songwriting process is very similar to last time. You start with a beat or a groove, and then he'll write a song over it?

Russ: Yeah. And then he's brought in other stuff, especially now when you have the horns involved. Some of the acoustic stuff with the horns, like this song "At the Gazebo," is just gorgeous. The last tour, for me it was that song, "Farmhouse." I'd go out and watch him play it in his solo set and it'd be really emotional for me. And it still is. Now I do just two cymbal swells in this one song, "At the Gazebo" and it could be like a Christmas song or something. It's got that heartfelt thing. That's what I love about it.

Benjy: Tell me about the horns. Did they come up with their own parts for the songs?

Russ: Well, basically what happened was the next time we got together, we decided to do the horns. We got together one day and Trey said, "Look, I need a week with these guys" or something. So we taped everything - there was a lot of stuff. And then we went home and learned what we had to learn and did our homework. He got together with the horns and did whatever they did - I wasn't there for a lot of those. But I know he came up with a lot of the parts. And I know Dave Grippo will spit out something when playing live, but Trey worked those guys hard, man.

Benjy: Have you played with horns before?

Russ: Oh yes. When I was with this African band, Zzebra, we had a horn section. Then eventually it was just down to a sax player. And I've done horns with this other band over time and I *love* it. It sounds so good.

Benjy: What's it like playing with them, versus just the trio? Obviously it has to be more restricted in some way.

Russ: But it isn't! It is, but it isn't. It's the same thing. We were doing "Sand" and that stuff and it's like playing the James Brown thing or something. It snaps it up and that's why I like to play it, it's got this little edge on it. It's cool because we can do "At the Gazebo" or whatever and we can still do the other stuff. I don't feel restricted at all. I feel uplifted because it's more musical. It's more depth. We did that Bob Dylan song, [sings: "You stone me when you're driving in your car..."] Jen had the tuba going and it was in my mix so loud last night and I was going, "Yeah! This is SO cool!" It's really great.

Benjy: Let's talk about the group of songs that you did on the first tour. " First Tube" - got a Grammy nomination. "Heavy Things" - radio airplay. "Sand" - unbelievable song. "Gotta Jibboo" - instant classic. "Windora Bug," "Somanatin." The list goes on. What are your favorites, now that they've been able to age some?

Russ: I like all of the above actually. It's cool how they hold up. Don't get me wrong, when we busted into "Sand" in Boston, or "First Tube," that just summed it up man. It's the way we play in that groove. It's funky, it's rocky, it has an attitude. And then I couldn't wait for "Windora Bug" because a lot of people were coming up to me when that show was announced, "You got to play 'Windora Bug!'" Whatever. Some rise to the A List and some get on the B List and the B List is really great too.

Benjy: Were there any songs in which there was talk about, "Let's not do this, this time?" I mean, did you guys consciously drop any of them?

Russ: Not really. Well, we haven't done "Heavy Things," and then we mentioned about doing it maybe. And I know it got some airplay on the radio. In Boston it got a lot of airplay.

Benjy: Let's talk about how those songs made the transition to Phish. Do you think they made it?

Russ: Trey asked me about that when we first got back together and I said, "I had to get used to it." And not that it was bad. What they did with it was really great. But especially when somebody told me about "First Tube," I was like, "Wow! They're doing 'First Tube!'" That beat was such a part of me and it's my attitude as a drummer too. But it transformed and they did a good job and it took me a couple listens, but I got into them. It wasn't that it was ever bad, it was just like, "Woah!"

Benjy: "First Tube" is the beat you were carrying around for years though, right?

Russ: Yeah. I used that beat in a song from Zzebra called "Shabadoo Day." It's like a real African thing. So that was kind of a part of me from a long time ago.

Benjy: How do you see the songs as being different when Phish does them, from when you do them?

Russ: Well you know it's always tough because you have something to compare it to. It's like if we went out and did "Guyute" with me playing it instead of Fishman. Fishman and I are really different drummers. That's what's so good about it. I'm more of a straight ahead drummer. I do my best and just lay it down. Tony and I, you know? I've seen Fishman play and he gets this other thing going that's really great. I saw him do this solo in Pork Tornado one time and I was like, "Woah! That was just an amazing funk solo!" We're just different. That always makes it hard to compare. I saw Phish do "First Tube" at the Tweeter Center. I got chills from it. Maybe it was my memories of thinking about the song. Trey had just called me the day before and said, "Look, I really want to get together after this tour" and I was thinking, "Maybe we're going to be playing this one again." I got chills.

Benjy: We ran into each other at an earlier show at The Tweeter Center back in 1999. Have you been to any other Phish shows since then?

Russ: This past year there, when they played "First Tube," was the last time I saw them. I had been to the Lemonwheel and those things too, but usually if they were in Massachusetts I would go.

Benjy: You got chills from "First Tube." Any other thoughts?

Russ: It was really good man, and I loved Page's part on it. He played it with us last night. And I was psyched to have that on it because when we did it with the 8 Foot Florescents they had these vocal things and I think he kind of took that vibe from it. It was cool.

Benjy: Did you guys practice with him, before the show?

Russ: No, he just went right up there because, you know, he's toured with that song. And it was really good. I always wanted to play with him. I think he's a nice guy.

Benjy: In addition to being in Trey's band, you also worked recently with Mike Gordon on his film Outside Out.

Russ: Yes. I recorded a lot of the drums on that and he used a lot of that stuff.

Benjy: Tell me a little bit about that whole experience.

Russ: It was fun. I remember, I was up at the barn rehearsing with Trey for the spring tour [1999] and he was like, "Mike is on the phone." And I'm going, "Mike?" I have another bass player friend named Mike and I thought maybe something happened and he got in touch with me at the barn or something. But it was Mike Gordon and he's going, "Hey Russ, are you going to be in town this weekend?" I happened to have no gigs and I'm going, "No, I was going to head home. But what's up?" He goes, "We're doing this project. You want to come down and check it out for a couple days?" And I said, "Sure man." I went down there, Gordon Stone was there, Vassar Clements was there and Buddy Cage was there. We just went through some stuff, threw it on tape, and they chopped it up and then we saw some of the scenes. It was really fun.

Benjy: Who was the creative force behind those songs? Was it everybody there just throwing things on the table?

Russ: There were a couple songs. One of them was like "He taught me how to play my guitar." You know that one right? Yeah, I was laughing. It was a great little song. And then some stuff was like, "Okay, let's get a funk thing going" because Mike just needed some background. Mike just threw the ideas, "Okay, this one's a little more out there, let's take it out a little bit more" or "Let's get a disco thing going." I was just there to be a session guy, but to try to put myself within it.

Benjy: Mike said recently that he's thinking about putting out a soundtrack companion album.

Russ: Yeah, he talked to me about that. I was at his studio a little while ago and he was there talking about that.

Benjy: He's got his own studio?

Russ: Yeah. And he's got Pro Tools and stuff like that. Jeff, his engineer, mentioned that.

Benjy: Have you seen the final cut of Outside Out?

Russ: Oh yeah. He sent me a copy of it. I thought it was funny. I liked it. It was fun because before I only saw segments of it. It was interesting because the first time I watched it I had to kind of go "Is that me on the drums?" Fishman plays on it too. And again, obviously we've got different styles, so when I hear a certain part it'll be like, "Oh yeah, that's definitely Fishman on that section." And me I'm just kind of laying it down, that sort of thing. But yeah, it's a good movie. It's interesting.

Benjy: It seems like the type of movie where, in high school, you'd go over to someone's house and they'd be smoking or something and you'd say "Dude, you've got to check this out." And you'd sit around and watch it.

Russ: Exactly. That's a good analogy. I agree. It's a good underground flick. Vermont's been great to me. All the musicians up there are so good to me. I'm building a house up there, outside of Burlington.

Benjy: I want to talk more about the current tour with Trey, but first let's talk about other things you've done in the past two years. There's the first Trey tour, which is when I interviewed you last. Then you have Gordon Stone. You have Outside Out. Am I remembering this right, that there was something unique at the Gathering Of The Vibes two years ago?

Russ: They wanted Gordon Stone to play solo. He said, "Why don't you come play with me?" And that's when he wanted to start doing some of my songs, so we did a few of my tunes and we did sort of a duo type of thing. I played on a mini-kit and then I did some of my tunes. I did "Too Quick To Judge" and maybe a couple other ones, I can't remember. "I Don't Know" [sings: "There's a light at the end of the tunnel"]. Yeah, we did that one too. And it was kind of a turning point for the band. Gordon was psyched to get some vocals in the band. Gathering of The Vibes was fun and I loved doing it. As a matter of fact, if I don't play it this year, if I had the time, I'd just like to go to it.

Benjy: You also have a side-project, Rhythmo Loco. How's that going?

Russ: We're working on a new CD. We're in the studio. As a matter of fact those guys are mixing without me this weekend.

Benjy: You're in Gordon Stone's band. You have gigs scheduled. You get the call from Trey, and suddenly you have a tour with him instead. What's Gordon's reaction?

Russ: Gordon's very cool about it. Believe me, I wish I could find a drummer that could fill right in and do the job just as well and know all the material. I think Gordon's at the Middle East tonight in Boston, but he's really cool about it. This came up and we had a month to get it together. I'm like, "Look man, this came up." And he knows. It's like if Mike [Gordon] called him. When a good opportunity comes up, you got to go for it. I've sacrificed for a lot of bands and missed a lot of opportunity to stick it out.
I look at Gordon in a sense that he likes things to be changed up anyways. It's almost more of a jazz type of thing. It's like John Scofield. He did the A Go-Go album, but when you go out and see him it could be a totally different band. I've seen him with two different drummers. You get that rotating band thing going. And that isn't always the best thing either. Granted, the bass player we have now, Rudy, called the house to wish me luck on the tour and I wasn't there so he talked to my wife Deb, and Deb said, "Well how were those string of gigs you just did?" And he was like, "Oh, they were okay." Whatever. There's nothing like being in a band. You think about Dave Brubeck or you think about Miles Davis where you've got Tony Williams - you've got the *cats*. There's nothing like growing as a band, because a band will grow. You can be the best drummer and freelance, but you have to know the songs. When you've got some gigs under your belt, if it's a good band, it will keep growing and there's nothing like it. But Gordon's really cool about it and I appreciate that.

Benjy: You've done some other notable things since the last Trey tour.

Russ: I worked a lot with Gordon Stone. We've done a couple tours - four tours actually. Now we're trying to get a new album out. We were hoping to be recording now, but then this thing happened. We've done some preliminary stuff in the studio. I don't know how they're turning out. I haven't talked to those guys about it, but sometimes you get the rhythm section to come in and you get the core down and then they go in and overdub on top. So I don't know how that's going. Before that, I did a movie with Gordon called Mud Season. That's a great movie man. I did some drumming on that. In the opening scene there's this real Vermont guy and he's out hunting in the woods with his gun and we bust into this theme on the pedal steel. And then we did this scene where there's an accidental death (although I call it the murder scene) and we did the music for that. And then I play sometimes with the local blues guys around Salem. And that's cool because it's like right in my back yard. A lot of the rock guys from Boston that are my age moved out of Boston and got families. There's this guy Johnny A. who's got a record out that's doing really well. He's been opening up for B.B. King and he plays with us sometimes. It's all local guys, but it's a fun gig though. This guy Kenny Clark - smoking keyboard player. If you're ever around Salem, they have this thing on Tuesday nights at Dodge Street. They call it Fats Hammond. There's two Hammond B-3 players, a guitar player and a drummer. It's a really cool thing. A lot of the jam band kids have been coming down to that. And Kenny's from Vermont. He and I did a tour with Michelle Wilson after the Trey tour and when I jumped in the van he's like, "What'd you say about Vermont? I'm from Essex Junction!" Smoking keyboard player.

Benjy: Do jam band kids come up to you at Gordon Stone shows who know of you through the Trey gigs?

Russ: Oh yeah, sure. We were doing a fall tour and in places like Chicago they were coming up to me and, you know, yelling for "Jibboo" for awhile (laughs). In a way it's a compliment and in a way it's like, "Okay." It's tough. At least they're yelling for your songs. They're not yelling for Skynyrd or something.

Benjy: Let's talk now about this tour. You guys started on Wednesday in Boston. Tell me about opening night.

Russ: Well it was pretty nerve-wracking for me. It's my hometown. I had like fifteen people out there I knew - musicians that I've played with for years, neighbors that have put up with my drumming that I invited down because they're so sweet to me. First nights are always tough. There's a lot of new material. I've got four mini-discs of rehearsal tapes and stuff that I've been going over, practicing. I like to know my songs. I like to know what's going on, you know? But it was really good. I thought it felt really good.

Benjy: Do you think you guys were prepared?

Russ: Yes. It's just no matter what you do, you've just got to do it. You can be in rehearsal for years but once you've got a couple gigs under your belt it's a whole different thing. I've read a bunch of reviews. My wife has told me there were reviews in The Harold, The Globe, even Paul Robicheau did something on-line for Rolling Stone. They're all rave reviews. And if they don't like you, Boston is rough, man. Every Vermont musician hates Boston. As Tony goes, "Well, they don't like anything in Boston!" But we've got some great reviews, man. They were flipping on it.

Benjy: Let's talk about the shows after that. It's been, what, three shows so far. What were the other two like?

Russ: Syracuse was *really* amazing. I walked off stage and I said, "That was like church!" I mean, we had enough sleep, we had one gig under our belt, and it was good. Sometimes we're just doing this repeating thing and it's like a rave or something, it builds a little bit at a time. We just came off stage and I was like "Woah man! This is amazing!" It was *really* good. Last night was really good too, but sometimes when you have this amazing night, the next night is hard to compare.

Benjy: Tell me about the new songs.

Russ: The one we played on Conan yesterday, that's a cool one. Some of these titles it's like, "What does he call this one?" That one's called "Push On 'Till The Day." I think that's it. When the horns come in on that, I just get this smile on my face. I love "Sunday Morning." It's a cool chilled out one. We segue from "Push On" to this song "Tube Top Flop" that's a reggae kind of thing where Trey plays this thing that's very beautiful. We did that last night on Conan. We played "Push On Through," we stopped, Conan came out, shook hands, and then we busted into that before they cut to a commercial. I *love* playing that. It's like a great little laid back instrumental reggae thing. Let's see what else we've got.

[Russ takes out a stack of mini-discs with labels on them]

"The Way I Feel" - of course that one was on One Man's Trash. That song "Drifting" is really good too. "Burlap Sack And Pumps" - that's an instrumental that's really funky. Then of course we bust into some of those instrumentals that he's done for the guitar, which are *really* nice.

Benjy: Are you as excited about these songs as you are the older ones?

Russ: Yes. And what's cool about it is that we have some of those rocked out ones. Some of these are a little more chilled out, a little more laid back with a different kind of funk. And now we have the horns to color it.

Benjy: The first batch of tunes sound like they were written around the same time. They're like snapshots from the same time and place. Does this batch also have that cohesive quality to them?

Russ: Yes. We haven't gotten together in a year and a half and now this is kind of where I'm at, or whatever. That other time it was a little more rocked out and now it's a little more like taking a few steps back for the chilled out funk, you know? Smoke a joint and [kick a beat]. Those are the ones that we're holding up. There's a lot more stuff on tape but Trey weeded through them and picked what he wanted, so that's what's going through his head now too. We've been doing a lot of stuff where we'll snap it down. Like I was saying, we were in his basement, looking at each other, playing light, his kids are sleeping, and it was just feeling good. It wasn't like we were sacrificing anything by not slamming it down. There's a lot of them there, in that category.

Benjy: Let's talk about the covers.

Russ: Of course we whipped out "Ooh Child" again and it's totally brilliant with the horns. It's like "OKAY!!" We do one called "It Makes No Difference" by The Band. Oh man! A day before the first show we did a tech day at the Orpheum, and my wife was at soundcheck and she goes, "Damn, that sounds really good." If she doesn't like something, she'll tell you.

Benjy: And then there's "Mellow Mood" by Bob Marley.

Russ: Yeah and that one too, man!! I got a rehearsal tape of that and I was listening to it. We literally put the tape on, came back and got our harmony parts. The first time we played it I said there's something going on with this song, the way we're doing it, where it already sounded good. We only half knew what we were doing and Trey's talking us through it and it already sounded good. We did that last night and it was good.

Benjy: Are there any other new songs for this tour that you haven't played yet?

Russ: Yeah. There's one other funky kind of one that I was thinking about this morning that I would like to do.

Benjy: An original?

Russ: Yeah, and I can't think of the name of it. It's got that funky kind of laid back beat thing. There's one called "Sidewalks of San Francisco." We played that one last night. "Till I Met You" - that one's cool. We haven't done that one yet. I think that one's still in limbo. It's a cool one. There are a couple things that will probably pop up. I think what Trey likes to do with the covers is that you always have something in reserve so you can change the set up. It's like last night during setbreak - I was talking to my friends and I was like, "I've got to get backstage because something may be up that I've got to huddle for or something." There are a few things we haven't done. Tony has brought in some that show his influence, some New Orleans kind of tunes. What's the name of the song? "Cry To Me?" Maybe something like that. We've talked about doing some other tunes now that we have the horns.

Benjy: I think the biggest question that everyone wants to know is: Are there any future plans?

Russ: Well tonight will only be the fourth gig, but I remember up at Syracuse this week we said "We got to do this again. And this is definitely going to be too short." So I'd like to believe that we're going to do some more. First we're just trying to get through this, but in my heart I really think that we're going to do something again. I think it's pretty special and we all know that. Trey's got a lot of stuff that he wants to do. He's worked really hard with Phish and doing that symphony thing that he did and he's got a lot of ideas man, but I think we can fit it all in.

Benjy: Last time, so many of the originals eventually made it into the Phish repertoire. A lot of those beats are yours. How conscious of that were you when you worked on these new songs?

Russ: There's no thought about that one iota. We're doing what we feel like. Never think about it. Even before, I remember Trey saying, "We went to the first day of recording. Do you mind if we do those songs? It's probably going to be awhile before we get together and I really want to do those." That was a compliment. I said, "Man, it's an honor that you guys would cover these songs." I just laid down some groove, man. He's the one that did all the work, as far as being the songwriter.

Benjy: Trey brought songs from this band to Phish. Did he ever bring Phish tunes to this band? In rehearsal even?

Russ: Not really, no. We haven't done Phish covers. I think he's done that song from Farmhouse, [sings: "When I woke up, I had a bucket."] That's really the only Phish song he's done so far, other than what we did originally.

Benjy: For the last tour, it was first set Trey solo, second set full band. This time it's both sets, full band.

Russ: Right. And then in the middle he may go out and do a song with Tony on the acoustic, or he may do one by himself, like that one from Farmhouse, or there's one he does with just the horns. It's diverse to blend the set. It's a nice mix. It's a *really* nice mix. It's the kind of band I like to be in, you know?

Benjy: And you like having both sets, because you get to play more?

Russ: Well, yeah whatever. I liked it last time because I'd go out and listen to him and I've grown really fond of a lot of those songs. But this is really cool. I'm getting beaten up out there.

Benjy: We started this interview by going back and rewinding to when the last Trey tour ended. Let's skip ahead now and fast forward to when this tour ends. What'll you do?

Russ: I'm going to call Gordon Stone. I know we've got a few gigs in March. I've got some local gigs around town. I've got to mix down the Rhythmo Loco album - I've got one more vocal to do. I'll be psyched to get that out. And we've got a few gigs. We're going to do once a month in Salem at Dodge Street. Actually I'm going right from this tour into the studio with this songwriter. I guess he had like a number one hit in England last year. His name is Bobby Gosh, from New York. I'm doing his new album. And then things are kind of piecing together. I know with Gordon Stone we're playing Saratoga, New York at the end of March. And hopefully we can make a new album. I'm definitely psyched to get back together with him and Rudy because that's been sounding really good too. We've had some really great shows. We've been doing it as a trio and it's been really good. Rudy tunes in to what we're doing and it's been really sounding great. I'm looking forward to doing this album project too because I love going into the studio. I've done some recording this year up where Pork Tornado's recording an album now. I've done a couple album projects up there and I've got some percussion stuff to finish. Things are coming in.

Benjy: If you had to sell the show to somebody, what would you sell them on?

Russ: I would say that it has a lot of depth and a lot of versatility. It's a whole bag of tricks. You're going to get some serious funk, some serious groove, and you're going to get some really good melodies for your head to walk out of the room. And you're going to get some uplifting heartfelt stuff too. It's very emotional music.

Check out the Jambands.com interview with Russ Lawton from 1999: jambands.com/july99/features/lawton.html