Photo by Peter Wallace

Chatting with SiriusXM’s Ari Fink, Trey Anastasio recently checked in about Ghosts of the Forest, his new project with drummer Jon Fishman, trumpeter and vocalist Jennifer Hartswick, singer Celisse Henderson, bassist Tony Markellis and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski.

“It’s a concert with a narrative arc,” Anastasio says of the ongoing GOTF tour. “There’s an underlying story within the sequence of songs and within the lyrics of the songs. So that probably makes it a little different than other things I’ve done before.”

Anastasio went on to explain how the passing of both his sister Kristy and his friend Chris Cottrell, as well as the brain tumor diagnosis of Paczkowski affected the moods of the Ghosts of the Forest live show and studio LP, which was recorded a week or two after Cottrell’s death.

“A lot of the narrative arc is like a swinging pendulum back and forth between grief and hope and grief and hope,” he says.

Later, Anastasio reveals that the band’s two New York City shows at the United Palace Theatre will be combined as a single live record.

“Most importantly, the full picture of the Ghosts of the Forest document will have our community members – family – audience,” he explains.

Finally, Anastasio says that while Ghosts of the Forest is “finite” he could imagine seeing “one or two” of these songs materialize onstage with Phish or TAB.

However, he adds, this current live format of GOTF is definitely a one-off experience.

“It will be in the rear view mirror so fast,” he confirms.

For more info on Ghosts of the Forest visit Trey.com.