Ernest Joseph Anastasio III (born September 30, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American guitarist, composer and lead singer most noted for his work with the jam band Phish.

Anastasio began playing the drums at a young age and turned to guitar while a teenager. He went to Princeton Day School for junior high, where he began to write music for the first time. For high school, he went to Taft School, where he founded his first two bands, Red Tide and Space Antelope, respectively. After high school, he went to the University of Vermont from fall of 1983 to spring of 1986 (except for spring of 1984). It was here that he met teacher and composer Ernie Stires , who taught him techniques for composition and arrangement. It was here that he also hosted a morning radio show , called Ambient Alarm Clock . After the UVM, he attended Goddard College from fall of 1986 to spring of 1988. There he wrote The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday.

His mother, Dina, was an editor of Sesame Street Magazine . He wrote stories, songs, and albums with her. His father, Ernie, was the Executive Vice President of Educational Testing Service. This company is most noted for administering the SAT and other standardized tests.

He plays a custom-made hollow-body electric guitar, built by Paul Languedoc . His set-up includes a wah-wah pedal, a Ross compressor, a volume pedal, celestain speakers, a digitech whammy pedal, a Leslie speaker, and two TS-9 Ibanez Tube Screamers modified by Analogman. Two of his guitars have images of his dog, Marley , inlaid on the headstocks.

Trey's other projects include the Trey Anastasio Band , a swing/jazz ensemble with a five-piece horn section that is highly influenced by the work of Duke Ellington; Surrender to The Air, a free jazz project with saxophonist Marshall Allen and trumpeter Michael Ray; and Oysterhead, a rock trio with former Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Primus bassist and bandmaster Les Claypool. In fall 2004, Anastasio was holed up in his Vermont barn with King Crimson bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta. He also cut a track for Herbie Hancock's forthcoming album. Trey Anastasio is now working with a new band featuring Peter Chwazik (bass), Les Hall (keyboards), Ray Paczkowski (keyboards) and Skeeto Valdez (drums).

Married to Susan Eliza Stateser (Sue) since August 13th, 1994, he has two daughters, Eliza Jean and Isabella, and lives in Essex Junction, Vermont.

Nicknames:

• Trey
• Wilson
• Shaggy
• The Bad Lieutenant
• The Good Lieutenant
• Skinny Guinea
• The Crimson Dago

Discography

• Surrender to The Air, 1996
• One Man's Trash , 1998
• Trampled By Lambs and Pecked By the Dove , 2000
• Trey Anastasio , 2002
• Plasma (Live Album), 2003
• Seis De Mayo , 2004

In college at University of Vermont, Trey got suspended for an entire semester because he broke into the science building, stole a human hand and a goat's heart, and then sent the hand and heart in a package to the science program, with a note saying, "I've got to hand it to you, you've got heart."

External link

• Trey Anastasio's official website