Trey Anastasio’s new album, Mercy, is available to stream. The nine-song record is the Phish guitarist’s debut solo acoustic release.
Mercy is the follow-up/companion to Anastasio’s 2020 solo album, Lonely Trip. Both albums were written over the past two years and influenced by Anastasio’s experience in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[Mercy] is like a bookend,” Anastasio stated. “It’s two years since we went into hiding. This is still going on, and it’s an even lonelier trip.”
Anastasio premiered Mercy yesterday on SiriusXM Phish Radio with veteran rock journalist David Fricke hosting. The album begins with “A Little More Time,” which Anastasio debuted in May 2021 during a Rubber Jungle Liveperformance for Phish Radio. The second song is the title track, “Mercy,” an original song Anastasio debuted at night six of “The Beacon Jams” in November 2020. The subsequent seven songs on Mercy have not been performed publicly.
According to Fricke, Trey considered adding additional musicians and pondered recording Mercy as another duo project with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell (Trey and Page released a duo album, December in 2020). Instead, Anastasio decided the songs should be recorded alone.
“I thought these songs just wanted to be one guy, with a guitar, singing,” Anastasio told Fricke.
Fricke explained that an acoustic guitar built by Burlington musical instrument store Circle Strings that McConnell commissioned last year for Anastasio’s birthday was integral in the creation of Mercy. The new instrument led to Anastasio overdubbing additional guitar parts across the album.
“I was listening to the first take on headphones and playing off it,” Anastasio told Fricke. “It was like jamming with myself.”
Longtime Anastasio/Phish collaborator Bryce Goggin co-produced Mercy with Robert “RAab” Stevenson. The record was engineered and mixed by Mike Fahey.
Anastasio told Fricke that he “definitely” expected the songs on Mercy to make it into Phish and/or Trey Anastasio Band live setlists in the future. Anastasio further explained that he first had to arrange the songs as they appear on Mercy to be certain they would hold up in the solo acoustic setting.
Stream Trey Anastasio’s debut solo acoustic album, Mercy below (Apple Music, LivePhish):
Mercy Tracklist
- A Little More Time
- Mercy
- Flying Bird
- Blazing Down The Twisted Wire
- 6 and One Half Minutes
- Roll Like A River
- Hey Stranger
- Arc
- Ever Changing Tide
