MIKE GORDON GOES FROM PHISH TO BIRD, THE GREEN SPARROW

Mike Gordon has released his latest album ‘The Green Sparrow’ and he talks about the songwriting and forming his band with long term goals in mind.

Mike Gordon, former bassist for the legendary jam band Phish, has always kept himself busy since the band took their indefinite hiatus. Whether he’s recording albums with guitar wizard Leo Kotke or hitting the road with a number of musical projects like Ramble Dove, The Chieftains or SerialPod, Gordon continues to try to satisfy his musical curiosity. His latest project, ‘The Green Sparrow’ showcases his songwriting ability and was written during 2007 at his home studio in Vermont, while he concentrated on the album rather than touring that year. After being off the road to work exclusively on ‘The Green Sparrow,’ Gordon knew the time would come when he had to put a band together to tour in support of the album’s release.

We caught up with Mike to get his thoughts on forming his touring band, which includes guitarist Scott Murawski, keyboardist Tom Cleary, drummer Todd Isler, and percussionist Craig Myers and why he’s setting long term goals.

“I needed to put together a band kind of from scratch because the album was already half way done and I spent a lot of time this spring, the spring of ’08 auditioning people and thinking and jamming and listening to tapes and stuff and googling people, so I really wanted to spend a lot of time putting this band together and feeling good about the decisions of who to have in the band because I wanted it to be a long term thing, not something that will just go with this album cycle. Hopefully years into the future and let it evolve because you learn so much when you do something and you keep doing it more than you would have learned if you keep doing something just a little bit.”

We also talked with Mike about the songwriting on the new album being more upbeat than he’s been known for in the past.

“I’m definitely focusing on the album and I’m very excited about the album and I wanted to write a bunch of stuff that’s a little more upbeat than what I was known for in the past so that’s exactly what I’m going to be playing too, so it kind of works out.”

‘The Green Sparrow’ features guest appearances from former Phishmates Page McConnell and Trey Anastasio as well as Bill Kreutzmann, Chuck Leavell and Ivan Neville. Gordon is currently touring with dates extending until September 7th in Boston.