Page McConnell (self-titled)
This is the one I've been waiting for, the one former Phish member's solo album that I wanted to see what would happen next. I wondered where his mindset was at after hearing so little from him in almost three years since Coventry. Page McConnell is not the best album ever, but if you know who he is by name, then I think it'll make you smile. There's some of the shaggy happy-go-lucky Page that sort of makes me harken back to the olden days. At one point in the ten-and-a-half minute epic "Heavy Rotation" it's somewhere deep in the middle of a "Split Open and Melt" jam, there's a "Sneakin' Sally" funk when Page goes "Back to the Basement" for an eight minute instrumental. However, at some other points it's the snoozy (greenberg) that makes you feel like a watered-down "Water in the Sky" (can't bring myself to link to that song). Some classic layering of grand piano on top of organ and the old "top shelf" funky wurlitzer bring you back, but Page shows he's a modern man of the 00's, referencing '18" spinning rims and using some computer type beats and effects in "Complex Wind." Overall, he sounds more melancholy than fired up for his life, but I hear where he's coming from, wondering if he can "weather not the storm, but the calm." Life after Phish continues to go on, and it does the heart good to see Page making music. Verdict: I'm still a Page fan, fifteen years later. - TK