Phish
Phish performing at American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL on December 30, 2009. Left to right: Page McConnell, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon
Background information
Origin	Burlington, Vermont, USA
Genres	Rock, alternative rock, jazz fusion, neo-psychedelia, progressive rock[1] folk rock, avant-garde, funk rock, experimental rock
Years active	1983–2004 2009–present Hiatus: 2000-2002
Labels	Elektra, Rhino/WMG, JEMP
Associated acts	Phil Lesh and Friends, Oysterhead, 70 Volt Parade, Amfibian, Benevento/Russo Duo, Jazz Mandolin Project, Pork Tornado, Ramble Dove, Rhythm Devils, SerialPod, Surrender to the Air, Trey Anastasio, Trey Anastasio Band, Vida Blue
Website	www.phish.com
Members
Trey Anastasio Jon Fishman Mike Gordon Page McConnell
Past members
Jeff Holdsworth Marc Daubert

Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, exploration of music across genres, and adoring fan base. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 (with the current line up solidifying in 1985), the band's four members – Trey Anastasio (guitars, lead vocals), Mike Gordon (bass, vocals), Jon Fishman (drums, percussion, vocals), and Page McConnell (keyboards, vocals) – performed together for over 20 years before breaking up in August 2004. They reunited March 2009 for Phish in Hampton, a series of three consecutive concerts played in the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, and have since resumed performing regularly.

Phish's music blends elements of a wide variety of genres,^[2] including rock, jazz, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock, funk, folk, bluegrass, reggae, country, blues, avant garde, barbershop quartet and classical. Each of their concerts is original in terms of the songs performed, the order they appear in, and the way they are performed^{[citation needed]}.

Although the band has received little radio play or mainstream exposure, Phish—much like the band it is most often compared to, the Grateful Dead—has developed a large and dedicated following by word of mouth, the exchange of live recordings by trading tapes with other fans and selling over 8 million albums and DVDs in the United States.^[3] Rolling Stone stated that the band helped to "...spawn a new wave of bands oriented around group improvisation and superextended grooves."^[4]

History[link]

Formative years: 1983–1988[link]

Phish was formed at The University of Vermont in 1983 by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman. For their first gig, at Harris-Millis Cafeteria (a location students fondly call "The Grundle") at the University of Vermont on Dec. 2, 1983, the band was billed as "Blackwood Convention".^[5] The band was joined by percussionist Marc Daubert in the fall of 1984, a time during which they promoted themselves as playing Grateful Dead songs.^[6] Daubert left the band early in 1985,^[7] and Page McConnell then joined the group on keyboards and made his debut on Sept. 26, 1985 at a show for WRUV Radio in Burlington.^[8] Holdsworth left the group after graduation in 1986, solidifying the band's lineup of "Trey, Page, Mike, and Fish" — the lineup to this day.^[7]

Following a prank at UVM with his friend and former bandmate Steve Pollak — also known as "The Dude of Life" — and Anastasio decided to leave the college. With the encouragement of McConnell (who received $50 for each transferee), Anastasio and Fishman relocated in mid-1986 to Goddard College, a small school in the hills of Plainfield, Vermont.^[7] Phish distributed at least six different experimental self-titled cassettes during this era, including The White Tape.^[9] This first studio recording was circulated in two variations: the first, mixed in a dorm room as late as 1985, received a higher distribution than the second studio remix of the original four tracks, circa 1987. The older version was officially released under the title 'Phish' in August 1998.^[10]

The band's identity with its "hometown" of Burlington Vermont is evident in their actions. By 1985, the group had encountered Burlington, Vermont luthier Paul Languedoc, who would eventually design two guitars for Anastasio and two basses for Gordon. In October 1986, he began working as their sound engineer. Since then, Languedoc has built exclusively for the two, and his designs and traditional wood choices have given Phish a unique instrumental identity.^[11] Also during the late 1980's, Phish played regularly at Nectar's restaurant and bar in Burlington. In 1992 the album "A Picture of Nectar", named as a tribute to the owner, featured a large orange with Nectar's photo superimposed subtly within the orange.^[12][13]

As his senior project, Anastasio penned The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday, a nine-song concept album that would become their second studio experiment. Recorded between 1987 and 1988, it was submitted in July of that year, accompanied by a written thesis. Elements of the story — known as Gamehendge — grew to include an additional eight songs. The band performed the suite in concert on five occasions: in 1988, 1991, 1993, and twice in 1994 without replicating the song list.^[14]

Beginning in the spring of 1988, the band began practicing in earnest, sometimes locking themselves in a room and jamming for hours on end. Dubbed "Okipa Ceremonies" (also spelled Oh Kee Pa), one such jam took place at Anastasio's apartment, and a second was at Paul Languedoc's house in August 1989.^[15] The band attributes the sessions to Anastasio, who discovered the concept in the films A Man Called Horse and Modern Primitives.^[16] The product of one of these sessions was included in the band's first mass-released recording, a double album called Junta, later that year.

Rise to fame: 1989-1992[link]

On January 26, 1989, Phish played the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. The owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so the band rented the club for the night. The show sold out due to the caravan of fans that had traveled to see the band.^[17]

By late 1990, Phish's concerts were becoming more and more intricate, often making a consistent effort to involve the audience in the performance. In a special "secret language,"^[18] the audience would react in a certain manner based on a particular musical cue from the band. For instance, if Anastasio "teased" a motif from The Simpsons theme song, the audience would yell, "D'oh!" in imitation of  Homer Simpson. (help·info) In 1992, Phish introduced collaboration between audience and band called the "Big Ball Jam" in which each band member would throw a large beach ball into the audience and play a note each time his ball was hit. In so doing, the audience was helping to create an original composition.

In an experiment known as "The Rotation Jam", each member would switch instruments with the musician on his left. On occasion, a performance of "You Enjoy Myself" involved Gordon and Anastasio performing synchronized maneuvers on mini-trampolines while playing their instruments.^[19]

Phish, along with Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and The Beatles, was one of the first bands to have a Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.phish, which launched in 1991. Aware of the band's growing popularity, Elektra Records signed them that year. The following year A Picture of Nectar was complete: their first major studio release, enjoying far more extensive production than either 1988's Junta or 1990's Lawn Boy. These albums were eventually re-released on Elektra, as well.

The first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival in 1992 provided Phish with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. The lineup, among others, included Phish, Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors, and Widespread Panic. That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured Europe and the U.S. with Carlos Santana.

Peak of success: 1993–2000[link]

Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released Rift packaged as a concept album and with heavy promotion from Elektra including artwork by David Welker. In 1994, the band released Hoist. To promote the album, the band made their only video for MTV, "Down With Disease", airing in June of that year. Foreshadowing their future tradition of festivals, Phish coupled camping with their Summer tour finale at Sugarbush North in Fayston, Vermont in July 1994, that show eventually being released as Live Phish Volume 2.^[20] On Halloween of that year, the group promised to don a fan-selected "musical costume" by playing an entire album from another band. After an extensive mail-based poll, Phish performed The Beatles' self-titled album — as the second of their three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center in upstate New York. For their 1994 New Years Run, Phish played two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden, which were their debuts at both venues. Following the death of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia in the summer of 1995 and the appearance of "Down With Disease" on Beavis and Butthead, the band experienced a surge in the growth of their fan base and an increased awareness in popular culture.

In their tradition of playing a well-known album by another band for Halloween, Phish contracted a full horn section for their performance of The Who's Quadrophenia in 1995. Their first live album — A Live One — which was released during the summer of 1995, became Phish's first RIAA certified gold album in November 1995.^[21]

Phish retreated to their Vermont recording studio and recorded hours and hours of improvisations, sometimes overlaying them on one another, and included some of the result on the second half of Billy Breathes, which they released in the fall of 1996. Alongside traditional rock-based crescendos, the album has more acoustic guitar than their previous records, and was regarded by the band and some fans^[22] as their crowning studio achievement. The album's first single, "Free", peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and #11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, becoming the band's most successful chart single of their career.^[23]

By 1997 jams were becoming so long that several sets contained only four songs; their improvisational ventures were developing into a new funk-inspired jamming style. Vermont-based ice cream conglomerate Ben & Jerry's launched "Phish Food" that year and proceeds from the flavor are donated to the Lake Champlain Initiative. Part of Phish's new non-profit foundation, The WaterWheel Foundation was also composed of two other now-defunct branches: The Touring Branch and the Vermont Giving Program.^[24]

2000 saw no Halloween show, no summer festival and no new full-band compositions: May's Farmhouse contained material dating from 1997 and original material from Anastasio's 1999 solo acoustic/electric club tour. That summer, the band announced that they would take their first "extended time-out" following their upcoming fall tour.^[25] During the tour's last concert on October 7, 2000 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, they played a regular show and left without saying a word as The Beatles' Let It Be played over the sound system.

Wilderness years: 2001-2008[link]

Over two years after the hiatus began, Phish announced that they were getting back on the road with a New Year's Eve 2002 concert at Madison Square Garden. They also recorded Round Room in only three days. In their return concert, McConnell's brother was introduced as actor Tom Hanks. The impostor sang a line of the song "Wilson," prompting several media outlets to report that the actor had "jammed with Phish."

At the end of the 2003 summer tour, Phish held their first summer festival in four years, returning to Limestone for It. The festival drew crowds of over 60,000 fans, once again making Limestone one of the largest cities in Maine for a weekend. In December, the band celebrated its 20th anniversary with a four show mini-tour culminating at Boston's Fleet Center. During the Albany date on this tour, Phish invited founding member Jeff Holdsworth onstage for the first time since 1986.

In order to avoid the exhaustion and pitfalls of previous years' high-paced touring, Phish played sporadically after the reunion, with tours lasting about two weeks. After an April 2004 run of shows in Las Vegas, Anastasio announced on the band's website that the band was breaking up after a small summer tour.^[3]

Their final album (at the time), Undermind, was released in late spring. In the summer of 2004, the band jammed with rapper Jay-Z at one show, shot a video called "Live in Brooklyn" for broadcast in movie theaters, and performed a seven-song set atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater during The Late Show with David Letterman to fans who had gathered on the street, a move reminiscent of The Beatles' final performance on the rooftop of the Apple building in London.

Their final show of 2004 — Coventry — was named for the town in Vermont that hosted the event. 100,000 people were expected to attend. After a week of rain that prompted fears of a sinking stage, Gordon announced on local radio that no more cars would be allowed in, though only about 20,000 people had arrived. Many concert-goers parked their vehicles on roadsides and hiked to the site; an estimated 65,000 attended the emotional finale.

Phish received the Jammys Lifetime Achievement Award on May 7, 2008 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

After performing three songs together at the September 2008 wedding of their former tour road manager,^[26] Phish announced that they would perform three reunion shows on March 6, 7, and 8, 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.^[3]

Reemergence: 2009–present[link]

Phish Festival 8

Following the reunion weekend, the band played thirteen shows of a summer tour,^[3] including an inaugural concert at Fenway Park^[3] and headlining Bonnaroo 2009 in June with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Beastie Boys, and Nine Inch Nails.^[27] During their first set of the second day, Phish was joined by Springsteen on guitar for "Mustang Sally," "Bobby Jean," and "Glory Days."^[28] Twelve additional dates in July and August were announced as a Late Summer Tour, including four nights at Red Rocks, two nights at The Gorge, a stop in Chicago, and several nights in the Northeast.^[29]

Phish's fourteenth studio album, Joy,^[30] produced by Steve Lillywhite, was released September 8, 2009.^[31] A single from the album, "Time Turns Elastic", was released on iTunes in late May.^[3] The band played nine of the ten tracks throughout the course of the first leg of their summer tour, starting with "Ocelot" and then "Time Turns Elastic" on the first night of the tour.^[32] The band announced a "save-the-date" for a three-day festival on October 30 & 31 and November 1. Phish.com contained an animated map of the United States, and individual states were slowly removed from the map, leaving California.^[3] Confirming several rumors,^[33] the band announced that Festival 8 would take place in Indio, California. Festival 8 featured the band covering the Rolling Stones album "Exile on Main St." as their traditional "musical costume",^[34] and also featured the band's first full acoustic set on Sunday, just after noon.^[34] Footage from Festival 8 was released in April 2010 as a 3D movie titled "Phish 3D".^[3]

In March 2010, Trey Anastasio was asked to pay tribute to Genesis, one of his favorite bands, upon being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to Anastasio's speech, Phish appeared and performed two Genesis songs, "Watcher of the Skies" and "No Reply At All". Genesis did not perform. On May 13, 2010, Phish played the Rolling Stones "Loving Cup" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band was introduced by Keith Richards. In the late Spring and Summer of 2010, the band completed a two-legged, 29-show tour. The August Alpine Valley shows has been released as a DVD and CD.^[3]

On October 8, 2010, the band played at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. They then began a Fall tour, which highlights many indoor arenas that they had played in the early years of their career. These stops include Broomfield, CO, Utica, NY, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Manchester, NH, and Providence, RI. They concluded the Fall tour with 3 nights in Atlantic City including a Halloween show featuring the "musical costume" Waiting For Columbus originally by the band Little Feat. For their 2010 New Years Run, the band played the DCU Center in Worcester, MA on December 27 and 28, and Madison Square Garden on December 30, December 31, and for the second time, performed on New Years Day, January 1, 2011. The first time Phish played on New Years Day was January 1, 2000, from midnight to sunrise (7:45am) at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, a 3-day event in the Florida Everglades with an attendance of 70,000 to 80,000 people. On March 31, 2011, the band announced Super Ball IX, a 3-day festival that was held in Watkins Glen, NY on the weekend of July 1.^[35] On September 6, the band announced they would play a show in Essex Junction, Vermont, their first show in the state since Coventry in 2004. The show was held on September 14, and the more than $1.2 million in proceeds were donated to Vermont flood victim relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The band's last performances were at Madison Square Garden on December 28, 29, 30, and 31, 2011.

It has been announced Phish is headlining Bonnaroo 2012 with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead in June of 2012. Phish also has announced a two-legged summer tour, with a first ever, show in Oklahoma at the Zoo Amphitheater. It has been said by Phish that there will be no more tour dates for Summer or Fall of 2012.

Discography[link]

• Junta (1989)
• Lawn Boy (1990)
• A Picture of Nectar (1992)
• Rift (1993)
• Hoist (1994)
• Billy Breathes (1996)
• The Story of the Ghost (1998)
• Farmhouse (2000)
• Round Room (2002)
• Undermind (2004)
• Joy (2009)

Band members[link]

• Trey Anastasio – guitar, lead vocals (1983-present)
• Jon Fishman – drums, percussion, vocals (1983-present)
• Mike Gordon – bass, vocals (1983-present)
• Page McConnell – keyboards, vocals (1985-present)

Former members

• Jeff Holdsworth – guitar (1983-1986)
• Marc Daubert – percussion (1984-1985)

Solo work[link]

The members of Phish have worked on various musical side projects. Anastasio continued the solo career he'd begun in 1998, formed the group Oysterhead, and began conducting an orchestral composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Gordon made an album with acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke and two films before launching his own solo career. Fishman alternated between Jazz Mandolin Project and his band Pork Tornado, while McConnell formed the trio Vida Blue.

During their break-up, members of Phish maintained various solo projects. Trey continued his solo career with his own band and performed with Oysterhead in June 2006. Gordon played with Leo Kottke and the Benevento/Russo Duo. At Rothbury in 2006, he played with his newest project, Ramble Dove, which is the name of the country outfit he fronted in his directorial feature Outside Out, and also joined Grateful Dead drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann along with Steve Kimock and Jen Durkin as the Rhythm Devils. Anastasio and Gordon toured as a four-piece with the Benevento/Russo Duo in the summer of 2006. McConnell debuted his new solo project at a festival in September 2006 held by jam band moe. and released his self-titled debut on April 17, 2007. Fishman has performed occasional shows with the Everyone Orchestra, The Village and the Yonder Mountain String Band, but had, for the most part, retired from the music business.

Music[link]

The music of Phish is "oriented around group improvisation and superextended grooves"^[36] that draw on a range of rock-oriented influences, including psychedelic rock, funk, reggae, hard rock and various "acoustic" genres, such as folk and bluegrass. Some Phish songs use different vocal approaches, such as a cappella (unaccompanied) sections of barbershop quartet-style vocal harmonies.

Some of their original compositions (such as "Theme from the Bottom") tend towards a psychedelic rock and bluegrass fusion, with more rock, jazz and funk elements than the Grateful Dead and other earlier jam bands like Pink Floyd. Their more ambitious, epic compositions (such as "You Enjoy Myself" and "Guyute") are often said to resemble classical music in a rock setting, much like the music of one of their heroes, Frank Zappa.

Live performances[link]

The driving force behind Phish is the popularity of their concerts and the fan culture surrounding the event. Each a production unto itself, the band is known to consistently change set lists and details, as well as the addition of their own antics to ensure that no two shows are ever the same. With fans flocking to venues hours before they open, the concert is the centerpiece of an event that includes a temporary community in the parking lot, complete with "Shakedown Street": at times a garment district, art district, food court, or pharmacy.^[37] For many, one concert is simply a prelude to the next as the community follows the band around the country.

Because Phish's reputation is so grounded in their live performances, concert recordings are commonly-traded commodities. Official soundboard recordings can be purchased through the Live Phish website. Legal field recordings produced by tapers with boom microphones from the audience in compliance with Phish's tape trading policy^[38] are frequently traded on any number of music message boards. Although technically not allowed, live videos of Phish shows are also traded by fans and are tolerated as long as it is for non-profit, personal use. Phish fans have been noted for their extensive collections of fan-taped concert recordings; owning recordings of entire tours and years is widespread.

In other media[link]

Phish began appearing in video games in 2009. Their song "Wilson" (December 30, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY as released on A Live One),^[39][40] appeared in Rock Band's Bonnaroo song pack, along with other songs by artists playing at the Bonnaroo Festival that year. A Phish "Live Track Pack" for Guitar Hero World Tour became available on June 25, 2009.^[41] Recordings of "Sample in a Jar" (December 1, 1994 at Salem Armory, Salem, Oregon), "Down With Disease" (December 1, 1995 at Hersheypark Arena, Hershey, Pennsylvania) and "Chalk Dust Torture" (November 16, 1994, Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, as released on A Live One) have been released, compatible with Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. On August 19, 2010, it was confirmed that Llama would be a playable song in Rock Band 3, released on October 26, 2010.^[42]They also have an ice cream flavour named after them, Ben & Jerrys Phish food, to recognise their shared Vermont heritage (Phish Food packaging).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Phish

• Official website
• Phish.net, Phish fansite
• Phish on Myspace
• Phish's channel on YouTube

Clifford Ball (1896?-1947?) was an American fantasy writer whose primary distinction was having been one of the earliest post-Howard writers in the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy.

Before dropping from sight, Ball contributed six short stories to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s under the editorships of Farnsworth Wright and Dorothy McIlwraith. The setting of the first three is vaguely like Howard's Hyborian Age of warring kingdoms, and features the barbarian adventurers Duar, an amnesiac king protected by a guardian sprite, and Rald, a thief and mercenary. The remaining stories are more conventional fantasies.^[1]

Some of Ball's stories have been reprinted from the 1970s onward, most notably in the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edited by Lin Carter.

Bibliography[link]

All of Ball's known works were published in Weird Tales, in the issues for the dates indicated.

• "Duar the Accursed" (May 1937; reprinted in New Worlds for Old, edited by Lin Carter (1971)
• "The Thief of Forthe" (July 1937; reprinted in Savage Heroes, edited by Eric Pendragon (1977) and The Barbarian Swordsmen, edited by Sean Richards (1981)
• "The Goddess Awakes" (February 1938; reprinted in Realms of Wizardry, edited by Lin Carter (1976)
• "The Swine of Ææa" (March 1939)
• "The Little Man" (August 1939)
• "The Werewolf Howls" (November 1941; reprinted in 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg and Martin H. Greenberg (1994)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Clifford Ball at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

This article about an American fantasy writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Demetri Martin
Demetri Martin at Northeastern University on April 11, 2007
Born	(1973-05-25) May 25, 1973 (age 39) New York City, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Years active	Since 2002
Genres	Observational comedy, surreal humor, musical comedy, wit/wordplay, sketch comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday Life, American Culture, Random Subjects
Influences	Steven Wright, Eddie Izzard, Emo Philips, Mitch Hedberg, Socrates
Notable works and roles	· Demetri Martin. Person.  · Correspondent on The Daily Show  · Himself/Various on Important Things with Demetri Martin  · Elliot Tiber in Taking Woodstock (2009)
Website	www.demetrimartin.com

Demetri Martin (born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Early life[link]

Demetri Martin was born to a Greek American family^[1] in New York City, New York, and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey. He is the son of Lillian, a nutritionist, and Dean C. Martin, now deceased, a Greek Orthodox priest.^[2] Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. Although he was accepted into Harvard Law School, he went to New York University School of Law after he received a full scholarship.^[3]

Career[link]

In 2001, Martin caught his first big break in stand-up comedy when he appeared on Comedy Central's stand-up showcase Premium Blend. At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe he won the Perrier award with his show If I....^[4] The show was turned into a British television special in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, Martin wrote for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[5] In 2004, Martin had his own Comedy Central Presents stand-up special. His special was divided into three parts. In the first, he performed in traditional stand-up comedy fashion. In the second segment, he used humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. During the third segment, he played a guitar and put on a pseudo-play where he would strum his guitar while alternating between playing harmonica and talking; some of his comedian friends dressed as fairies and dragons acted according to the story he was telling, detailing the magical land where his jokes came from. Martin's mother and grandmother also appeared.

Since late 2005, he has been credited as a contributor on The Daily Show, on which he has appeared as the named "Senior Youth Correspondent" and on which he hosts a segment called "Trendspotting". He has used this segment to talk about so-called hip trends among youth such as hookahs, wine, guerilla marketing and Xbox 360. A piece about social networking featured his profile on MySpace.^[6] On March 22, 2007, Demetri made another appearance on The Daily Show, talking about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube.

He has recorded a comedy CD/DVD titled These Are Jokes, which was released on September 26, 2006. This album also features Saturday Night Live member Will Forte and stand-up comedian Leo Allen.

Martin returned to The Daily Show on March 22, 2006, as the new Youth Correspondent, calling his segment "Professional Important News with Demetri Martin". In 2007, he starred in a Fountains of Wayne music video for "Someone to Love" as Seth Shapiro, a character in the song. He also starred in the video for the Travis single "Selfish Jean", in which he wears multiple t-shirts with lyrics written on them.

On September 2, 2007, Martin appeared on the season finale of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords. He appeared as a keytar player named Demetri.^[7]

He also had a part in the movie The Rocker (2008) starring Rainn Wilson. Martin played the part of the videographer when the band in the movie was making their first music video.

In 2009, he hosted and starred in his own television show called Important Things With Demetri Martin on Comedy Central. Later in June, it was announced his show had been renewed for a second season.^[8] The second season premiered, again on Comedy Central, on February 4, 2010. Martin has stated that Important Things will not return for a third season.

Prior to completing work on his second season, Martin starred in the comedy-drama film Taking Woodstock (2009), directed by Ang Lee, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In the film Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskill Mountains motel. The film is based on the book written by Tiber.

On April 25, 2011, Martin released his first book, titled This Is a Book by Demetri Martin.

Martin was slated to portray Paul DePodesta as Oakland Athletics assistant GM to Billy Beane in the 2011 movie Moneyball, however was dropped and Jonah Hill took his place in the movie.

Plans[link]

Martin sold his movie concept Will to DreamWorks; he is expected to play a key supporting role.^[9] He will play the lead in the film Moon People, a pitch that he sold to Columbia Pictures.

Martin also signed a blind script deal with CBS in October 2010 to produce, write, and star in his own television series.^[10]

After CBS was shown the pilot for the series, they decided not to air it.^[11]

On August 11, 2011, Fox ordered a presentation of a new animated show they might air.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] If I

If I is a Perrier Comedy Award-winning comedy one-man show written and performed by Demetri Martin at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[12] It was also aired on British television as a special. The show is an autobiographical examination of Martin's life, as seen through various definitions of the word "if."

The title of the special comes from a lengthy palindromic poem that Martin wrote; the words "if I" are at the center of the poem.^[13]

Comedic style[link]

Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses one-liners and drawings on a "large pad", as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once.^[14] He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) and he is also a fan of Bill Cosby.^[15]

Personal life[link]

According to a July 2011 interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Demetri had a short-lived marriage to a girl he knew from high school. They began dating after high school and got married when he was in NYU Law School and she was attending NYU Medical School. He was aged 25 and in the end of his marriage when his stand-up career began.^[3]

He is extremely allergic to nuts and peanuts.^[16]

Martin moved to Santa Monica, California in 2009.^[17]

Filmography[link]

• Invite Them Up (2005)
• These Are Jokes (2006)
• Demetri Martin. Person. (2007)
• Important Things with Demetri Martin (2009–2010)

Filmography and television work[link]

Written works[link]

• This Is a Book, April 2011, ISBN 978-0446539708.

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (May 2012)

• Official website
• Demetri Martin on Myspace
• Demetri Martin at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview from November, 2006, in Onion AV Club
• Interview from October 2006, in The DePaulia
• Article, in The Scotsman
• Article, in Gelf Magazine
• Interview by Brian M. Palmer
• MP3 Audio Interview on The Sound of Young America public radio show and podcast
• Interview Believer Mag
• New Jersey Monthly Magazine
• Fresh Air, NPR.org

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers^[1] (born August 21, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.

Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever".^[2] He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.^[3] He has received numerous such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.^[4]

Later success includes the 2006 album release, Water & Bridges, an across the board hit, that peaked at #5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting high in the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, "I Can't Unlove You," was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the following year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland, telling BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright his favorite hit was "The Gambler". He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and the MacShayne series as well as his appearance on The Muppet Show.^[5][6]

Personal life[link]

Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, in 1938, the fourth of seven children born to Lucille (née Hester; d. 1991), a nurse, and Edward Floyd Rogers (d. 1975), a carpenter.^[7] Rogers graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Houston.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

His career began in the mid 1950s when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars, who had some success with a single called "Poor Little Doggie." Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo.

Now on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the breakup with his own single, a minor solo hit called "That Crazy Feeling" (1958). After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Trio, who got a lot of work in clubs thanks to a reasonable fan following and also recorded for Columbia Records. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called "Here's That Rainy Day" failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers; including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966 he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player.

Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams, and Thelma Camacho left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Something's Burning", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", "Reuben James" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, sporting long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses.

When the group split in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. Rogers soon developed a more middle of the road sound, with a somewhat rough but tuneful voiced style that sold to both pop and country audiences; to date, he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including upwards of 25 #1's) and 50 of his albums have charted. His music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy and The Big Lebowski.^[8][9]

Solo career[link]

Rogers in 1981.

After leaving The First Edition in 1976, after almost a decade with the group, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists. Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.

Rogers first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles "Love Lifted Me" and "While the Feeling's Good" were minor hits. The song "Runaway Girl" was featured in the motion picture Trackdown. Later in 1976, Rogers issued his second album, the self-titled Kenny Rogers, whose first single "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", was another solo hit.

The single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers' post-First Edition career. On the strength of "Lucille", the album Kenny Rogers reached #1 in the Billboard Country Album Chart. More success was to follow, including the multi-million selling album The Gambler and another international Number 1 single, "Coward of the County", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny. In 1980, the Rogers/Butler partnership came to an end, though they would occasionally reunite: in 1987 on the album I Prefer the Moonlight and again in 1993 on the album If Only My Heart Had a Voice.

In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and country singer Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo had three hit albums, selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour. Their hits together "Every Time Two Fools Collide", "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" and "What Are We Doin' in Love" became Country standards. Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview "She, more than anybody else I ever worked with, sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang." Rogers was with West when she died after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident. In 1995 he starred opposite Michele Lee in the CBS biopic Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980, his duet with Kim Carnes "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" became a major hit. Later in 1980 came his partnership with Lionel Richie who wrote and produced Rogers' #1 hit "Lady". Richie went on to write and produce Rogers' 1981 album Share Your Love, a chart topper and commercial favorite featuring hits such as "I Don't Need You" (Pop #3), "Through the Years" (Pop #13), and "Share Your Love with Me" (Pop #14). His first Christmas album was also released that same year. In 1982, Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around. The Love Will Turn You Around (song) reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country and AC charts. due to its exposure as the theme song of Rogers' 1982 film Six Pack. Shortly after he started working with producer David Foster in 1983 recording the smash Bob Seger cover "We've Got Tonight", a duet with Sheena Easton.

He went on to work with the Bee Gees to record and produce his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another #1 hit "Islands in the Stream", a duet with Dolly Parton. The Gibbs originally wrote the song for Marvin Gaye in an R&B style, only later to change it for the Kenny Rogers album.^[10] The partnership with Bee Gees only lasted one album, which was not a surprise considering that Rogers' original intentions were to work with Barry Gibb in only one song but Barry insisted on them doing the entire album.

"Islands in the Stream", Rogers' duet with Dolly Parton, was the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, and it quickly went to #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 (it would prove to be the last country single to reach #1 on that chart until "Amazed" by Lonestar did so in 2000), as well as topping Billboard's country and adult contemporary singles charts; it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping two million copies in the United States. Rogers would reunite with Parton in 1984 for a holiday album and TV special, Once Upon a Christmas, as well as a 1985 duet "Real Love", which also topped the U.S. country singles chart.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the "Islands in the Stream"s success, however, RCA insisted on releasing Eyes' title track as the first UK single, and the song stalled at a disappointing #61 there, although it did stay in the top 100 for several weeks (when it was eventually released in the United States, it was more successful, charting high on the Adult Contemporary chart and making the country top 30). "Islands in the Stream" was issued as a followup single in Britain and sold well, making #7. The album itself reached #1 on the country charts on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed multi-million sales. "Buried Treasure," "This Woman" and "Evening Star"/"Midsummer Nights" were also all successful singles from the album.

Shortly after came the album What About Me?, a hit whose title track, a trio performance with James Ingram and Kim Carnes, was nominated for a Grammy award; the single "Crazy" (not to be confused with the Willie Nelson-penned Patsy Cline hit) topped the country charts. David Foster was to work again with Rogers in his 1985 album The Heart of the Matter, although this time Foster was playing backing music rather than producing, a role given to George Martin. This album was another success, going to #1, with the title track making to the top ten category in the singles charts.

The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago," "Morning Desire," "Tomb of the Unknown Love", among others. On January 28, 1985 Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium.^{[citation needed]}

In January 1987, Rogers co-hosted the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In 1988 Rogers won a grammy "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" with Ronnie Milsap — "Make No Mistake, She's Mine". In the 1990s Rogers continued to chart with singles such as "Crazy In Love", "If You Want To Find Love" and "The Greatest". His second Christmas album entitled "Christmas in America" was released in 1989 for Reprise Records. From 1991-94, Rogers hosted The Real West on A&E, and on The History Channel since 1995 (Reruns only on The History Channel). He visited Miller's during this time period. From 1992-95, Rogers co-owned and headlined Branson, Missouri's 4,000 seat Grand Palace Theatre. In 1994, Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records. It consisted of 1930s/40s jazz standards; it was the type of music he performed in his early days with The Bobby Doyle Three in Houston.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996 he released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Rogers performed the songs (several of his own hits were in there). The album was the first for the TV shopping channel QVC's record label, onQ Music. The album, sold exclusively by QVC, was a huge success and was later issued in stores under a variety of different titles. It reached #1 in the UK country charts under the title Love Songs (a title also used for various compilations) and also crossed over into the mainstream charts.

In 1999 Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game). The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video. It was on Rogers' album She Rides Wild Horses the following year (itself a top 10 success). In 1999, Rogers also produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement. Not on any album, the recording sells for a high sum at auction.^{[citation needed]}

Beyond the 1990s[link]

Kenny Rogers in 2004

In the 21st century, Rogers was back at #1 for the first time in more than a decade with the 2000 single "Buy Me a Rose". In doing so, he broke a 26-year-old record held by Hank Snow (who, in April 1974, was 59 years and 11 months old when he scored with "Hello Love"). Rogers held the record until 2003, when then 70-year-old Willie Nelson became the oldest artist to have a No. 1 on the country charts with his duet with Toby Keith, "Beer for My Horses".

Although Rogers did not record new albums for a couple of years, he continued to have success in many countries with more greatest hits packages. In 2004 42 Ultimate Hits, which was the first hits collection to span his days with the First Edition to the present, reached Number 6 on the American country charts and went gold. It also featured two new songs, "My World Is Over" with Whitney Duncan and "We Are the Same". "My World Is Over" was released as a single and was a minor hit. In 2005 The Very Best of Kenny Rogers, a double album, sold well in Europe. It was the first new solo Kenny Rogers hits album to reach the United Kingdom for over a decade, despite many compilations there that were not true hits packages.

Rogers also signed with Capitol Records and had more success with the TV advertised release 21 Number Ones in January 2006. Although this CD did contain 21 chart-toppers as the title claims (recorded between 1976 and the present day), this was not a complete collection of Rogers' #1 singles, omitting such singles as "Crazy in Love" and "What About Me?"

Much of his success was during the period from 1976 to 1983, when he was signed to United Artists and later Liberty. It is very rare for an artist of Rogers' age to be signed to a major label. Capitol followed 21 Number Ones with Rogers' new studio album, Water And Bridges, in March 2006 on the Capitol Nashville Records label. The first single from the album was "I Can't Unlove You" which peaked at # 1 7 on the country charts, after spending over 6 months on the hit list, more than 50 years after he formed his first group and 38 years after his first major hit as leader of The First Edition; the song remains in recurrent airplay on some radio stations today. "I Can't Unlove You" was followed up with the second single from the album, "The Last Ten Years (Superman)", in September 2006. The third single, "Calling Me," which features Don Henley, became popular in early 2007, and was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Also in 2007, the 1977 "Kenny Rogers" album was re-issued as a double play CD, also featuring the 1979 "Kenny" album and this once again put Rogers' name into the sales charts worldwide. The following year, another compilation album ("A Love Song Collection") also charted. He currently lives in Atlanta.

As of 2011 Rogers has recorded 65 albums and sold over 190 million records.^[11][12]

On August 26, 2008, Rogers released "50 Years"^[13] exclusively at Cracker Barrel stores. The album includes some of Rogers' greatest hits, plus 3 new songs. The release is designed to celebrate Rogers' 50th year in the music business. However, it should be noted Rogers has been in the music business for more than 50 years including his releases with The Scholars, who recorded for a local label in Houston. 1958 was the year he signed his first recording deal with a major label. In 2007 the England national rugby union team team adopted Rogers song "The Gambler" as their unofficial 2007 Rugby World Cup anthem,^[14] after hearing prop Matt Stevens playing it in the team hotel. Before the Semi-final against France and the Final against South Africa, Rogers sent video messages of support to the team in light of them choosing his song. He offered to come to England and party with the team if they won the World Cup.

In 2008 Rogers toured with his Christmas Show. He split the show up, making the first half his "best of" and the second half his Christmas songs. One such show was at Mohegan Sun Casino^[15] in Uncasville, Connecticut.

In 2009 he toured the United Kingdom. In 2009, Rogers embarked on his 50th Anniversary Tour. The tour went around the United States, Britain and Ireland.

On April 10, 2010, a TV special was taped, Kenny Rogers: The First 50 Years. Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie were among those set to perform with Kenny during a show celebrating his contribution to country, blues and pop music, It took place at the MGM Grand in Foxwoods. This special is set debut on March 8, 2011 on Great American Country.^{[dated info]}

Outside music[link]

Rogers also had success as an actor. His 1982 movie Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the United States box office, while made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County (based on hit songs of his) topped ratings lists.

As an entrepreneur, he collaborated with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1991 to start up the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters. The chicken and ribs chain, which is similar to Boston Market, was famously featured in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld called "The Chicken Roaster". On the November 27, 1997, broadcast of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Rogers could not pick his chicken out in a taste test, claiming he preferred "greasy burgers."^{[citation needed]}

Rogers and his restaurant were subjects of comedy from MADtv, especially the impersonation done by Will Sasso; the sketch of the faux-Rogers hosting Jackass became popular on the Internet.

Rogers put his name to the Gambler Chassis Co., a Sprint car racing manufacturer started by C. K. Spurlock in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The company used the name from Rogers hit song The Gambler. During the 1980s/90s, Gambler was one of the fastest and widely used Sprintcars with such drivers as Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Doug Wolfgang driving the cars to victory in the World of Outlaws and the famous Knoxville Nationals. Gambler sprintcars were also successful in Australia with drivers such as Garry Rush and Steve Brazier using Gamblers to win multiple Australian Sprintcar Championships.

Rogers appeared in a 2004 episode of Reno 911 as himself being subjected to incompetent security provided by starstruck sheriff's deputies to comical effect.

Marriages[link]

• Wanda Miller, June 1, 1997 – present; 2 children
• Marianne Gordon, October 1, 1977 – 1993, divorced; 1 child
• Margo Anderson, October 1964 – 1976, divorced; 1 child
• Jean Rogers, October 1960 – 1963, divorced
• Janice Gordon, May 15, 1958 – April 1960, divorced; 1 child^[16]

Discography[link]

Awards/Honors[link]

Record labels[link]

The following is a list of record labels to which Rogers signed:

• Cue (1957, with the band The Scholars and also as a solo singer)
• Carlton (1958, solo deal)
• KenLee (one single, label owned by Rogers and his brother Lelan)
• Columbia (1960s, with jazz combo, The Bobby Doyle Three)
• Reprise (1967, with The First Edition, all material recorded during this time has since been acquired by Universal Music)
• Jolly Rogers (1973, with The First Edition, label was owned by Rogers)
• United Artists (1975, solo deal)
• Liberty (1980, United Artists merged into EMI/Capitol in 1980; some pressings of albums were issued on Capitol's imprint labels, EMI, EMI America, and EMI Manhattan.)
• RCA (1983, solo deal)
• Reprise (1989, solo deal)
• Giant (1993, one solo album)
• Atlantic (1994, one solo album)
• onQ Music (1996, one solo album; onQ Music was created by the QVC Network to release exclusive albums for sale only on QVC. The first onQ release was Rogers' Vote for Love, a two-disc set that would later become available in standard retail stores.)
• Magnatone (1996, solo deal)
• Dreamcatcher (1998, solo deal; Dreamcatcher was owned and run by Rogers and Jim Mazza for the purpose of releasing Rogers albums and certain reissues of Rogers' catalog. Other artists such as Marshall Dyllon and Randy Dorman were released on Dreamcatcher Records, also. The label closed in 2004)
• Capitol Nashville (2004, solo deal)

See also[link]

• Brady Hawkes

References[link]