This entry contains legacy content from the earler Phish.net's FAQ file and/or from earlier editions of The Phish Companion. It may be incomplete and/or out-of-date, but we hope to update it soon.
Baby Gramps is not so much a man, but a one-man circus act. With a voice like Popeye on helium, Gramps has been known to do tightrope walking in addition to performing his unique brand of bizarre honky-skronk on a beat-up old guitar. Also a big fan of palindromes and other linguaphile absurdities and curiosities, Baby Gramps was the inspiration for the Flecktones’ album UFO Tofu, which contains a few musical palindromes.
He is often associated with Leftover Salmon, and indeed they helped distribute his first CD, Same Old Timeously. Gramps opened extensively for Salmon on their 1998 tours, almost always making an appearance on-stage with them for tunes like “Fairies,” “Washington at Valley Forge,” and “Ask the Fish.” Gramps himself also tours occasionally, either solo or with singing saw and homemade-bass player Curtis Chamberlain. He can be seen most frequently on the West Coast, and plays regular gigs around the Portland and Seattle areas, specializing in fairs and festivals.
Gramps has made three appearances at Phish shows during Summer 1993 when Phish hit his Northwestern U.S. stomping grounds. Gramps opened for Phish at shows in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. It was at this third show that Baby Gramps actually shared the stage with Phish, performing the enigmatic “Tea Tray Song” with Fishman on vacuum during the second set. In subsequent solo appearances, he has been known to reference this Portland show (8/26/93), stating that those Phish guys are nice, and they were almost able to keep up with his playing!
Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.
This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.
Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA
The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.
And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $2 million to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.