Trey and Tom created a demo recording of “Dirt” during a writing session held in early 1997 at a rented farmhouse in rural Vermont, that later appeared on the 2000 collection of demos
Trampled By Lambs & Pecked By The Dove. Shortly after making the original demo, Anastasio took the song public at a performance on May 21, 1997, at Club Toast in Burlington, Vermont. The one-off concert billed as
New York! saw Anastasio joined by Phish bassist
Mike Gordon, trombonist
Paul “Pistol Stamen” Jaffee (The Bunny radio station DJ) and The Pants guitarist/vocalist
Tom Lawson (who would later join Trey in April 1998 for the one-off 8 Foot Fluorescent Tubes show). Also making its debut was the future Phish song, “Saw It Again.”
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The genesis of “Farmhouse” dates back to 1997 when Trey and Tom wrote the song during one of several writing retreats they held that year. Beth Montuori Rowles, general manager at Phish, Inc., was tasked by Trey and Tom with helping find a location to write and record new songs. In the liner notes for the
Trampled By Lambs & Pecked By The Dove collection of demos from those retreats, Montuori Rowles detailed the experience, writing:
In early 1997, I got a message from Trey that he and Tom Marshall, his longtime writing partner, wanted to get together to come up with some new material for Phish. They asked if I could help them find a quiet place to write and record some demos. Not really having anything particular in mind, I spent a day driving around north-central Vermont looking for a place that had a good vibe and at least one big room.