Phish aims to make a national splash March 27, 1994 - The Boston Globe by Steve Morse Vermont's little band that could - is about to explode into a bigger pond. They've already taken over New England, where their neo-hippie audiences fill the Worcester Centrum and Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts. Next up is the rest of the country, which should succumb once the new Phish album - the highly accessible "Hoist" - hits the shops on Tuesday. "Accessible. Yeah, I'll give you that," Phish pianist Page McConnell said from Burlington, Vt., this week. "We were definitely out to make this one more accessible. Our previous albums had their good and bad sides, but none of us spent much time listening to them. We wanted to make one we might really like to listen to." That's Phish-speak for an album that's neither as seriously cerebral as the last, "Rift," or as zanily cartoonish as the previous one, "Pictures of Nectar." Adds McConnell: "We wanted an album that didn't have as many silly lyrics or as many fantasy-oriented lyrics." The new "Hoist," produced by Paul Fox (10,000 Maniacs, Sugarcubes, XTC) is more straightforward. The group has always sold more concert tickets than albums, but this immensely likable disc, blending rock, bluegrass and Frank Zappa-style jazz-rock - could change that. Already, the single "Down With Disease" (featuring a guitar riff reminiscent of the Beatles' "Taxman") has caught fire nationally. It was the No. 1-added song this week on "Triple A" radio (standing for adult-album-alternative) and No. 4 on AOR (album-oriented rock) stations. The new single, sung by McConnell, has a kick-out-the-jams flavor and contains a reference to the band's "Phish-head" fans: "A thousand barefoot children outside dancing on the lawn." Those same Phish-heads are expected to fill Great Woods again this summer, when the band may play two nights. (Phish opens its spring tour April 4 at Burlington's Flynn Theater.) Unlike past Phish albums, "Hoist" features a number of guest appearances - all of them well chosen. Bluegrass queen Alison Krauss duets with Phish's Trey Anastasio on "If I Could," a tender song about romantic escape: "Take me where the whispering breezes can lift me up and spin me around." The Tower of Power horns pop up on the wailing "Julius." Sly Stone's sister, Rose, brings an R & B electricity to "Down with Disease" and "Wolfman's Brother." Progressive banjoist Bela Fleck heightens the playful bluegrass of "Scent of a Mule" (which must be the only song to discuss mules and lasers in the same verse), as well as the quietly hymn-like "Lifeboy," an acoustic ballad about seeking peace through prayer. It's a very literal song by Phish standards. Further guest appearances come from the Rickey Grundy Gospel Chorale and a string section of Richard Greene (formerly of Sea Train) and Morgan Fichter, who played on the 10,000 Maniacs' recent "Unplugged" album. The guests were mostly brought in by producer Fox. "We let the producer get involved more," says McConnell. "But the guests don't overwhelm the album." And the guests were certainly devoted to Phish. Bluegrasser Krauss changed her tour plans to make a studio date in Los Angeles, where the record was made. And banjoist Fleck awoke at 4 a.m. to fly from Cleveland to LA for his session, even though he had to fly back that afternoon. The album includes a couple of the terrific jams for which Phish is known. There's the Santana-like "Axilla (Part II)" and the Zappa/Grateful Dead-influenced "Demand," which achieves a pot-boiling crescendo common at Phish shows. (To express their Zappa devotion, Phish even covered Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia" at their New Year's Eve Centrum party three months ago.) While Phish gears up for its next tour, the group is again back home in Burlington. Three Phish members attended tiny Goddard College and began playing Vermont bars 10 years ago. "I just really like it up here. It's out of the way and has a small-town feeling to it," says McConnell. "It definitely feels like a community. And where else would we go? I can't imagine us moving to Boston or Los Angeles. We're on the road a lot - eight or nine months last year - so why not spend the rest of our time in a beautiful place like Vermont?"