re: Phish and vocal range, them not having the vocal range never stopped them from doing anything before!(see: Bohemian rhapsody from Boston Garden New Years). Plus The thought was that Sharon Jones was coming to help with Michael Jackson vocals.
Even on the Exile cover, there were some vocal trainwrecks. Tumblin Dice is a very difficult song to sing anyway, and the range was well above Trey's. The first half of that was a struggle for him.
Also there were some pretty bad harmony miscues especially early in the Exile set, but they seemed to settle in.
The Stones were like the Dead in that their vocal harmony's were not of the classic Music school kind, CSN they were not (the Stones or the Dead). Parts would crisscross to whoever could hit the note that needed to be hit no matter what harmony part they were singing. Very unique and effective in the Stones case and the Deads case, but very hard to replicate as any member of a Dead cover band can tell you.
Oddly enough I thought some of the most effective Exile singing was done by the two vocalists in Phish that are not known as their best singers. Mike and Fishman.......(Trey and Page are usually recognized as Phish's best singers).
I thought Mike did a fantastic job with some of Richards harmony lines and did a wonderful job singing lead on Shake your Hips.
As for Fishman, one of the highlights of the set for me was Fishman singing lead on the Keith Richards concert anthem "Happy". He nailed it! I thought Fishman also did a great take on Sweet Virginia.
I listened to the set live on Sirius and then played back part of it yesterday, so I need to listen a few more times to let it really sink in.
Actually I should have started off by qualifying this post by saying that before I was a Deadhead, the Stones were my first true love, and Exile is probably my favorite album of all time (although Dylans Blonde on Blonde is close), so I listened to Phish cover this with a fairly critical ear.
On initial listening I thought They knocked "Torn and Frayed" out of the park. Vocally and instrumentally. Also "I just want to see his face", was unbelievable.
Overall I thought they did an unbelievable job on the album and stayed true to the original while stretching out parts for jams that fir the framework perfectly. The stones original album times out at a little over an hour and Phish exile set was a little over 2, so they took liberties, but they were tastefully done, and the addition of the horns was perfect.
.......................................................have you heard the one about the yellow dog?