Widespread Panic

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Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic at the Vegoose Music Festival.
Background information
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Genre(s)	Southern rock, Jam band
Years active	1986–2003, 2005–present
Label(s)	Sanctuary
Website	http://www.widespreadpanic.com/
Members
John Bell John "JoJo" Hermann Todd Nance Domingo S. Ortiz Dave Schools Jimmy Herring
Former members
Michael Houser-Deceased George McConnell

Widespread Panic is a southern rock and jam band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring. Michael Houser and George McConnell have also played lead guitar for the band.

1 Band history
2 Music
3 Discography
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Band history

[edit] Formation of band

Michael Houser(deceased) and John Bell ('JB') met at the University of Georgia at Athens between 1982 and 1984, and began playing music together around town as a duet. JB played solo shows as well.

In the Fall of 1984, David Schools saw JB play a solo show at Abbots in Athens. Schools and JB were introduced by a mutual friend. Shortly thereafter, JB & Houser recruited Schools to play bass with them. The band was named Widespread Panic after Houser's nickname "Panic". The band's first performance as Widespread Panic took place on February 24, 1985 at the A-Frame house on Weymanda Court in Athens. Houser, JB, & Schools performed around Athens as a trio, occasionally utilizing local drummers. While their shows consisted primarily of cover tunes (by such bands as the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Bob Marley, and Traffic, among others), their repertoire did include a handful of original songs. Sleepy Monkey was the band's first original composition. Other early compositions include Chilly Water, Space Wrangler, and Coconut (although the latter was written by JB before joining the band).

During this time, the trio also met vocalist Kelly Jo Davis (who later married blues guitarist, Tinsley Ellis). Kelly Jo performed frequently with the band throughout 1985 and 1986.^[1]

On February 6, 1986, Houser recruited high school friend/bandmate Todd Nance for a WP gig (an Aid For Africa benefit) at the Mad Hatter Ballroom in Athens, opening for Strawberry Flats (featuring John Keane). This was the first official Widespread Panic show and Nance accepted an offer to join the band. On February 9, 1986, Houser, Schools, and JB, with Joel Morris on drums and Kelly Jo Davis on backing vocals, recorded Monkey Image (Sleepy Monkey) and Coconut Image (Coconut) at Panoramic Recording Studio in Arnoldsville GA, to be released as their first single. The 45rpm vinyl was released (in a pressing of only 500) shortly thereafter on the band's Space Baby label.^[1]

During the rest of 1986, WP played mainly in Athens, though they did branch out to venues in Macon, GA and South Carolina. Early on, they began playing every Monday night at the Uptown Lounge in Athens, a tradition that would last well into 1988. Along the way, they developed a solid batch of original tunes (in addition to the four originals that they played in 1985), including Stop-Go, C. Brown, Tie Your Shoes, Porch Song, Driving Song, Conrad, Vacation, Postcard, the instrumental Machine, and another instrumental jam that JB later adds lyrics to, titled Cardboard Box. On October 6, 1986, Texan percussionist Domingo S. Ortiz ("Sunny"), sat in with the band at the Uptown Lounge for the first time. Sunny continued to perform with the band on numerous occasions in Athens, Macon, and Atlanta, and eventually (late 1988 or early 1989) accepted the band's request for him to join as a full-time member.^[1]

During 1987, WP continued to play primarily in Georgia, while steadily spreading out to SC, NC, AL, TN, and as far north as Richmond, VA (Dave Schools' hometown). They developed a few more originals along the way, including Barstools & Dreamers, Contentment Blues, I'm Not Alone, and instrumentals L.a. (aka "Liza's Apartment"), and The Take Out. JB added lyrics to Cardboard Box, and to another instrumental titled "Puppet Song", subsequently renamed Pigeons. Cardboard Box was only played a handful of times before being dropped from the repertoire. In the Fall, the band signed with Landslide Records and recorded their first album, Space Wrangler, at John Keane's Studio in Athens. Guests on the album included Sunny on percussion, David Blackmon on fiddle, Tim White on keyboards, and Alberto Salazarte (of Athens band White Buffalo) on percussion.^[1]

In June of 1988, the first known guest appearance of producer John Keane on stage with the band occurred. Usually playing pedal steel, Keane became another regular guest at special Panic shows.^[1]

Their debut LP, Space Wrangler, established a small fanbase and inaugurated several years of constant touring

[edit] Rise to national prominence

The band signed to Capricorn Records and released their major label debut, Widespread Panic in 1991 (see 1991 in music). Keyboardist John Hermann ("JoJo") joined the band as a keyboardist in 1992. He brought the friendship of local guitar store owner George McConnell, his former bandmate from Beanland. After appearing with the H.O.R.D.E. tours for a few years, the band became one of the most popular new jam bands that arose in the mid-1990s. Their popularity peaked in the late 1990s/early 2000s, as their concert draw benefited from Phish's temporary hiatus. They proved to be a large draw in the Southern United States. ^[1]

Playing as many as 250 shows a year, Panic built a large fan base. True road warriors, Widespread Panic ranked among the top 50 grossing touring acts for eight years running, even without substantial radio airplay, television exposure, or promotion at retail stores. The band holds sellout records at Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver (23 shows), Oak Mountain Amphitheatre near Birmingham, Ala. (17 shows), Philips Arena in Atlanta (15 straight sold-out New Year's Eve shows), and UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans (18 shows). The band also has 20 sellouts at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, seven sellouts across the Bay at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, nine sellouts at Mud Island in Memphis, seven at Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum, and in 2002 sold out two concerts at New York's famed Madison Square Garden. ^[2] To celebrate the release of their first live album, Light Fuse, Get Away, Widespread Panic offered a free "CD release party" concert in Athens Georgia. Estimates of 60,000 to 100,000 fans descended on the town, transforming it into the largest CD release party in history.^[3]^[4]^[5]

The band also recorded two albums with guitarist Vic Chesnutt as brute. in 1996 and 2002.

[edit] Death of Houser and consequences

On August 10, 2002, founding guitarist Michael Houser lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. George McConnell, a long time friend of the band and former member of Beanland, a Mississippi roots band, member joined in Houser's wake. After Hermann had joined Panic in 1992, McConnell often sat in whenever Panic played in the south. Friends for the past 15 years, Panic and McConnell had often played on the same bill for nearly as long. That longstanding relationship made him the natural choice to continue on with Panic after Houser's death from pancreatic cancer in August of that year. "It's all about chemistry," Schools said. "We've been friends for 15 years."^[2] At the end of the summer tour, Panic went back to the studio to record Ball, a testament that, as Houser wished, they would continue as a band.

After 18 years of non-stop touring, only pausing for studio recording and Christmas vacation, the band announced in late 2003 that they would be taking a hiatus in 2004 to spend time with their friends and families. They returned to touring in March 2005, playing concerts at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

The band has sold more than 3 million albums, and released a total of 15 CDs and five DVDs (including Live at Oak Mountain, which is certified Gold).^[2] In January 2006, the band recorded their 9th studio album, Earth to America, with Terry Manning in Nassau, Bahamas at Compass Point Studios. It was released June 13, 2006. Their May 9th show at Atlanta's Fox Theatre was simulcast in LIVE HD, via satellite, exclusively into select movie theatres nationwide.^[6] This show was also released in DVD format on November 14th, 2006, entitled 'Earth To Atlanta'.^[7]

On August 2, 2006, the band announced that George McConnell would no longer be playing with the band. John Keane, friend and co-producer of many of the bands albums, provided guitar support for the remainder of the tour, along with Sam Holt. Both had been featured contributors in Widespread Panic concerts since the beginning of the Summer 2006 tour.^[8] The following day, the band announced that guitarist Jimmy Herring, who had previously been a member of the 1990s band the Aquarium Rescue Unit and had toured with The Allman Brothers Band and members of The Grateful Dead, would join the band, beginning with the first show of the Fall 2006 tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York.^[9]

[edit] Music

"Sleepy Monkey" was the first original song that the band composed, although their first single was "Coconut", written by John Bell before forming the band. Both tracks went on to be the A-side and B-side of Panic's first 45 rpm single, although on the record itself, the titles appear as "Coconut Image" and "Monkey Image". This extremely rare release was limited to 500 pressings.

"Bear Gone Fishin'" is said to be an account of the band at a Halloween Costume party where JB noticed a friend, dressed as a bear, had gone off with a girl dressed as a mermaid. "Bear gone fishin', mermaid's missin', got to get to the bottom of this..."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

Space Wrangler (1988)	Widespread Panic (1991)	Everyday (1993)	Ain't Life Grand (1994)
Bombs & Butterflies (1997)	'Til The Medicine Takes (1999)	Don't Tell the Band (2001)	Ball (2003)
Earth to America (2006)

[edit] Live Albums

Light Fuse, Get Away (1998)	Another Joyous Occasion (2000)	Live in the Classic City (2002)	Night of Joy (2004)
Über Cobra (2004)	Jackassolantern (2004)	Live at Myrtle Beach (2005)

[edit] brute. Albums

Nine High a Pallet
(1996)

Co-Balt
(2002)

[edit] Benefit CD

Contributed a track to Too Many Years to benefit Clear Path International's work with landmine survivors, 2005
In 1999, the band contributed a live performance version of "Blue Indian" to Live in the X Lounge II, an album benefiting United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham, a Birmingham, Alabama charity.