You can count on very few things to happen year after year at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester. Two of those things include brutally hot weather and Widespread Panic tearing it up on the main stage. In fact, the band only missed the ‘Roo in 2004 (when they weren’t touring) and in 2006 (when they were in the process of firing George McConnell).

My favorite Widespread Panic Bonnaroo performance took place in 2005, when the band welcomed a number of legendary performers to the sit-in with them on June 12. Let’s check out a video from that set featuring one of my favorite keyboard players of all-time guesting on my favorite Panic cover. Here’s Herbie Hancock pounding out General Echo’s Arleen with Widespread Panic…

• Widespread Panic w/ Bob Weir: I Ain’t Superstitious (Bonnaroo ‘05)
• Widespread Panic: Fairies Wear Boots (Live at Bonnaroo ‘07)

We’d like to welcome Some Dude of Hits From The Blog to the Hidden Track editorial team. For the last month Some Dude has been contributing the Better Than Noodling column, but now he’s gonna take a bigger role. We’ve been big fans of his site for years, so we’re honored he’s come on board. Let’s bring in the Dude:

I was all ready to do my best Nuke LaLoosh impression and “announce my presence with authority” for my inaugural post by unleashing some classic GnR.

Well a funny thing happened to throw a wrench into that plan around 11:30 or so last night when the Recording Academy shocked the world when it awarded the Grammy for Album Of The Year to Herbie Hancock for River: The Joni Letters. We all saw that coming, right? So I decided to call an audible and keep the love going with something by Herbie. Here’s his classic Rockit….

This video nabbed five VMA’s back in 1984 - including one for Best Concept Video.