Once again, Jambands.com’s news page breaks a story of major interest to jamfans. While Phish and The Dead seem to be gearing up for a return next year, Widespread Panic joins moe. in taking a break from the road in 2009. Here’s the scoop on WSP’s NYE plans and the planned hiatus…
For the first time in their career, the members of Widespread Panic will not celebrate New Year’s Eve in Georgia. Panic has rung in the new year in a number of Georgian cities over the years, finding a home at Atlanta’s Phillips Arena in 1999. As heavily rumored, Widespread Panic will perform at Denver’s Pepsi Center on December 30 and 31 with openers Yonder Mountain String Band.
Following New Year’s Eve, Widespread Panic will spend most of 2009 off the road. The group is expected to, however, return for a series of dates at the end of 2009. Widespread Panic was also on hiatus in 2004. [Jambands]
As DaveO mentioned to me, guitarist Jimmy Herring’s gonna have a lot of time on his hands next year. Let’s look at a clip of a song that’s sure to end Panic’s NYE show:
The summer concert season has kept the HT gang busy for the last couple of months hitting amphitheaters, clubs, boats and festies in order to catch great live music. Since we haven’t seen each other in quite awhile, we thought we’d round up crew to crack open some Sea Hag IPA’s for one last summertime cook out and another rousing edition of At The Barbecue - that’s bound to ruffle a few feathers.
This time around we’re going with bands that all your friends love, but no matter how hard you try they still leave you scratching your head wondering just what the fuss is all about…
“Generic.” “Ordinary.” “Plain.” These words could be used to describe The Band’s name. But I also enjoy using them to describe The Band’s music. Before you go all “Oh man…The Last Waltz…best doc EVAR…Scorsese…blah blah” Let me tell you: Yes, I’ve watched The Last Waltz. And it’s not all bad. It’s just the parts when The Band are playing their songs that I usually find myself dozing off.
READ ON for more Head Scratchers from the Hidden Track Staff…
It’s been more than a quarter of a century since Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have performed live on-stage as their stoner comedy personas Cheech & Chong. Well, come this September that will all change as the duo will embark on their Light Up America tour - the duo’s first in over 25 years. Tickets for select dates will go on-sale starting August 8, with more dates to be revealed in the coming weeks.
If some classic stoner-comedy isn’t your idea of a good time, than maybe one of these recently announced tour will be…
Finally, it’s been quite some time since we’ve done an ol’ fashion festival announcement around these parts. Since we didn’t want to get rusty we thought we’d share the initial line-up for the second installment of South Padre International Music Festival. Taking place on South Padre Island, TX from October 31st through November 2nd, the diverse bill boasts the likes of Willie Nelson, Los Lonely Boys, Ghostland Observatory, Grupo Fantasma and Foghat. Three-day, weekend passes are available at an early-bird discount rate of $70 plus tax and service fees until August 24. A portion of the ticket proceeds will go to help benefit a most worthy cause: Hurricane Dolly relief efforts in the Rio Grande Valley.
With the Information Age in full swing, keeping up to date on the jambands just keeps getting easier: no more B&Ps, trader tape lists, or lot newsletters. Now, to keep up to date, there are a million tricks of the trade thanks to the internet.
One of my personal favorite of these tricks that I picked up to help stay current involves what I like to call the Jamband Charts. Essentially, I just poke through Live Downloads to determine the most popular downloads at both the aggregate level and for the more active individual bands. In doing so, you get a pretty good sense of the best bust outs at recent shows, which are almost always either monster jams, rarities, or kick ass covers. So, today I thought I’d put on my DJ hat and dedicate a Bust Outs column to what’s hot and climbing the Jamband Charts this summer.
As Bob Cormier from Stand By Me would say, “From the racks and stacks, it’s the best on wax! How ’bout another double-golden-oldie-twin-spin-sound-sandwich from K-L-A-M in Portland? Iiiiiiit’s… BOSS.”
Widespread Panic – Stir It Up
Do you want to get in a good mood? Just imagine being at Red Rock while JoJo leads this kinky reggae funkfest. I could listen to Panic play this song for hours. One thing to note for a laugh is when the guitar chords come in towards the beginning, you can tell that after all these years, Jimmy Herring is still having fun playing with a wah pedal. READ ON for more of this week’s Bust Outs…
After an incredibly long hiatus, Australia’s AC/DC plans to return to the road later this year to support their first new album, tentatively titled Black Ice. The new release, AC/DC’s first new album since 2000, will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart Stores where Money truly Talks. Look for more details to be announced soon.
Here’s what else we found to help you get over the hump:
Dave Schools of Widespread Panic responds to Lefsetz’s recent post
And finally, Neil Young makes his return to The Late Show with David Letterman this evening for a rare appearance on US Network Television. Neil won’t be performing, but will probably discuss Farm Aid and how much he hates George Bush.
In celebration of our Independence Day I have selected the Star Spangled Banner as our cover of choice this week. Those not familiar with the history of our nation’s National Anthem should click the link above and learn how a poem from 1814 was set to the tune of a popular drinking song and became our Nation’s #1 theme song.
I’m not going to have a vote this week (wouldn’t everyone vote for Hendrix?), so I guess this is more of a B List than a Cover Wars. There have been a lot of amazing performances of the Star Spangled Banner and I have compiled a variety of videos selecting some of my favorites (while giving preferential treatment to the artists most frequently covered here on Hidden Track) but also including a few mainstream artists as well.
Marvin Gaye (1983 NBA All Star Game):
READ ON after the jump for many more performances of the Anthem….
I haven’t been this excited for a batch of new releases in a long time. Today three incredible albums hit the stores and your favorite download portals. This is just a reminder that you’ve gotta plunk down some hard earned cash for the following:
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…
As YouTube continues to add millions of videos a day to their already vast archives, it has become harder to find the best clips the site has to offer. One way to keep your eyes on the prize is to create an account on the site and use the subscribe feature on your favorite channels, so that you can see all the videos that may interest you on the YouTube home page every time you visit.
Now, you’re probably thinking: “what channels should I subscribe to?” We’ve got you covered with this week’s B List, which features 20 YouTube channels that even the most jaded of jamfans will dig. If you think the channel we’re suggesting would be worth subscribing to, just click on the name of the user and click “subscribe.” It’s that easy! Let’s get started…
1. tDBvideos - The Disco Biscuits official YouTube channel offers videos from throughout their career.
Disco Biscuits - Shem Ra Boo 04/23/2008
READ ON for 19 more channels you need to see to believe, as well as 19 clips from jam dandys such as the Jerry Garcia Band, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic, RAQ and so many others…
If you’re paying really careful attention to what I write in Cover Wars you might recall that I said I was going to ten straight weeks of Cover Album Wars instead of the older format where we had multiple versions of the same song. Well, I lied. This week I’m taking a request I have received and we’re taking a look at nine covers of Can’t Find My Way Home. CFMWH comes to us from the greatest super-group of all time: Blind Faith.
Blind Faith was a short lived band, releasing just the one self-titled album. Founding members Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood (who wrote the song we are discussing) recently performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in February of 2008. However, the show was billed as Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood and not as Blind Faith.
Read on after the jump for some versions that you can only find on YouTube, the winner from last week’s column (it’s a first time winner), killer videos of Blind Faith Live and more.
You must register/login to Imeem to hear the audio clips in their entirety.
To place your vote, and for full descriptions READ ON after the jump…
