The Wanee Music Festival returned to the Spirit of Suwanee Music Park down in Live Oak, Florida this past weekend where the Allman Brothers Band and Widespread Panic each delivered guest spot-laden sets in front of huge crowds on Friday and Saturday nights. Also joining in the action over the course of the weekend were ABB family bands Gov’t Mule, Chuck Leavell with the Randall Bramlett Band, Oteil and Kofi Burbridge with the Lee Boys and Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi’s new band.
On Friday, Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman teamed up with former Furthur percussionist Jay Lane for a Scaring The Children set that contained a number of Grateful Dead classics (Loose Lucy, Friend of the Devil) along with a smattering of Dylan covers (Maggie’s Farm, When I Paint My Masterpiece) and The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows.
Panic followed on the main stage with a high energy set before the Allmans kicked things off with Mountain Jam. For their first set of the weekend, the Allmans welcomed Dave Schools on bass for You Don’t Love Me, John Bell and Sunny Ortiz for Guilded Splinters, Luther Dickinson (NMAS, The Word) and Danny Louis (Gov’t Mule) for Statesboro Blues and The Same Thing as well as Jimmy Herring and JoJo Hermann for That’s What Love Will Make You Do. Gov’t Mule got into the guest spot act during their late night set when Dickinson joined them for 32-20 Blues right after Kofi Burbridge added some flute to Sad and Deep as You.
Saturday featured more of the same with individual performances from music legends Dr. John, Ivan Neville (w/ Dumpstaphunk) and The Funky Meters giving way to Widespread Panic who welcomed Luther Dickinson for Slippin’ Into Darkness and Warren Haynes for a set-closing North. Later, blues guitarist Johnny Winter came out with the Allmans for The Sky Is Crying. The Brothers’ set also included guest spots from John Bell on And It Stoned Me, JoJo and Jimmy on Good Morning Little Schoolgirl and Dave Schools on Dreams before ending their final performance of the weekend with a Midnight Rider, Mountain Jam > Dazed and Confused > Mountain Jam.
Unfortunately, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings were unable to make it to Wanee for their scheduled set on Saturday due to the Volcanic Ash Cloud that kept the group grounded in Europe. Jones’ absence was one of the few problems on what seemed to be an extremely successful weekend in Florida.
Head to Jambands.com’s Box Scores for setlists from Wanee.
- Wanee Audio Torrents: North Mississippi Allstars, Scaring The Children (Weir, Wasserman & Lane), Stephen Stills, The Word, Widespread Panic – Night One, Widespread Panic – Night Two, Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi Band, Oteil and Kofi Burbridge w/ the Lee Boys, Gov’t Mule, Chuck Leavell w/ Randall Bramlett Band, Black Keys, Dr. John, Allstar Funk Jam,
