Happy New Year!

Image: Brian Huff, Denver, Colo.

The dude he shot down

NPR's World Cafe did an interview with Widespread Panic earlier this month and lead singer John Bell told the story behind Saint Ex, the first track on the band's latest studio album, Dirty Side Down.

I transcribed a bit of the interview:

Saint Ex is the short title for the guy who wrote the book The Little Prince. He did a bunch of other stuff, too. Wrote incredible books that weren't just children's stories. ... But he was shot down, theoretically, because for a while - they didn't find his body 'til like 3 or 4 years ago. Or, not his body, but evidence that he was shot down. But he was shot down in the mid 1940s, during the war.

There was a German pilot that read the story of him being - that it was discovered, hey, this is the remains of his plane, this is some evidence he was here. And this 80-something-year-old German pilot came up and said, "I know I was the guy, because that was the air space I was in. And I just came across him, shot him down."

... But the freaky thing was that Saint Ex was his favorite author. He was a much younger pilot than Saint Ex was, and so his books were already out and he had a lot of influence on his life. ... So that's the dude he shot down. So that's a part of, you know — chalk it up to war.

Chalk it up to war. I can't improve on that.

The German pilot's story ran in newspapers around the world a couple of years ago. This is from The Telegraph in Great Britain:

"If I had known it was Saint-Exupéry I would never have shot him down," said Mr Rippert.

"He knew admirably how to describe the sky, the thoughts and feelings of pilots", he added.

The man may die, but not the music

Today makes eight years since Widespread Panic guitarist Michael Houser died of pancreatic cancer. Time, she flies.






And a little lesser known, but maybe my personal favorite ...

Music in a time machine

The archivist for Widespread Panic has a blog. And then I'm sitting at work listening to an early version of the band play Not Fade Away in 1985 and reading the story of the band's formation:

Once we had to take our game outside, we obviously encountered the random person wanting into our circle. That’s how we met JB and Mikey. Nope, they didn’t come by and join in, but their friend Neal did. And when Neal found out that Dave and I had seen his friend JB perform solo the weekend before, he was all about making that connection. Especially when he found out Dave played the bass.

Well we met JB and Mikey soon after that chance meeting with Neal. Where I have no clue, but before long the house on King Avenue was the place to hang out….and those three guys started finding their way… which was obviously a natural progression to what JB and Mikey had been doing separately and together prior to Dave showing up.

I remember that time being just about having fun watching my friends make music in a living room in Athens. And catching JB solo or JB & Mikey together in some sort of semi-official way… basically wherever JB could talk the manager into letting him do his thing. I know they took it seriously but I still had no clue where any of it was headed. And I don’t think they really did either at the time.

Greg Allman: We should play Georgia

Phillip Ramati is a reporter at The Macon Telegraph. While working on a piece on the 4o-year anniversary of The Allman Brothers Band, he asked Gregg Allman whether The Allman Brothers Band would make it back to Macon this year to celebrate the anniversary.

Said Mr. Allman:"We damn sure should. We need to play at (City Auditorium).We really need to get back to Macon. Mama can cater the whole thing."

There's an awful lot of open space in September and October of The Brothers impending tour schedule with Widespread Panic.

Widespread Panic, why are you still trying to kill me?

Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff reports that Widespread Panic will tour this summer with The Allman Brothers Band.

The amalgamated schedule is on jambase. It looks like the closest they'll get to Georgia are stops in Charlotte and Raleigh on this swing of the tour:

10.03 Charlotte, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
10.04 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
10.06 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
10.07 Portsmouth, VA nTelos Wireless Pavilion
10.11 Raleigh, NC Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion @ Walnut Creek
10.13 Knoxville, TN World's Fair Park

October 3 is the LSU game in Athens. October 10 is against Tennessee in Knoxville.

Band members should be beaten in the street for their continued disregard of the University of Georgia football schedule. Simply switch the Raleigh and Knoxville shows and add a date at The Landing in Jacksonville for the night before the Florida game and we'll be in business.

UPDATE: I absolutely continue to believe this schedule will continue to be filled in and there will be some crazy show in Georgia.

Panic to webcast Halloween show

From the band:

For those of you that won’t be joining us in New Orleans, you can catch the October 31st show LIVE in its entirety, on the www.widespreadpanic.com and www.iClips.net sites.

Make a note of it.

Brett probably has his own mountain. A few announcements.

You need a moment sometimes to discuss things not Rennie Curran related.

Widespread Panic will play two New Year's Eve shows in Denver, Colorado, not Atlanta, Georgia, this year. At the Pepsi Center, of course. Liberal.

At our tailgate last weekend a friend of mine was wearing a silver dress. She said "I'm bringing it back." I believe her.




Scarlett Johansson. Stolen from the Internet, because sometimes your friends don't like you randomly posting pictures of them to the Internet.




Approximate time South Carolina's hopes were crushed (2008 occurance): 11:44 p.m., September 4.

I bought a $7.99 bottle of after shave lotion today with "natural MICRO Tec." That doesn't sound natural.

Central Michigan's Josh Gordy can suck it.

Finally, there might be a Mohs sighting this weekend. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is hurricane dependent.


Also kind of silver. Mohs, The General, Petersen, Fain?
Image: Ryan Mohs.

Married to my roots here

Six years Sunday since Mikey died. Time sure does fly.





My name is tree top,
and I'm higher than you'll ever be,
I am married
to my roots here,
Still I feel like I am free



Image: Athens Banner Herald.

Pressing business: Widespread Panic to join Georgia Music Hall of Fame as 2008 inductee

I believe The Macon Telegraph is breaking rock and roll news tomorrow: Widespread Panic will be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame this year.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was last year's group inductee. In 2006 it was REM. Ray Charles was one of the first two inductees in 1979.

The induction will likely be a black tie event, scheduled for Sept. 20 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. Tickets are available through Friends of Georgia Music Festival, (770) 491-9494.

According to Phillip Ramati here at The Telegraph, the other Hall of Fame inductees this year are: Keith Sweat in the songwriting category; gospel singer Dottie Rambo in the posthumous category; Fred and Dinah Gretsch of The Gretsch Co. in the pioneer category, and Macon "King Bee" Hamp Swain in the non-performer category.

If you find yourself in Macon, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame is worth a couple of hours. There's an Otis Redding exhibit featured through Sept. 10.

Congratulations to Widespread Panic. This is a very large and very deserved honor.


In other news, we're all old now. Or should we say "classic."

Images: widespreadpanic.com. Music and merchandise available.

Vic Chesnutt is your Daddy.

This post is not going to be for everyone. In fact, if you said "Vic Who?," maybe just stop right now before your soul explodes...

A buddy of mine and I got drunk one night and wrote this list, stealing liberally from the greatest concept ever born upon the Internet.

My sincere hope is that it does not anger Mr. Chesnutt.

Vic Chesnutt wanted to fight the war on terror, but realized he could not defeat himself.

On the 8th day God ran away from Vic Chesnutt. Screaming.

Satan is a Vic Chesnuttist.

The song "Bittersweet Symphony" is about Vic Chesnutt killing the guys who wrote "Bittersweet Symphony." And U2.

Vic Chesnutt does not sleep. He stabs Chuck Norris' pansy ass.

Vic Chesnutt lights his cigarettes on himself.

Vic Chesnutt killed Vince Dooley in 1979 and assumed his form.

Vic Chesnutt knows what you did last summer because he made you do it.

Metallica's "One" is about Vic Chesnutt... when he was a fetus.

You think Kurt Cobain killed himself? You're a moron.

The moon doesn't cause the tides to change. Trust us.

The word "shotgun" is loosely based on the Latin for "Vic Chesnutt."

You can stop Vic Chesnutt, but you have to find him first. Check Hell.

The bullet that killed Bruce Lee was Vic Chesnutt. That's the only way it was gonna happen.

Vic Chesnutt stabbed Sting in the neck in 1992, then nursed him back to health and stabbed him in the skull. This is known as "Tantra."

Vic Chesnutt has no soul and cannot be photographed.

Vic Chesnutt kills people who put an extra "T" in his name. With the letter "T."

Vic Chesnutt has committed suicide 175 times. He keeps coming back awesome.

You should see the ones I edited out because they were in "poor taste."

Even if it kills you, I'm not sure it's possible for this to be too loud
: Soon I will be lighter fluid.















Image: Rolling Stone.

Widespread Panic: Why are you trying to kill me?

In an excercise typical of a healthy combination of rules 1 and 2 following last week's Savannah run, I present you with a list of "Things Widespread Panic fans like."

With at nod to these guys, and, for that matter, these guys too.

1. Destroying their bodies
Whether it's drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, a lack of sleep or, most likely, all of the above, few groups of people are into excess like Panic fans. And no one, NO ONE, is more likely to polish off an organically grown, fully vegan meal with a half gallon of bourbon. Let it be said, though, that Panic fans have good taste, and choose to destroy their internal organs with only the finest bourbons, beers, pills and powders when possible.


2. Making sarcastic remarks
Often about hippies, how they hate hippies or how dirty hippies are. It's ironic, I know.

3. The music of Widespread Panic
They pretend to like other music.

4. Dancing "my ass off"
Typically poorly. See #s 1 and 3.

5. Ridiculous outfits
As I walked out of a show last week there was a guy in a white ape suit playing a guitar and harmonica. On any other day, that might have seemed strange.






Yep. Lots of this guy.

6. T-shirts with clever sayings and/or song lyrics printed on them (men only)
This is not be confused with No. 5, and in fact has far more in common with No. 2. I suppose the female equivalent would be either a homemade dress, or an outfit that allows the girl to blend in with all the hippies wearing homemade dresses, but still look super hot.

7. Forcing other people to listen to their music.
Seriously, what makes someone decide to bring their own drum to a concert?

8. Not paying for things
I'm convinced some Panic fans have two-year community college degrees in the art of grifting.

9. Over-paying for things
This might seem at odds with No. 8, but I assure you it is not. $5 for a bottle of water? I'll have six.

10. Owning ridiculous amounts of technology
That dred-locked hippie might not have a place to stay tonight, but he's got a $3,000 laptop, a digital recorder with dual mike set and a sweet titanium mike stand. He also has an iPhone and a walkie-talkie. Can he sleep on your floor tonight?

11. Washing over you like locusts
Attention concert promoters: You cannot have too many kegs of beer or $5 bottles of water on hand for a Widespread Panic concert. I know you think you can, but you can't.

12. Selling you something
No, I don't want a veggie burrito or your charcoal drawing of "Mickey Hauser." See also: No. 8. By the way, whoever invented grill cheese sandwiches with garlic powder for $1 is a flat-out genius of consumerism.

13. Not being able to find things that are clearly in their pockets
See No. 1.














Joe Cox: Probably a Widespread fan.

14. Noticing coincidences
See No 1.

15. Talking about how awesome shows they attended were
Trust me, unless a member of the band ascended into heaven during the show you're talking about, you might as well be quiet. See also: No. 1.

16. Predicting the next song
This is often followed by an insistence that the band was, in fact, "teasing" that song "just like two nights ago in Orange Beach." See also: Knowing that was a Bloodkin song.

17. Referring to band members as "the boys."
See also: Referring to multiple shows in a row as "runs."

18. Talking about how awesome Eugene, Ore., and the entire state of Colorado are
Athens would also be on this list, except everybody already knows how awesome it is. Even people who've never been there.

Yes, I've heard. Thanks.


19. Being from Tennessee
I have no idea why. Though I once knew a guy who lived in Memphis specifically because it was a convenient place to get to Panic shows from.

20. Text messaging songs as they are played
I don't know why everybody's cousin needs to know what songs are performed at at show they are not attending, but they do. See also: Holding their cell phones up and swaying back an forth during slow Talking Heads covers, posting shaky video of songs to YouTube and having hour-long conversations on internet message boards.

21. Becoming best friends with people they clearly will never see or talk to again
See No. 1.

22. Actually seeing those people at another show, and doing them some kind of favor
See No. 1 and No. 3.

23. Holding grudges
Largely because it gives them ample opportunity to exercise their right to No. 2. I once saw a band review that panned Widespread with more than 4,000 follow-up comments posted to it (I am not making that number up), including someone posting the reviewer's telephone number and address.
p.s. - i made that number up. It was 785.

24. Exagerating
You know, just for effect.

25. Despite it all, or possibly because of it, not wanting to leave
This town is nuts, my kind of place...














I don't know who this guy is, but the visor and Colorado sky are dead giveaways.

or else the Earth will swallow you

Nothing like forgetting yourself for a while. Good for the nerves.


We might be shaking but at least we won't be shaking alone.

If by "a little" you mean...

I'm not a fan of the "John Boy and Billy" show (or a fan of putting "boy" in people's names). But it's on about 17 different radio stations between Macon and Savannah and I lost my iPod, so it's what I got on the way home this morning.

And they had this 88-year-old lady on the phone. She's a comedian and she's got the best title to any comedy album I've ever heard:

I love Jesus, but I drink a little.

Me too, Gladys.

More later, Lord willing. I'm working on a post called "Widespread Panic, why are you trying to kill me?" or, possibly, "Damn you Widespread Panic."

I think my buddy Huff actually wrote the first line, so that means the two most clever things in this post today, I stole.

The ones they told you about

I'm headed to Savannah for a couple of days. It's much needed. Here's hoping I come back one of the good people.

Sound on that link, by the way.

Travelin' Man

I don't think the article is available online, but the winter issue of Georgia Music Magazine has a cover story on Widespread Panic. And the article opens with the story of Michael Houser, the former lead guitarist who died of pancreatic cancer, writing what I believe was his last song: Travelin' Man.

The story goes that J.B., the band's front man and Houser's good friend, sat at his bedside, transcribing the lyrics as Houser came in and out of consciousness.

Look at these lyrics. Can you imagine writing this song, knowing that you might never leave your bed again, much less your home? Maybe there was no other way to write it.

Been thinkin' all day
Packin' my car
With this baggage of mine
I wouldn't get too far

Stored away on a bus
No need to hide
I'm slowing down
Catchin' one last ride

Been feelin' alright
For a couple of days
Either in a fog
Or a sunny haze

Got a big hole
In my deflector screen
What I really need
Warp nine, Geordi, please

Wanna keep my eyes on the road
Wanna carry my life in a bag
Like to live in a hotel room
Wanna be a travelin' man

For you Panic fans

A good read on Widespread Panic lead guitarist Jimmy Herring.

To put it another way, we WILL beat Florida

No reason at all on this, other than to move that last post down.

Hold me tight, flying through the air
Coy dogs calling, we're almost there
Laugh so hard that the devil's all scared
I got a real good mind, to beat you senseless

Did you hear I went to Australia?

A week ago I was on a beach in northern Australia. I spent yesterday trying to figure out whether the city of Macon can get out of a multi-million-dollar deal to build a convention center hotel.

Where's a good lawyer when you need one?

Eight minutes of video from my trip. The song is Chest Fever, originally by The Band, done here by Widespread Panic.


She was just here. Now she can't be here no more.

Aussie slideshow, take 2

I changed the music and it seems to work. I went with Party at Your Mama's House.

Again, I hope to do a better job eventually, labeling things so you can tell what you're looking at, for example. Also I shot some video (a koala attacked several small children) and I've got some stuff from the Great Barrier Reef on another camera.

Generally speaking the slideshow goes: Sydney -> Wollongong -> Jenola Caves -> Blue Mountains -> Tasmania -> Melbourne -> Great Ocean Road -> Brisbane.