Widespread+panic

The Athens, Georgia quintet Widespread Panic deserves the name Jam Band probably more than any of their fellow piers (Minus The Grateful Dead of course). They have toured non stop for practically eight-teen years. They have gotten through line up changes, tour cancelations, album flops, unpopularity and even death…

One of the many neo-hippie jam bands inheriting the road-warrior mantle left behind by the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic established a devout grassroots following on the strength of constant touring and a loose, rootsy brand of Southern rock informed by jazz and blues textures…[/quote

Widespread Panic are carving a niche for themelves in the rock arena that separates them from the crowd. Subtle, intelligent rock that blends numerous elements into a smooth, propulsive blend of structure and improvisation – rock with energy, talent and brains…

Panic in the Streets was an official live album by Widespread Panic documenting the launch concert for Light Fuse, Get Away. Held in Athens, GA, in 1998, it shows the band at the first real peak of its live improvisational powers…

Another Widespread Panic album, another attempt to transfer the band's live energy onto tape. Free Somehow isn't Widespread's best studio effort to date, nor does it pack the same punch as the band's ever-popular concerts, where extended solos and long-running jams are more likely to illicit dropping jaws than drowsy, nodding heads…

Politics aside – this is the first-ever Widespread Panic record that hasn't had numerous versions of tracks available on the Internet; the band kept it under wraps until release time – this is the most ambitious and refined album the band has ever issued. Widespread Panic is the only band from the whole jam scene that emerged from the south and the oft-spouted Allman Brothers' font of inspiration who remains interesting…

Widespread Panic's fourth album features tighter, more song-oriented writing. The searing guitar of the opening tune, "Little Kin," introduces a grittier album than the previous year's Everyday. After touring with the first two H.O.R.D.E. tours in 1992 and 1993, the band's popularity was growing. Their rousing version of Bloodkin's heartbreak tune "Can't Get High" earned them radio play…

Widespread Panic's third album offers 14 southern-fried rock songs, some of which have become the band's most-loved show stoppers…

Widespread Panic are another of the wave of jam bands who let their music flow organically, a la the Grateful Dead, and like the Dead have had a bit of a problem transferring that loose feeling onto disc…

The members of Widespread Panic seem to have contented themselves with the notion of the band's audience being exactly what it is. Given the records they've issued in the last couple of years, they no longer seem ambitious about growing to reach anyone else…