Liner Notes:
Produced by John Keane and Widespread Panic, mixed by John Keane at Keane Recording, Ltd. Assisted by Billy Field. Recorded by John Keane Initial set up by Danny Michael Hilley. Mastered by Ted Jansen at Sterling Sound / NYC
Widespread Panic chooses: Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Goff Professional Hammond Organ, D'Addario strings, & Evans Heads. Dave Schools plays Modulus Graphite basses equipped with GHS strings and chooses Ampeg cabinets; Domingo uses L.P. Instruments; Todd uses DW drums, pedals & hardware; and John Bell fuses Washburn, Fender, & Modulus Guitars and Line 6 amps & toys.
Thanks To: The Progressive Global Agency, Sanctuary Records, Roadshow, Light and Sound Design Atlanta, Electrotec, Tom Lipsky, Bill Siegel, Carl Schlacher, Anderson Page, Ted Kornblum, Randy Barker, Tim Godwin, Mike Klein, Paul Panarelli & Bobby Boos at Sabian, Chuck Moulton at Vic Firth, Scott Garrison at DW Drums, Folks at Forks Drum Closet, Chick Piano, Greg Ramano, Steve Nigohosian at Latin Percussion, Musicians Warehouse, Yogi, JR, and the entire Panic crew.
And special thanks to our Families, Friends, & Fans.
Management: Sam Lanier, Buck Williams, & Brown Cat, Inc = Garrie, Mary, Trey, Ellie, Greta, Crumpy, Bobby, Chris & Billy.
IN TOUCH Everything Widespread Panic at www.widespreadpanic.com,
All songs written by Widespread Panic except Travelin' Man written by Michael Houser, published by Door Harp Music / BMI. All other songs published by Widespread Music / BMI. Administered by Bug Music
Widespread Panic is:
John Bell - Vocals & guitar
John Hermann - Keyboards & vocals
George McConnell - Guitar & vocals
Todd Nance - Drums & vocals
Domingo Ortiz - Percussion
David Schools - Bass & vocals
Photography by Nitin Vadukul
WIDESPREAD PANIC
BALL
When the members of Widespread Panic gathered in a Georgia studio in October 2002, they faced an uncertain future. This would be their first recording session since cancer claimed co-founding guitarist Michael Houser the previous August. In keeping with Houser's wishes, they resolved to carry on, but not before making some changes to the operating manual that had guided their ascent for 17 years.
That ascent was largely fueled by the onstage interaction of Houser, vocalist/guitarist John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz and keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann. Together, they forged roots rock, blues and boogie into an aesthetic all its own. Such is the communication between the musicians and their audience that a devoted subculture of fans follows the band from show to show.
Traditionally, Widespread Panic road tests material before recording an album, beating up and reshaping songs onstage before finally laying them down in the studio. Because fans are allowed to tape Widespread Panic concerts, any song ever performed is widely circulated on the unofficial Panic network and is already familiar when it finally appears on an official studio release. This time around, the band thought they'd try something new - give fans a treat by releasing an album full of brand-new songs they'd never heard before.
"With this record and the re-gathering of ourselves after last year's tragedy, it seemed like a great way to do things," Schools said. "We've made a whole new beginning."
Widespread Panic first came together around the University of Georgia in 1986, after Houser introduced Bell to the joys of jamming, i.e. following a musical conversation wherever it leads. With Schools, Nance, Ortiz and later Hermann, they hit the road, winning new fans at each stop. Without benefit of radio or MTV airplay and other trappings of the pop world's starmaking machine, their popularity grew steadily. After years of relentless touring, they are one of the biggest-selling bands on the road today.
Widespread Panic is now a leader of the new school of "road warrior bands," bands that revel in improvisation and never play the same show twice. Lyrics that sometimes poke into dark corners alternate with inherently humorous covers, such as rapper Nelly's "Hot In Herre." The band is in a constant state of evolution, bringing in new musical elements and influences that reflect the depth of their musicianship. Panic's annual Halloween concert series in New Orleans and New Year's Eve celebration in Atlanta attract tens of thousands of fans that travel from all over the country. In June 2002, Widespread Panic headlined two nights of the inaugural Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee, which drew a sell-out crowd of 70,000 each night and was widely hailed as the best concert event of the summer. The band has been tapped to co-headline this year's festival, with even greater crowds anticipated.
It was during the summer tour of 2002 that the band first brought along guitarist George McConnell. In the 1980s, McConnell and Hermann were bandmates in Beanland, a Mississippi roots band. After Hermann joined Panic in 1992, McConnell often sat in whenever Panic visited his native north Mississippi and Memphis. Not only friends for the past 15 years, Panic and McConnell had often played on the same bill for nearly as long. That longstanding relationship made him the natural choice to continue on with Panic after Houser's passing. "It's all about chemistry," Schools said. "We've been friends for 15 years."
McConnell put a fresh spin on Panic's fall tour and the "Ball" recording sessions. "It's like if you lose one of your senses. You've still got the others, and because of the shock of losing one of them, the others become heightened," Bell said. "Then all of sudden George comes in, and we've got a seeing-eye dog. The definition that George brings as a guitarist is very clear-cut, without being a cliché. That allows me to be more free-form in my contributions, which is more my tendency anyway. And that's always been the approach of Widespread Panic - we're different, but still the same." But he adds, "Mikey's presence is still felt throughout this whole project."
For "Ball," Panic recorded once again with longtime friend and producer John Keane in his Athens, Ga. studio. "At first, we had to get over the shellshock of playing without Mikey, of him not sitting there in that space he normally occupied," Hermann said. "We went in there with the attitude of, 'Let's not worry about any outside pressures, let's try to have fun and throw down as many ideas as we can.' You start with a big log and then you whittle away until you've got something."
"It was a wide open process," Nance said of the recording. "The word 'no' was never uttered. We had this opportunity, whether it was welcome or not, to start fresh, so we started from square 1 to see if this thing would stand on its own. It worked out pretty well."
With "Ball," the members of Widespread Panic open a new chapter in their collective history. This spring, they reintroduce themselves with a national tour, playing multiple nights in most cities across the country. They'll perform to vast crowds during return engagements at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the second Bonnaroo festival, continuing their celebration of the life-affirming power of music. It's a long way from the house parties that marked the beginning of their career, where they performed on stages so small that band members sometimes spilled over onto the floor. Now, Widespread Panic easily fills the largest venues in the country, selling out Colorado's Red Rocks and Georgia's Phillips Arena several times over. But in keeping with Ball's concept of giving the fans something special this year, the band is choosing to play multiple nights in intimate theatre settings. Delighted fans will get to see a different show every night, where no song will be repeated.
"We never sat down and said, 'Hey, here's where we want to be 20 years from now.' It was more like, 'Hey, we're having a good time, let's do this,'" Schools said. "I guess we're right where we're supposed to be. And if you ask me the same question a year from now, I'd say that we're where we're supposed to be then. This is a chance for us to do something new. To still be us, but definitely new. It feels good."
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