Widespread Panic will release three live albums in 2004, one out in spring, another in summer and another in fall. Recorded during a three-night stand in November at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the live albums consist of one set with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one acoustic set and one of straight ahead Widespread Panic.

"We realized early on in the tour that George [new guitarist McConnell] is a great acoustic flat-picker," says bassist Dave Schools of the origins of the acoustic disc. "He's terrific, so we started integrating acoustic sets into our shows any time we had more than one night at a venue. It improves the dynamic of the entire concert. If we come out and do our stomp-on-your-face rock for the first set, there's not a lot of room to top that with the second set. When we play acoustic, we nuzzle you a bit. It's an opportunity to change it up."

The decision to release the live albums stemmed in part from the venue being a "magical spot" for the band and also from a desire to showcase the impact of collaborating with the eight-man Dirty Dozen Brass Band on even the most familiar songs in the Panic repertoire.

"The addition of a horn section vastly changes the energy level and the whole feeling of the songs," says Schools. "It's really cool to hear a song reinterpreted that you've played a couple hundred times. It's like your baby coming home with a new haircut you really dig."

The live albums will be the sum total of Widespread Panic activity in 2004, with the group set to take a year hiatus. "It's something we've wanted to do for the last five years," says Schools. "We worked our asses off to get to where we are. In the late Eighties and early Nineties we had a lot of 250-show years. We did a lot of traveling and put in a lot of work. During that time, members of the band got married, had families and want to spend more time with them. You can't do that for twenty years.

"This was a hard year," Schools continues. "The loss of Mike Hauser coupled with the extra work with George and ourselves to where we could feel like a viable band again was mentally and physically tiring. It's important we all get a chance to step away and be able to say we do have lives. The result of that will be that when we reconvene in 2005 everyone will be rested and happy to be there."

Widespread Panic will close 2003 with a pair of shows at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, December 30th and 31st.

COLIN DEVENISH
(December 5, 2003)