Don't Tell The Band [Digipak]

Performer: Widespread Panic
Engineer: Doug Trantow; John Keane
Producer: John Keane
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Initial pressings of DON'T TELL THE BAND include a bonus CD of five live tracks recorded in Athens, Georgia. Widespread Panic: John Bell (vocals, guitar); Michael Houser (guitar, background vocals); John Hermann (keyboards, background vocals); David Schools (bass, background vocals); Todd Nance (drums, background vocals); Domingo S. Ortiz (percussion). Additional personnel includes: John Keane (pedal steel guitar); Randall Bramblett (tenor saxophone). Recorded at John Keane Studios, Athens, Georgia. With vocals that suggest the unlikely combination of Steve Miller and Perry Farrell and guitarists who cop the moves of everyone from the Stones to Steely Dan, Widespread Panic clearly represents the more open-ended (and -minded) side of southern rock. Sure, these cult heroes may hail from below the Mason-Dixon line, but don't expect to find recycled Molly Hatchet riffs and neo-reactionary lyrics on DON'T TELL THE BAND. Instead WP pushes along ever further down the eclectic road that's won them such a loyal following over the years. Moving through everything from grunge-tinted hard rock to Phish-inspired spaciness, sophisticated, jazzy pop-rock, and funky, Black Crowes-like grittiness, this album offers a peek at the numerous facets that make up the mercurial Widespread Panic sound; sacrificing neither structural smarts nor jam-friendly chops.

Though they started out in the '80s in Athens, GA, Widespread Panic are as far as can be from what was known then as the "Athens scene" (R.E.M, Let's Active, Pylon, etc.). Instead, they were among the first of a new wave of jam bands picking up the baton of '60s psychedelic warriors like the Grateful Dead. Though their improvisational skills earned them a huge following, WP bore an important difference from peers like Phish; they had a distinctly Southern sound that mixed rock, jazz, and a bit of Dixie, much in the manner of key influences the Allman Brothers and the Dregs.

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