Jackassolantern

Performer: Widespread Panic
Engineer: Billy Field; Brad Blettenburg; Billy Field; Brad Blettenburg
Producer: Widespread Panic; Widespread Panic
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Widespread Panic: Dave Schools (bass guitar); Domingo Ortiz, John Bell , John Hermann, Michael Houser, Todd Nance, George McConnell. Personnel: John Bell , Michael Houser, George McConnell (vocals, guitar); John Hermann (vocals, keyboards); Domingo Ortiz (vocals, percussion); Dave Schools (vocals); Randall Bramblett (saxophone); Todd Nance (drums). Additional personnel: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Randall Bramblett. Audio Mixer: John Keane. Photographer: Flournoy Holmes. For jam-band fans, Widespread Panic's annual Halloween shows are among the scene's most legendary and eagerly awaited events. Each year, usually in New Orleans, the Georgia-based group performs a set of cover material for throngs of costumed revelers. JACKASSOLANTERN collects the best moments from several of these concerts on a single disc. The wide stylistic pool from which these songs are drawn reveals Widespread Panic's roots as a hard-touring frat-party band; everything from Black Sabbath's heavy metal classic "Sweet Leaf" to Nelly's 2000 smash hip-hop hit "Hot in Herre" is played with equal amounts of irreverence and bluesy, boozy aplomb. The combo uses several songs as opportunities for extended jams, even inserting bits of Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand Up" into the middle of War's "Slippin' into Darkness." The band really hits its stride on the nearly 17-minute version of the Barrett Strong-penned Temptations hit "Ball of Confusion," which perfectly suits WP's trademark mix of greasy southern soul and loose-limbed guitar rock.

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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