Earth To America

Performer: Widespread Panic
Engineer: Terry Manning
Producer: Terry Manning; Terry Manning
Distributor: Fontana Distribution

Notes: Widespread Panic: John Bell (vocals, guitars); Terry Manning (vocals, keyboards); George McConnell (guitars); Dave Schools (bass instrument); Domingo Ortiz, Todd Nance. Personnel: George McConnell (vocals, guitar); John Hermann (vocals, keyboards); Dave Schools (vocals); Todd Nance (drums); Domingo Ortiz (percussion). Audio Mixer: Terry Manning. Recording information: Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas. One of the higher-profile jam bands of the 1990s and 2000s, Widespread Panic meld classic rock with elements of jazz, funky blues, and world music. EARTH TO AMERICA, the band's 2006 release, finds the group paring away some of their excessive noodling to focus on tighter songcraft and sharper grooves. For starters, the band flirts successfully with Latin rhythms on "Crazy" and "You Should Be Glad." Hard funk ("Goodpeople") and swampy, psychedelic vamps ("Second Skin") are also represented alongside folky acoustic tunes like "From the Cradle." All of this adds up to a varied, intriguing listen--to one of the band's stronger releases.

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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