http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19055


Widespread Ready Live CDs

Band to take next year off


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)