WIDESPREAD PANIC CONTINUE TO HEAR LATE GUITARIST HOUSER…

(VIDEO) Widespread Panic, currently getting raving reviews on their tour in support of their latest release, ‘Earth to America,’ are bringing back some of late guitarist Michael Housers songs to their live show. The band admits they sometimes still hear Housers guitar onstage during some intense jamming, right here.

Widespread Panic, currently on their North American tour in support of their latest release, ‘Earth to America,’ are in the process of slowly bringing back some of late guitarist Michael Housers songs to their live show. We caught up recently with lead vocalist John Bell and bassist Dave Schools to find out if it’s a difficult decision for the band deciding which Houser songs to bring back to the stage.

John Bell also talked about how great it is to remember their late guitarist Michael Houser by performing his songs and we thought it was quite interesting they sometimes still hear Housers guitar onstage during some intense jamming.

“I mean there’s things that band would consider cool to do as a band, but really the bulk of the weight falls on John because he has to sing them. If it’s something that was really personal to Mike, that Mike used to sing, it may not be the right thing for us to bring back unless you can interpret it in a way that makes sense to you.” Bell agreed “Right, that’s pretty much it.”

Widespread Panic’s new release on Sanctuary Records, ‘Earth to America’ finds the band recording in a new environment, with a new producer as well as the band enlisted the producing help of Terry Manning and recorded the album at his studio on the Bahamas, marking a departure from the bands comfortable surroundings of Georgia. The band even tapped into Manning’s private vault of instruments, where legend has it John Bell used a guitar previously owned by none other than Robert Johnson on the bands new track ‘Ribs and Whiskey.’ Widespread Panic are currently touring in support of ‘Earth to America’ and the band will be performing in the US until three sold out shows at the Chicago Theater in Chicago, Illinois August 11th, 12th and 13th.

“Right now, yeah, we’re starting to revisit a lot of older stuff. Stuff we hadn’t done, no matter what it’s source is, so that’s kind of fun. There are a lot of tunes that Mickey was largely responsible for and it’s a lot of fun to play them and remember him again through those. So, that’s that, it’s all part of the thing. He’s still here in the band.” Schools even admitted “Yeah, I hear him sometimes when the swirling vortex of noise starts to wip around onstage in the heat of something. Sometimes there’s this phantom sound comes in and you can’t quite put your finger on it.”