WIDESPREAD PANIC REPLACE GUITARIST ADD JIMMY HERRING

Widespread Panic have replaced their guitarist, George McConnell, and they have added none other than guitar virtuoso Jimmy Herring to the mix. Herring, who has toured with The Dead, The Allman Brothers, Phil Lesh and Friends and many others, was first noticed by Widespread Panic many years ago at an Aquarium Rescue Unit show. The Aquarium Rescue unit is a legendary southern band fronted by Colonel Bruce Hampton and featured bassist Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers) and Jimmy Herring on guitar. We caught up recently with Widespread Panic’s bassist, Dave Schools to discuss his thoughts on Jimmy as a guitarist.

McConnell, who replaced founding member ‘Mickey’ Houser after Housers death four years ago actually left the band mid tour. Longtime friend and producer John Keane has been playing guitar throughout this recent tour, along with guitarist Sam Holt, founder of the band Outformation, who has been sitting in from time to time. It’s quite possible McConnell saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave the band. Either way Jimmy Herring is now in Widespread Panic. Look for the band to start their next round of touring in New York City September 14th and extending until November 2nd in Austin Texas, with a much needed stop at Vegoose in Las Vegas Halloween weekend.

“When Panic was young The Aquarium Rescue Unit opened up for us and i’m not sure if you’re aware of who they are but it Colonel Bruce Hampton and a bunch of the artists in that band, two of them are playing with Phil Lesh right now, one of them plays with The Allman Brothers and one of them has gone completely insane. What they were doing onstage is playing guitar with egg beaters and a lot of geurilla theatrics and it was fun and they were some of the most amazing musicians I’ve ever scene. We sat there and we watched them and we wanted to do what they were doing. So when they got done we got up there and thought we were doing what they were doing and what we were doing was sucking out loud. But we learned a really important lesson which was not to immitate, but to sort of soak up.”