Our latest Jambands.com reader interview was conducted with a musician who has been profiled a few times on this site over the years in a variety of contexts. Jimmy Herring has appeared with such groups as Aquarium Rescue Unit, Project Z, Allman Brothers Band, Phil & Friends, Frogwings and Jazz Is Dead. We received well over a hundred questions from our readers, most of which focused on Herrings tenure with Widespread Panic which began in September 2006. Herring took time off from laying down guitar tracks for his forthcoming solo record to address a number of these queries.
Lets start out with this question, which seems appropriate since youre in the studio as we speak. What do you have planned for the next WSP offseason, any touring or recording? I’ve heard mention of an album with you, Jeff Sipe, Oteil Burbridge and Derek Trucks. Any details that you can shed on this? Question from HP
Its my first album. Ive never done an album before. I mean Ive worked with other people but this is the first one thats my vision, my songs. Well theres six of my songs, two of Kofi Burbridge’s songs and two covers. Ive never done anything like this before. I dont even know what its going to be called yet. Its not going to be the Jimmy Herring Band or anything like that but its going to be my first solo album, I guess.*Who else plays on it? *
Jeff Sipe, Oteil Burbridge, Derek Trucks, Greg Osby, Kofi Burbridge and Matt Slocum, the keyboard player who plays in Oteils band. Did I leave anyone out? Oh, Ike Stubblefield is going to play on some stuff and maybe Bobby Lee Rodgers, too. But you know everyone is not on every song. Oteil and Jeff played on every song but Derek is only going to be on two. And then Kofi played on five or six songs and Greg Osby played on five or six songs and Ike Stubblefield and Bobby Lee Rodgers are going to play on at least one song.*Do you have any idea of when it will be released? *
Thats the big question. Man, my goal was to finish my guitar by the end of today. I dont know if thats going to happen, it might have to be part of tomorrow too. Im close but Ive got a lot to do because these tunes are hard. Ive never done my own songs my own way before and theyre my orchestrations and its a very compositional-based album. Its got a lot of improvisation on it but its all within the context of songs. And these songs are very hard to play on because the chord progressions are very demanding.
So Im having to do a lot of takes when Im doing solos and my engineer here Rush Anderson is absolutely integral in this process. Ill do like ten solos and then well listen to them and Ill say, Oh the beginning of that ones good but I dont like what comes after. Then well switch to another pass that Id already laid down and Ill go, Oh, I like the middle of that one but I dont like the end.
But thats a typical way that Pat Metheny and John Scofield cut solos when theyre in the studio. Im determined in this project to use the studio for what it is. It is not a live gig and if I dont get one performance all the way through on a solo that Im happy with, I dont have qualms about using a piece of this one and a piece of that one. As long as when its over and Ive used pieces of a few of them, if it still sounds like something I would have played, I have no problem doing that.
I havent had an opportunity to do that that much because most of the time youre on a real strict time thing with the budget and everything. Im at my friend Rushs house and hes being real lenient with me and very patient with me and hes a great engineer and hes allowing me a lot of time to explore the possibilities of what I can do with the tunes. I couldnt do this in a big expensive studio because it would cost too much money.*Since you mentioned Jeff Sipe and Bobby Lee Rodgers, quite a few people asked about the future of Herring/Rogers/Sipe. Do you have any upcoming touring plans with that band? *
We havent done that in a long time but we had a blast. I had so much fun doing that. That was kind of splitting the difference between Project Z and a song-based band. We had ARU and then Project Z kind of picked up where ARU left off in a way as far as philosophy went. ARU had some songs but then one of our favorite things to do was, wed be standing in a dressing room five minutes before a show and say, Okay no tunes for 45 minutes, no tunes. So we would improvise the first 45 minutes of the show without playing a song. But there was pressure on ARU because people came to hear those songs that Bruce sings. With Project Z we figured, Well, we dont have to play any songs if we dont want to.
The first [Project Z] album we kind of had a few songs and then the next Project Z album had zero songs on it, it was just all improvisation from start to finish. And with Bobby Lee and Jeff and Neal Fountain, the idea was Bobby had all these great songs, hes a genius songwriter. So lets play some of his songs but really crack them open and improvise on them.
The status of it is that everybodys busy. Bobbys got his band [The Codetalkers], Jeffs on the road with Keller Williams, Im on the road with Panic and its real hard to find time to fit all the stuff in.
With Panic its been very demanding especially at the beginning because I had to learn so much music in such a short amount of time. I didnt have time to do anything else and then when Id get off the road I would have to spend the entire time off continuing to work on their music before we went and did something else. Plus, Panic had a real busy year last year. We would do a tour and the tour would end and two days later we were in the Bahamas doing pre-production for the album that we were going to do in the following months. Then wed go back out on tour. Then wed get off the road and we were home for one day after a two month tour and then boom straight to the Bahamas for two weeks. That year was so busy and with me learning their material and making the record and doing pre-production for that record, I didnt really have time to do any more Herring-Rodgers-Sipe stuff but I really want to do it again. I dont know when. We talk about it all the time, me and Bobby Lee, me and Jeff talk about it all the time. We all love each other and we want to do it but its just a matter of finding the time.*As you can imagine we received quite a few Widespread Panic questions. On the subject of your initial days with the band, a number of people were curious how much time you had to prepare for your first Panic shows. *
I was on the road with Bobby Lee and Jeff Sipe and Neal Fountain when I got the call about doing the Panic gig and I didnt get to work on the music until I got home from that tour because I didnt feel right about working on Panic music when I was on tour with another group. So when I got home I had two weeks to work on their music and then I had two days of rehearsal with them. It wasnt real rehearsal, it was just us sitting in a room with Todd playing electronic drums and everybody playing through tiny little amps. Then we went to New York to do the Radio City shows and we had two more days of rehearsal in a real legitimate rehearsal studio. So I had four days of rehearsal if you count those two in Athens. And I was probably playing 10 or 12 hours a day during those two weeks before the rehearsals, and continued that pace even during the rehearsals. Id be practicing before the rehearsals, after the rehearsals and even when the gigs started.
They were very kind to me. They would give me the list of songs: Okay these are the ones were going to play the first night of Radio City. So I knew what I had to do for that gig. And then they gave the second night of Radio City and said, Okay, heres what were going to be doing the second night, and then, Heres what were going to be doing the third night. They normally wouldnt be doing that but they did it for me because I didn’t want to be up there and not know the freaking songs and screw it all up, although I screwed up some stuff. I think we played six gigs without repeating a song on my first six gigs. Thats 100 songs.*Also along these lines, someone asked, When Jimmy first started with Panic he had big notebook at his feet, I was wondering what was in the book? [Tim B.] *
I had to make charts. Im not hung up on them anymore but I still have them out there. I just lay them on the floor. Theyre just form charts. I still have to remember all the melodies and Mikeys signature parts, I didnt write any of them out. What I wrote out was, Heres the verse and heres the bridge and then it goes back to a verse and then it goes to chorus. Thats what I did and thats what the charts are for because I dont want to go to the bridge at the wrong time or go to the chorus when Im supposed to be going to a verse.*In your preparations, how did you land on definitive versions of particular songs, some of which have evolved quite a bit over the years. Some people mentioned that they heard your iPod is stocked full of live Panic shows, is this the case and how did those come into play? *
Ill tell you what, I like their records. Im blown away by the records they have made. I would learn the songs primarily from the records in the beginning. But then they started giving me live stuff and said, You learned that off the record and we dont do it that way anymore so check this out. Thats when I started to see what the fans love so much about the live shows.
I think their records are grossly underrated. If you listen to Til The Medicine Takes, Dont Tell The Band, Bombs & Butterflies, that era of records John Keane was making, man theyre devastatingly good. They sonically sound so good, the performances are excellent and the guitar-playing is just mind-blowing.
So I primarily started out using the records but then they quickly started giving me stuff I put in my iPod. I would spend a lot of time listening to three, four, five versions of one song, after I felt like I had a grip on the big picture or was starting to get a grip on the big picture.
- Jimmy, You’ve pretty much got the Panic catalog down by now, but are there certain original Panic tunes that you find yourself revisiting to get just right/tweak? Nick B.*
- What are your favorite Panic songs and have you been working on any songs in the back catalog that you have yet to play with the band? Derrick H and many others*
- I would like to hear about the evolution of Lockwood Folley from your Endangered Species days into what is now known as Her Dance Needs No Body. Alex*
- By and large you are known as a lead guitarist and for good reason your solos are insane, but to me perhaps the most impressive part of your playing is your rhythm work. Could you expound a little bit on your philosophy for playing rhythm guitar? Marc L*
- What is your favorite scale to improvise on and which key is your favorite to really stretch out in and explore? Nate D.*
