Photo by Craig Taraszki
Widespread Panic rolls into their 25th year as a band in 2010 without any hint of either slowing down on stage, or breaking away from finding new avenues of songwriting. Indeed, their 11th studio, Dirty Side Down, and the second with veteran guitarist, Jimmy Herring, is a barnstorming mixture of everything grand and cinematic about the band. The twelve-track album is an invigorating and memorable adventure with a blend of new material, road-tested songs, and two poignant cover versions, “North,” written by Jerry Joseph, and Vic Chesnutt’s “This Cruel Thing.” The latter tune was an especially inspired choice since the musician’s untimely passing occurred just a week before Panic began recording songs, and provided additional resonance for a group striving to return to their loose “old-timely garage band” roots in the studio. The album showcases the fact that the Georgia sextet has matured without losing any of their road-tested speed, or songwriting prowess, along the side of an American highway.
Jambands.com caught up with front man, guitarist and vocalist, John Bell, on the second of a two-day break in Washington D.C. while in the early stages of a tour supporting Dirty Side Down. Their tour card is full with dates across the country, including a Red Rocks’ sold out-record lengthening residency, and a series of festival dates. Bell is friendly and open, albeit a reserved southern gentleman. True to his nature, when he has an answer, he gives it, and then invites another as if he is more than willing to take things in confident stride, but also wise enough to view it with a playful grin, as well.
And Bell has had to do that as Panic has weathered key personnel changes in recent years from the passing of original guitarist, Michael Houser to pancreatic cancer in 2002, and the exit of his replacement, George McConnell in 2006. Since then, veteran Aquarium Rescue Unit, Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers band member, Jimmy Herring has stepped in, and helped deepen the band’s eclectic time signature choices, while offering a fairly robust and flexible guitar to the dense textures of the classic Panic sound.
Bell is also a man who laughs quite a bit, and his answers are often punctuated by laughter, showing that, in the end, often what one is challenged with in life isn’t as important as how one faces those challenges. The man has succeeded by continuing to offer laconic wit, a charismatic stage presence, and a timeless lyrical phrase while moving forward with a band braced to celebrate, in their own reserved fashion, a 25th anniversary year. Sometimes, those rare on-the road moments include a quiet trip featuring some of the kings of American live music visiting royalty of a different kind. “We got into D.C. yesterday,” explains Bell, “and went to go visit the West Wing, which was kind of cool. I haven’t even been on a regular White House tour before.”
RR: Nearly a quarter century has gone by since 1986 when Widespread Panic got its start. Is it amazing to look back at all of that time and the experiences you’ve had?
JB: Yeah, it’s a little odd. (laughter) I really don’t think of it in linear-time terms, but when you look at it, it’s a long time. And then when you see pictures, you wonder where all those shirts went to. (laughter)
RR: And all the music, as well. How do you stay concentrated and focused on the road while touring with Panic?
JB: We know what floats our boat—individually, and as a band, how to stay happy, all the comfort zones, and how to work together. Most importantly, we keep putting new music together, keeping the sets varied, and that’s extremely helpful so you don’t run into a rut kind of feeling.
RR: On the new Panic studio album, Dirty Side Down, there is definitely a sense of that “comfort zone.” But there is also the feeling that the band wants to make a really solid piece of work that has the live energy of a show, albeit one that was created in the studio. After two trips to the Bahamas to record albums, Panic returned to Athens. What was the thought process involved in that decision?
JB: Well, mostly, like you mentioned, we wanted to stick close to home. We did a lot of hip stuff with Terry [Manning, producer] in the Bahamas with horns and strings and extra vocals. With Dirty Side Down, we took a little bit more of an old-timey garage band approach to it. That’s basically what we were aiming for. The only other thing that was different in the process was that we pretty much tackled the songs one at a time. Each song was about 70-80% finished before we moved on to the next one. A lot of times—whoever we would record with—we’d get more into an assembly line mode where you’d go in and record all your guitar parts, and then go in and overdub all your vocals in the end. This time, we tried to focus on each song, and that kept everybody around in the studio, at the same, too, so there was a nice dash of camaraderie occurring there.
RR: I noticed that. The songs have an overall band feel, as opposed to a layering of sounds put down by a group of musicians. That comes through in the performances. How much time was spent on the material before going into the studio?
JB: I’d say 60% of it. We had a pretty good idea, but we tweak right down to the end. When we do the original tracking, we’ll get in there, and mess with the arrangement, and different keys, and probably play the thing though, oh, maybe five or six times before we say: “O.K.—that’s the arrangement. That’s the way we’re going to approach it, and, now, let’s go for the basic track.” I don’t know. We were kind of working at a song every day-and-a-half clip, something like that.
RR: And the band would lay down the basic track, and then work until all of the parts of that song were nearly completed?
JB: We’d work pretty much until a song was completed.
RR: Any live vocals from the basic tracks make it on to any of the final songs?
JB: Naw. Couldn’t really get away with that because we cut the basic track in the same room, and, also, I tend to change the lyrics up to the very end, even while I’m singing the track. Something will pop in my head, and I’ll go, “We have to do it that way. We have to change those words around” because some whole new image will open up, and, all of a sudden: “cool—the song has a lot more meaning now.” (laughs)
RR: The opening track, “Saint Ex,” pulled me right in because of the lyrics, and the multiple layers of musical textures with a rich, confident feel. Was there a message in that song that you wanted to deliver at the beginning of Dirty Side Down ?
JB: It is taken from the story that hit the news a couple of years ago. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry of Paris, the author of The Little Prince, was a French World War II pilot who got shot down towards the end of the war. They never really recovered anything of evidence until a couple of years ago. Something came up—I think it was actually one of his medals with his name on it; pretty freaky—from the ocean. Then that hit the news wires. And this really old German pilot read the story, put everything together—where he was at the time—and realized that he was the guy that shot him down. They weren’t really engaged in battle, right then. They were just planes crossing the same air space, and Saint Ex got caught by surprise. The ironic thing is that Saint Ex was a little older than the other pilots, and he was the favorite author of this German pilot growing up. He said, “If I had known that was Saint Ex, I wouldn’t have done it.” That’s kind of freaky. And, then, you know, it makes you think that if we all knew each other as well, there would probably be a little more thought involved with just killing each other, willy-nilly.
RR: “North” follows that track on Dirty Side Down. The other day, at the Wanee Music Festival, Warren Haynes sat in with Panic on a live version of that song.
JB: Oh, yeah. It’s funny. I was sitting there, and we were about to go on stage, and I hadn’t seen Warren yet, and I was going to make him a CD real quick, but I thought, “Oh, crap. Can’t really make a CD of the track because we’re trying not to let it out.” (laughter) That kind of stuff, you know, can just fall by the wayside when you’re backstage in a situation like that. It’s a good strong song, and we knew that we might end the night with it. We wanted Warren to sit in. There wasn’t anything special to it, except that we were pretty sure that Warren could just kill it. (laughs) The song was written by Jerry Joseph a long time ago, probably when we first met him, around 16 years ago.
RR: The Dirty Side Down title track has a marvelously relaxed yet complex vibe. You made certain choices in your vocal performance, and I was curious about that. How did you make those choices, and did those decisions come to you over time?
JB: Well, actually, they came up in the last minute really. That was a piece in musical form, and we hadn’t really looked at it very hard. We really dug the feel of it, so over the weekend, I said, “Well, I’ll try something. I’ll try to find some lyrics and a melody line.”
And, all of a sudden, I got images of riding motorcycles. Which is kind of freaky because, you know, I don’t ride. (laughter) It’s kind of like I was Brian Wilson writing about surfing, and never leaving his room. I called Jimmy [Herring, Panic guitarist, and avid motorcycle rider] and asked him if he thought that would be too freaky that I do that. He said, “Give it a shot.” He listened to the lyrics, and thought everything was O.K. (laughs) And, so, there it was—it was pretty much a simple tune with some imagery. I tried to keep the feel really calm like it was mimicking a ride through the mountains. Hopefully, it achieved that.
RR: In my album notes for Dirty Side Down, I wrote this about the title track: “Sung in a low and hushed tone, John Bell appears like a detached, time-displaced observer with a powerful narrative performance.”
JB: Thanks, man. I appreciate that. (pauses) You try not to think too hard about it. You let the inspiration take you where it’s going to take you. And, then, you do a little tweaking after that to make things rhyme, or to really make it make sense, and getting back to the notion of not trying so hard so you don’t mess it up.
RR: “True to My Nature” has some strong lyrics, too. I was knocked out by the following passage: I’m bored out of my mind. I’m true to my nature, hope you’re not true to mine. Tell me how wrong I am. Let’s disagree, and we’ll get along fine.
JB: Classic Todd Nance [drums, vocals]. Todd wrote that with Danny Hutchens from Bloodkin. I made a few lyric suggestions, so some of it is classic me coming through there, just to be fair on that. (laughter) But, along those lines, when he came up with it, I thought it was really hip that, yeah, you’re in some of these settings that are supposed to be all special and vacation-like, and maybe, truly, you have a different take on it, and you’re not afraid to put that forth. It’s just different. Todd gets some great ideas.
RR: Let’s talk about life on the road. Specifically, on the new album, there is a track that discusses that topic from a unique point of view, “When You Coming Home.”
JB: That one’s kind of weird in the sense that it is really being sung from the lady’s perspective. (laughs) I’m sittin’ there going, “John, you know, let’s get Anne [Richmond Boston, backup vocals, has appeared on numerous Panic releases] to at least get a little bit of a voice in there to remind people that (laughter) there’s a feminine angle in there.” That comes from putting yourself in your loved one’s shoes while you’re out on the road, and wondering what could be going on in their heads. We spend our time pretty busy and distracted out here. You’re moving from town to town, jumping into a new hotel, trying to get some sleep, doing the gig, and calling home all the time. But, then, with “When
You Coming Home”, you’re putting yourself in their shoes. Maybe some girl out there would like to record it for a country album or something. (laughter)
RR: That’s a great idea. There are also others that we have left behind. “This Cruel Thing” was written by the late Vic Chesnutt, whom you obviously collaborated with in brute., and in various configurations over a long period of time.
JB: Yeah. Well, you know Vic passed away seven days before we went into the studio—kind of unexpectedly, but not wholly surprising. What transpired was that we were sitting around, and somebody throws it [out there] while we were talking and watching T.V. in the studio. We do a lot of that, too. Somebody said, “Hey, is there a Vic tune that anybody wants to do?” We had a Danny tune, a Jerry tune, and Vic is another one of our muses who we like to rip off. (laughter) John Keane [Panic producer and engineer, who often plays pedal steel with the band, among other instruments.] said he had a couple of tunes that he had recorded with Vic, and they had not gone on an album. They were still sitting there, so we listened to them, and that song caught everybody’s ear. We decided to jump on it, and pay tribute, get to say a little more thorough goodbye, and bring one of his songs to life that folks hadn’t heard yet. Another thing I really dug about it was, obviously it was a reflection of what had recently transpired with Vic, but also, the imagery that he uses—battlefields and honor and stuff like that—gives a little something to the psyches of the listeners to latch onto. War is a part of our life at the moment, and so there’s a song that can help with some of those reflections.
RR: Another musician who goes back pretty far with the band is Jimmy Herring. I got to spend some time with Jimmy last year for a site feature, and I know he has a strong grasp of his craft. This is Jimmy’s second studio album with Widespread Panic as a fully-integrated member of the band. How has he impacted the band’s sound, and how has he become part of that overall Widespread Panic fabric?
JB: You know he’s got song ideas—musical stuff that is really intricate, got a lot of time changes, which we like to visit a lot, too, to make things in 7s or 5s, as opposed to 3/4, 4/4. He’s an incredible guitarist. He’s also an incredible writer, and comes up with all these really cool pieces. He’s right there with all of us writing together, and he spends a lot of time with his guitar. He’s got a stockpile of ideas that he’s had over the years that haven’t seen the light of day because he’s been out trying to help the Grateful Dead, or the Allman Brothers, or another configuration, you know, learning their songs just to go out and work on their catalogue, and here, we’re actually in songwriting mode. He’s fittin’ right in there. He’s a nut, and as much as an individual as the rest of us. And we’ve never had anybody like Jimmy before because he is an individual, so it feels really good.
RR: Right. That makes me think of the sweet instrumental track “St. Louis.”
JB: Yeah. We’ve been playing that on stage as a little bit of a transition piece. It took on a little more solid shape in the studio. There’s a free-flowing, open, airy jam there in the middle of it. We were sitting there, thinking, and we said, “We should probably have a little bit of an intro before “Shut Up and Drive,” something a little more elaborate…Oh, let’s just stick the “St. Louis” jam in front of that, and you’ve got a long intro then.” (laughter)
RR: “Shut Up and Drive” fulfills the title’s potential as a great road tune.
JB: That’s what it was meant for.
RR: The two pieces, which segue into each other, create a symbolic end of side one of Dirty Side Down, and the beginning of side two in a really natural and fine way.
JB: Cool. Yes, it’s good to get feedback. We’ve spent enough time with it that those lines kind of blur. You’re also still in that same songwriting mode, so you’re looking at it as though “what can I add there? Oh. (laughs) The door’s closed on it. It’s finished.”
RR: Some of that work involves producer/engineer/musician John Keane, who has worked with Panic for quite some time. “Clinic Cynic” features great dual guitar work, especially in the solo passage, including beautiful pedal steel from John.
JB: I agree. Yeah, we have him come and play with us a good bit on steel. It’s a great sound, we know each other real well, and he’s a fun guy to have around.
RR: “Cotton Was King” closes out the album in rousing Panic fashion, but with a definite modern kick to it, as well.
JB: Like being true to our nature. That’s another tune like that. It’s a tribute to New Orleans—past, present, and future. Yeah, that was fun to write. There’s also…there’s a…oh, what would I say? Well, you know, people can listen to it, and figure it out.
RR: Is it also a glance back at what once was?
JB: Well, what once…I mean, so back it uses the phrase “before the beginning,” which I actually got from Firesign Theatre. (laughter) Full disclosure. It dates back to the beginning of time that a place like New Orleans was always meant to be created. It was inevitable—a geographic hot spot where things were going to happen no matter what, and New Orleans is what manifested.
RR: You brought up an interesting phrase. I’ve been revisiting some of the band’s landmark archival releases. I’ve also been listening to your current live work, and Widespread Panic is playing consistently tight shows—as it was, it still is, in a way. The band is going to make it happen no matter what when you go out on stage? “With our setlist, we’re going to do the best we can, and go through the changes, and really give a unique experience each night.”
JB: Yeah. You want to be in control, and enough where you’re present and you’re playing together, but, again, like with the songwriting, not trying to be in so much control that you choke the thing, and it comes out funny feeling. Like a sporting event, you try to be in shape and prepared, and then be able to flow with it.
RR: There also seems to be a more sane approach to the way Widespread Panic tours these days with a concentration of dates, and high profile festival gigs, too. I would think it would also be nice not to have to play 200 dates a year, right?
JB: Yeah, because we’ve got the family thing and everything. Well, you know, we cover a good bit of the country playing larger venues, and moving from place to place. Yeah, keeping a balanced life between music and home life is, I think, beneficial to the music.
RR: What motivates you as an individual artist in the band, and as the front man?
JB: The feeling of keeping it fresh. It is your responsibility to keep your head in a place where you’re excited about it. If everybody’s doing that, then it rubs off, and you can get something done. Hopefully. (laughs)
