#todd nance

Song Review: Widespread Panic feat. Steve Winwood - “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Live, Sept. 6, 2014)

Widespread Panic was content to remain in the background, playing in Traffic as it were, as Steve Winwood led the band through “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”

It was Sept. 6, 2014, at Virginia’s LOCKN’ festival and, with Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites up close, Winwood Panic played a collaborative set from which this gem was recently extracted.

In a voice virtually untainted by time, Winwood sings it without harmony and plays the guitar solos with ferocity from the past. But at the five-minute mark, Panic’s sound emerges as the band picks up the tempo, JoJo Hermann tosses in piano and Jimmy Herring and Winwood play twin guitar in harmonic and alternating measures.

This “Fantasy” was staggering in real time, a pristine splitting and stitching of the temporary partners to create something both new and unchanged. Eleven years later on professional video, its impact remains and carries the extra poignancy of this festival run marking some of Todd Nance’s final appearances with the band he co-founded in 1986.

Grade card: Widespread Panic feat. Steve Winwood - “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Live - 9/6/14) - A

Song Review: Widespread Panic with John Keane - “Stop-Go” (Live, April 20, 2002)

With producer and frequent collaborator John Keane on board, Widespread Panic went full-bore into “Stop-Go.”

It was April 20, 2002, in North Carolina and professional video of the long-ago performance is now out to reinforce the power of the classic Panic lineup even on a song so clearly derived from the Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain.”

And though WSP sounds nothing like GD, the former adopted the ethos of the latter, as demonstrated on this 11-minute workout. There’s room between verses for Michael Houser’s famous lingering lead; JoJo Hermann’s mix of organ and piano; Dave School’s lumbering lead six-string bass; and Keane’s rock ‘n’ roll pedal steel.

But Panic isn’t strictly about solos. And when John Bell finishes his second round of vocals, ensemble playing brings the song home with a slow-rising flood of music that at the time was pure joy and decades later is a mix of melancholia and nostalgia.

Grade card: Widespread Panic with John Keane - “Stop-Go” (Live - 4/20/02) - A

Song Review: Widespread Panic - “C. Brown” (Live, June 25, 2023)

Looking at Widespread Panic in 2023, it’s obvious many years have gone by since the band’s formation. But listen to WSP ’23, and it’s almost as if time has stood still.

The craggy - and different - faces, grey hair and bald heads belie this, of course. But despite Father Time’s physical toll, that fucker hasn’t yet managed to mess with Panic’s musicianship and sound.

And so it was that the version of “C. Brown” the Panics played June 25 at Red Rocks sounded like in came from the very same band that’s been playing the song for nearly four decades now.

But the band - despite the same name - is different. Some of the players have changed and those who remain have gotten older. Yet Widespread Panic - from a strictly musical standpoint - continue to defy space and time and make music very similar to that they dreamed up when they were pups.

Good then. Good now.

Grade card: Widespread Panic - “C. Brown” (Live - 6/25/23) - B

Song Review: Widespread Panic - “Vacation” (Live, June 22, 2002)

Widespread Panic’s newly released version of the balladic “Vacation,” recorded at June 22, 2002, at Bonnaroo, is all the more poignant knowing Michael Houser would die Aug. 10.

Yet, less than two months before what he knew was coming, Houser continued to lead the band from his perpetually seated position on stage. He sings lead on this one and shares the gut punch of a chorus with John Bell:

But you came along with a raft and a song and I’m so glad you could make it/with you by my side I might get back alive from my next vacation

A nine-minute drone with a restrained, resolving guitar solo, “Vacation” is one of the few WSP songs that doesn’t sound exactly like a WSP song. It’s a gem both because of and despite this truth. And this vault release is a gift from the ether given all that’s transpired in the intervening years.

The band - with Jimmy Herring and Duane Trucks, respectively, taking over for the late Houser and Todd Nance - is still out there and still a fantastic concert act. But this video is a prime example of what Sound Bites hears and sees when he thinks of Panic - Houser, Nance, Bell, Dave Schools, Jojo Hermann and Sunny Ortiz.

Grade card: Widespread Panic - “Vacation” (Live - 6/22/02) - A-

Song Review: John Fogerty feat. Widespread Panic - “Keep on Chooglin’” (Live, Sept. 7, 2013)

Everything about John Fogerty and Widespread Panic’s hookup at the inaugural Lockn’ festival worked.

And what seemed true in memory is confirmed on tape with a new, pro-shot video of the hybridized band performing CCR’s “Keep on Chooglin’.”

From Fogerty’s tapping technique at the beginning to his still-strong voice to his harp-blowing skills - unfortunately stymied by an initially balky mic - the old man is in good shape many miles down the road. And he and the Panics are clearly having a hoot as Fogerty and Dave Schools do a little head banging, he and Jimmy Herring share a laugh and Fogerty, Herring and John Bell lock in to a triple-guitar closing riff to ensure the coda was as exciting as the intro.

These are often-cheesy rock-star moves to be sure. But like everything else about this Widespread Creedence one-off, they work in this context.

Grade card: John Fogerty feat. Widespread Panic - “Keep on Chooglin’” (Live - 9/7/13) - A-

Seventy Candles for Widespread Panic’s “Sunny” Ortiz

When the “Sunny” rises today, he’ll be 70.

Born July 4, 1952, Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz, is the closest thing a guy can be to an original member of a band - in this case Widespread Panic - and not quite be an original member.

He’s been on every album, but wasn’t an official member until after Space Wrangler appeared in 1988. He’s since played every show the band has performed, a feat shared with only John Bell and Dave Schools.

And though he’s not on the front line, doesn’t sing and isn’t in the timekeeping role formerly held by Todd Nance and now Duane Trucks, Ortiz is an essential part of Panic’s sound.

Widespread Panic is one of those groups that always sound like themselves. And percussionist Ortiz - the color man, the dude with the crazy sonic palette - is a humongous part of that. Imagine any WSP song without his contributions and it’d be much dimmer.

That’s what happens when there ain’t no “Sunny.”

Quarter Notes: Blurbs & Briefs from Sound Bites

REMEMBERING TODD NANCE: “Still Right Here,” a musical tribute to former Widespread Panic drummer Todd Nance, will air at 8 p.m. Eastern, Oct. 25, on Nugs.tv.

The webcast will include previously unseen footage from the band’s 2000 summer tour and performances by members of Bloodkin, Drive-By Truckers and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; Jerry Joseph; WSP’s Dave Schools, Jojo Hermann and John Bell; and others.

Nance, 57, died in August.

“TEN” FROM PEARL JAM: Pearl Jam is offering a pay-per-view webcast of its April 29, 2016, Ten concert in Philadelphia. Shot on 11 cameras, the 32-song performance will stream Oct. 22-25, on Nugs.tv.

Ticketing info here.

REJECTED “AMERICAN BEAUTY” POSTER REVEALED: The Grateful Dead organization shared an image of the banned American Beauty poster as part of the band’s ongoing 50th-anniversary celebrations of the 1970 LP.

“When executives at (Warner Bros.) saw that Jerry (Garcia) was smoking a joint, they refused to release the artwork,” the band said on Facebook.

JESSE GRESS RECOVERING: Longtime Todd Rundgren guitarist Jesse Gress is recovering from a successful lung transplant, according to Rundgren Radio.