Widespread Panic’s last act before taking a much-deserved break for much of 2012 was a run of all-acoustic shows this past February, spread over 11 stops in 4 cities (DC, Atlanta, Denver, and Aspen). The totally-unplugged setting presented challenges for the band, but they rose to them like true jam veterans – and the results […]

After listening to guitarist Jimmy Herring’s new solo album Subject To Change Without Notice it would be easy to say that the man is on top of his game – but it wouldn’t be accurate. The fact is, Herring’s already-amazing game keeps getting better. The 50-year-old guitarist (who hangs his hat in Georgia when he’s not out on the […]

June 16, 2007. Tigger and I were at our first Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm’s barn. Front row. My foot was right alongside Levon’s cymbal stand. I wasn’t there in any official wordscribe capacity; I wasn’t writing for anyone at the time. We were just there to be. It was the portion of the evening […]

65 years into this life, Ray Wylie Hubbard might have found the key to inner peace: keeping your gratitude higher than your expectations. Don’t let the fact that he shares that nugget of wisdom during “Mother’s Blues” – a tale of “a fine stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul” with a little bit […]

With this time of the year being prime for reflection – and 2011 itself being quite a year to reflect upon – we thought this would be a good time to check in with Ken Babbs. Merry Prankster and longtime joined-at-the-imagination soul brother to the late Ken Kesey; Marine Corps vet and chopper pilot; “rookie […]

“Hullo.” That’s all it took to identify the speaker. That “hullo” on the other end of the phone — a mix of purr and growl with a wisp of cigarette smoke curled around it — could only be New York Dolls frontman David Johansen. Thirty-eight years later, this was the same voice that came barrel-assing […]

Never mind his landmark production work with Bob Dylan for right now. (Or with Brian Eno, U2, Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson, the Neville Brothers … look it up; the list goes on.) Forget about the Grammys, Junos, and all the awards he’s won. Even the couldn’t-escape-it-if-you-tried thunder of his trademark “sonics” as applied to Neil […]

Call it a supergroup or, better yet, a jamband supergroup. These five friends—The String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann (percussion) and Keith Moseley (bass), New Monsoon’s Jeff Miller (guitar, vocals) and Phil Ferlino (keyboards, vocals) and Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone (violin, guitar, vocals)—have just released the record Which Way World under the moniker The Contribution. While […]