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Widespread Panic

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By Ernest Barteldes

Published on October 22, 2008 at 8:54am

No jam band worth its salt ever repeats a set list, and this is a rule that these Georgia Music Hall of Famers take close to their hearts. Never in the 22 years since Widespread Panic's inception have the bandmates performed a duplicate concert, painstakingly going through their canon of more than 300 songs before hitting the stage for their extended shows, which sometimes last more than three hours. The musicians have developed an intricate form of selecting the lists for each show by using a complicated color-coded system, explained on their recent live DVD, The Earth Will Swallow You.

The band's current lineup is John Bell on guitar and vocals, JoJo Hermann on keyboards and vocals, Jimmy Herring on guitars, Todd Nance on drums and vocals, Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz on percussion and vocals, and Dave Schools on bass and vocals. This is Widespread Panic's third lineup; original guitarist Michael Houser passed away in 2002 from pancreatic cancer, and his replacement, George McConnell, left the group in 2006.