Nothing But Widespread Panic: Dave Schools Interview for Times Herald-Record

Widespread Panic plays Bethel Woods
By Sandy Tomcho for the Times Herald-Record

Widespread Panic recorded an album in April and May, and bassist Dave Schools says they've been giving fans a taste at their summer shows. But it's just a little taste.

"We're playing a couple, but we want to keep most of the rest of them close to our vest," Schools says, adding that he hopes the album will "make an appearance sometime later this year."

From Athens, Ga., the blues- and jazz-influenced rock band built its large following by playing as many as 250 shows a year. Now it's down to about 80, and one of those stops is Sunday's show at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

The band has sold more than 3 million albums, released 15 CDs and five DVDs and prides itself on always having a unique show for its fans, which is why it tries not to go less than four or five nights without repeating any songs.

Go! reporter Sandy Tomcho spoke with Schools via phone about charities, giving away music for free and playing our historic site.

How did you pick the songs that appear on "Choice Cuts: The Capricorn Years 1991-1999"? Did fans have any input on that?

Well, that was actually a really nice favor on behalf of Legacy. They bought the Capricorn catalog, which included an option on a greatest hits record, which Capricorn never exercised. Legacy, 10 years later, decided that they would exercise it. They were nice enough to call us and ask us for some input. So, we just picked some that we thought were pretty representative of the band during those years.

You're affiliated with Save Darfur, Rock the Planet and numerous other organizations. How do you pick which groups you want to be involved with?

We get approached by a lot of people with causes. We felt pretty honored that Amnesty International approached us with this Darfur project, and we're all big John Lennon and Beatles fans and we happened to have a great song in mind for this Lennon tribute record. We take them bit by bit. We can't do all of them, but, sometimes, if the schedule permits, we can make a recording of a tune and contribute it.

You've headlined Bonnaroo and Radio City Music Hall. Some people would say that everything else would be pretty much downhill. You guys have accomplished so much; what keeps you going?

It's a big world and there's probably a lot of countries that aren't used to having rock 'n' roll, so it would be nice to go play some of those places. Really, what keeps us going is the fact that we do something different every night. If we had a stage show that we had worked 20 years to perfect and it had reached that pinnacle of perfection when we headlined Madison Square Garden, then maybe it would be all downhill from there. But, we headline Madison Square Garden and we keep on troopin'. And we come back and play Radio City because it's basically the national cathedral for the performing arts. It's an amazing place. Every night's a different experience, and that's what keeps us wakin' up on the right side of the bed every day.

You let people download your shows, tape your shows and get your music for free. Do you think other bands are missing out by not making themselves as accessible to their fans?

They may be missing out as far as not building a following. The bands that can leverage peer-to-peer sharing these days and concert tickets and get people coming to see them, they are the ones that are having the big success. They're sort of beating the system right now. We've always been lucky because, even in the years before we had a record deal, fans were trading live concert recordings. We crossed the Mississippi River heading west for the first time in our little van and people in California already knew our original songs, and we didn't even have a record out.

The structure of your music, it seems, is influenced by the bands that played the original Bethel site in 1969. Do you have any special feelings about the site?

I don't know if we overturned rocks looking for those influences. I think we just grew up in the '70s, and that's the music we heard on the FM radio when we were kids and we liked it and we can't help but be influenced by that. Just like these younger bands, like Interpol, who obviously grew up listening to music in the '80s and it shows up. I think it's a natural process and it's how art gets refined over the years. As far as the specific Woodstock site, I've never been to it so, I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be really cool.