Widespread Panic sets busy tour schedule behind 'Ball'

Athens, Ga.-based jam band Widespread Panic is scheduled to be on the road through the summer to back their eighth studio album, which is due in stores on April 15.

The album, titled "Ball," is Widespread Panic's first since the death of co-founding guitarist Michael Houser, who last August succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the age of 40. Houser played his last concert with the band on July 2, 2002.

"It was a wide open process," drummer Todd Nance said of recording the album, in a statement posted on the band's official website. "The word 'no' was never uttered. We had this opportunity, whether it was welcome or not, to start fresh, so we started from square one to see if this thing would stand on its own. It worked out pretty well."

Though Widespread Panic isn't known for strong record sales, it is an excellent draw on the concert circuit, particularly in the Southeast. The group--which played to more than 300,000 fans in 2002--ranked at No. 52 on Pollstar's year-end list of the top-grossing tours.

Widespread Panic recently released a new two-DVD set titled "Live from the Backyard in Austin, TX," which was recorded during the group's three-day run at the venue last July. The first disc includes more than two hours of live-performance footage. The second features "a 90-minute smorgasbord of band interviews and behind the scenes footage," according to the band's website.

"Don't Tell the Band," Widespread Panic's seventh studio album, was released in June of 2001. It spent six weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart, and peaked at No. 57.

A new album from Brute--which is Widespread Panic's lineup fronted by fellow Georgia artist Vic Chesnutt--hit stores last April. Titled "Co-Balt," the album was recorded over a three-day period in January of 2001.