Memphis, Tenn. — Widespread Panic headlined Saturday at the Mempho Music Festival with a guest-filled set while guitarist Nick Johnson filled in and Jimmy Herring remained on medical leave.
Ivan Neville joined on keyboards for Red Hot Mama to close the first set, a role he has played with the band off and on since a 2005 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival appearance.
After setbreak, Chuck Leavell added keyboards and Randall Bramblett added saxophone on Come and Go Blues, reported as the first time Panic played the Gregg Allman song from the 1973 Allman Brothers Band album Brothers and Sisters that marked Leavell first studio release with that group.
The band then spotlighted Bramblett on Low Spark of High Heeled Boys into his original Get In Get Out, a song he last played with Panic on New Year Eve 2003, before returning to Low Spark as Leavell and Bramblett left the stage.
Setlist notes from festival coverage listed a full two-set show dated Oct. 10 at Mempho in Memphis, with an encore of Chilly Water and the entire performance featuring Johnson on guitar. Panic was also scheduled to appear again Sunday at the festival.
Downtown Memphis is the commercial, entertainment, and civic core, anchored by Beale Street blues clubs, FedExForum arena, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, and the historic Peabody Hotel. Mempho adds a major outdoor weekend to that live-music calendar when national jam and roots acts take over city stages for fans who also pack Beale Street clubs after the festival day ends.
Local music desks treated the Saturday sit-ins as the story of the weekend because the guests unlocked a rare debut and a long-dormant bust-out in the same second set, giving Memphis a signature Mempho moment beyond a standard headline slot.
