Widespread Panic continued its rollout of studio material on Thursday with the release of the new single, “Blue Carousel”. The standalone track came as a surprise as it arrived on the heels of last month’s Snake Oil King, the seminal swamp-jam band’s first album of new studio material since 2015’s Street Dogs.
“Blue Carousel” features some lyrics written by Widespread Panic’s late founding guitarist Michael Houser who died of cancer in 2002. The song was left unfinished for two decades until keyboardist JoJo Hermann rescued it by finishing the composition for his late friend and bandmate. Hermann debuted the song under the name “Love and Joy” on August 31st of last year during a solo piano show at Nashville’s City Winery. In its sparing post announcing the release of “Blue Carousel”, Widespread Panic included #LoveAndJoy.
“We never had to finish it, but I thought back and I was like ‘Well, maybe I should go ahead and conjure up Mikey’s spirit,’” Hermann said at his 2023 concert.
Related: Widespread Panic Announces Vinyl Release Of Beloved Michael Houser Album ‘Door Harp’
The renamed “Blue Carousel” contains some of Houser’s hallmark simplistic lyricism, as a simple day around the house turns into a rumination of life on the road on the titular carnival attraction, “Arm out the window, along for this ride / Driving ‘way from the crowds / Just like the river tide, starts where it ends / On my blue carousel / Just another day.” Musically, the song charges in with an intro reminiscent of “Tall Boy” and is accented throughout with a satisfying repeated Jimmy Herring guitar lick. Widespread Panic delivered its full-band debut of “Blue Carousel” on September 16th, 2023 to close out the band’s alphabetical two-night run in Wilmington, NC. Over the course of two nights, Panic used its setlist to work through A-Z with the first letter of each song, after that spelling out “Tuff Shit,” and finally closing the show with an encore that spelled “Bye”—with “Blue Carousel” as the B.
For the second time this year, Widespread Panic has shared a new single in the wake of nixing a run of weekend concerts. Back in February, the band issued “We Walk Each Other Home” hours after postponing its three-night run in Chicago (which was later canceled after bassist Dave Schools was hospitalized). The band was due to return to Asheville, NC this weekend for a three-night run, but on Sunday canceled the shows following Herring’s diagnosis of stage one tonsil cancer. Widespread Panic announced that the guitarist would begin treatment immediately and asked fans to stay tuned for news on the rest of the year’s shows.
Stream the new Widespread Panic single “Blue Carousel” below or on your preferred platform.
Widespread Panic — “Blue Carousel”
Blue Carousel by Widespread Panic
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