Everyday Companion: The Story Behind the Bible of Panic Setlists and Songs

By Ted Rockwell

Since its inception in 1995 the Everyday Companion has provided information about the band to the fans. A true labor of love, the project has achieved "household name" status within the fan community and has become the most trusted source of Widespread Panic information on the web.

Obtaining and verifying the information contained in the Everyday Companion was only possible through the cooperation of a small army of fans, crew members and even the occasional band member. The history of the information contained in the Everyday Companion reveals how a community of virtual strangers has worked together to produce the Everyday Companion.

People had been collecting setlists individually for several years until, to the best of our knowledge, James Bateman and Colin Robinson compiled the first setlist file in January of 1994 and provided it to anyone who wanted to download it on the world wide web. The shows in this file were taken primarily from back issues of the fan-zine, The Panicle, and from tapes. From that first file Steve Dearwent added more shows and dates to it. At this point there were a couple of hundred dates documented.

In 1995, Ted Rockwell started adding shows to Steve’s file and decided to produce about ten hard copies (titled 'It Feels Good To Watch a Big Man Dance') of this file to give away to some friends. At the same time Will Duckworth had also been entering setlists into a database. In early 1996, Ted decided to take on the challenge of publishing a comprehensive setlist book and contacted Ben Tanen, the administrator of the online Panic discussion group Spreadnet, to see if he had any advice for how he could start a database for sorting the setlist information. Instead, Ben introduced Ted to Will, and soon a full-blown research effort started.

Taper ZMan and Ted Rockwell: photo via PanicStream

The Everyday Companion was very fortunate to have the help of David Schools at this point in the project who put the research effort in touch with Horace Moore, who at the time was the keeper of many of the band’s personal recordings from the early days and is now their archivist. Horace was able to fill in many gaps in the information.

From it’s inception the Everyday Companion has relied on the fans of Widespread Panic for information and research. It has also shared that information with fans on the Web. Perhaps as a result of this tendency to exchange information over the Web, the vast majority of the people who have contributed information had never met each other before the project started.

One such person was Bryan Irby. He had already been doing research on the comprehensive discography of the songs that Widespread Panic had in their repertoire. He agreed to let his work be included in the first edition Everyday Companion which was published in November of 1996. At this point the setlist file had nearly tripled in size and featured a total of just over 900 dates. Less than one thousand of the first edition Everyday Companion were published.

The first edition was designed and laid out by Lisa Rockwell. She ended up being enlisted by her husband to do the layout of all three editions, the Touring Companion and the design of the website. Her patience and dedication to the project should not be underestimated. Simply put, her role has been an essential element of the Everyday Companion's longevity.

After the first edition came out Dave Bredal volunteered his services in locating his old friend, Larry Acquaviva. Larry is a former roadie who kept detailed notes of every show he attended while working for the band from 1988 through 1992. Dave was able to locate Larry who then agreed to allow the Everyday Companion to publish the setlists contained in his notes. Without Larry’s notebooks we would not have most of the information contained in the setlists for the years 1988, 1990 and 1991.

Garrie Vereen, another Widespread road crew member had been keeping detailed notes of every show he had been to since 1992. He had also allowed the Everyday Companion access to his notebooks for information since Garrie and Ted first met each other in St. Louis in 1997. Over the years, Garrie became a 'patron saint' of the project, providing information, securing access for Everyday Companion volunteers, and providing advice and emotional support. After adding the information received from Larry and Garrie the second edition Everyday Companion was published in December of 1997. Around 1,500 were produced and at this point the setlist file contained over 1,400 shows.

From 1997 until 1999 the Everyday Companion had received tens of thousands of changes and corrections from hundreds of Panic fans. Some of these changes were first published in the Touring Companion, a smaller more compact version of the Everyday Companion containing setlists that ran through 1999.

During the three years leading up to the production of the 3rd (and last) edition of the Everyday Companion, Will and Ted had both moved to new states, changed jobs and watched their wives give birth to their children. With life’s responsibilities weighing in, time for projects like the Everyday Companion became scarce. Although Ted is still active in the day-to-day business of the Everyday Companion, Will decided to take a hiatus from the project. When the 3rd edition was published in January of 2001, over 3,000 were produced (including a run of 500 special edition hard cover book) and the setlist file had over 2,000 shows in it.

Third and Final Edition of Everyday Companion

At this time distribution of the book became a constant struggle. Kristen Teel volunteered to help run the 'home office' for this operation. She toiled away fulfilling orders and running to the post office for over three years. Her contribution made sure that people were getting their books and that the Everyday Companion had enough funds to pay its server fees.

In the spring of 2000 Scott Holcomb was enlisted to maintain the website and help continue the verification of the information contained in the database. Not only did he take on the daunting task of organizing teases and raps, he also added an entire section of guitar tabs and organized the lyrics section of the website. From 2000 through to 2012 Scott Holcomb has been solely responsible for maintaining the database and website. Nicknamed 'data boy,' Scott has been toiling away on the Everyday Companion as a volunteer for over a decade. His dedication to the project is another essential element to its longevity.

During the past 21 years the Everyday Companion has indisputably become an essential resource to the fans and, as it turns out, to the band. Beyond using the site for research, the band and crew has on several occasions reached out to Ted for information. For example, when Candace Brightman was hired to do sound the crew called Ted to ask for song lyrics. A song lyrics book was created that Candace could use to follow the songs as she created her onstage light shows. Another example of this symbiotic relationship between the band and the Everyday Companion can be seen in the font that the band uses to create their setlists on a nightly basis. In 2005 Ted worked with Garrie Vereen to create a font of Garrie's handwriting. The font would be used for some future purpose, possibly a future edition of the Everyday Companion. The font, 'Garrie's Hand,' is used nightly in the stage setlists as well as on WP Archive projects.

An original Garrie Vereen handwritten setlist

Since its inception, the Everyday Companion has had a commitment to serve the community of fans of Widespread Panic with the most accurate and up to date setlist information possible. After 21 years they have taken the long view of the project, viewing it more as a marathon than a sprint. Early on in its existence, the Everyday Companion made a decision not to sell advertising on the site and to operate on a completely volunteer basis. This would help keep the intentions of the project pure and allow the project to be focused on the information, not on revenue. As such, the Rockwell family has been providing essential administrative and material support for the project for the last ten years.

The Everyday Companion represents something special in the Widespread Panic community. It is the product of thousands of people's efforts and the labor of love of a few dedicated and hard working individuals. It can be seen as the confluence of a fan's passion and a band's focus - an evolving library of information about one band, its fans and its music. It has been an amazing 21 years - here's to the next 20!