Jimmy Herring

Jimmy Herring (born January 22, 1962) is an American guitarist, known as the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic since 2006.

He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.

A native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Herring is the son of a high school English teacher and a Superior Court judge.

The youngest of three brothers, he attended Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville.

Although he played saxophone in the high school band, he became known for his talent on guitar, which he had begun playing at age 13.

Herring had a Telecaster guitar with a Stratocaster neck, in the same style as one of his biggest influences, Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs.

After high school he formed the Paradox, a cover band that played mostly jazz fusion and songs by the Dixie Dregs, Al Di Meola, and Chuck Mangione.

The band's horn section included Wayne Rigsby and Charles Humphries on trumpet and Herring on saxophone.

After graduating from high school, in 1980, Herring attended a summer session at the Berklee College of Music.

In addition, he is a graduate of The Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, California.

Herring was the lead guitarist for the jam band Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit.

Formed in Atlanta in 1989, its members include Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge and Leftover Salmon drummer Jeff Sipe.

He was invited to participate on the H.O.R.D.E. tour with Aquarium Rescue Unit in 1992 and 1993 and was offered the lead guitar job in the Allman Brothers Band after Dickey Betts was arrested after a show in Saratoga Springs, New York on July 30, 1993.

Herring declined to take the position full-time.

Bruce Hampton left Aquarium Rescue Unit in 1994, citing time pressure as his reason.

Herring and other members continued to tour in early 1997 until drummer Jeff Sipe departed for Leftover Salmon.

In 1998 and 1999 Herring went on tour as Jazz Is Dead with bassist Alphonso Johnson, keyboardist T Lavitz, and drummer Billy Cobham.

The band's albums included jazz rock versions of songs by the Grateful Dead.

Herring also appeared on the album Out of the Madness by The Derek Trucks Band.

He went on tour with the Allman Brothers Band in 2000, then joined Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead in Phil Lesh and Friends.

In 2002, Herring joined The Other Ones, a band which included four former members of the Grateful Dead — Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann.

Herring continued to play with the group, now renamed The Dead, in 2003 and 2004.

In 2005, he also toured with the jazz, funk, and occasionally bluegrass-oriented band The Codetalkers, which featured Herring on guitar with his previous bandmate Col. Bruce Hampton on vocals, harmonica, and guitar.

2005 also marked the release of the Lincoln Memorial disc from Project Z, of which Jimmy is a founding member.

In January 2005, Herring appeared on the Jam Cruise 3 stage with several acts, including Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade.

Herring left Phil Lesh and Friends in November, 2005.

This band also allowed Herring to expand a musical friendship with Codetalkers' front man Bobby Lee Rodgers, with whom Herring formed a new band in the spring of 2006 (tentatively dubbed Herring, Rodgers, and Sipe).

On August 3, 2006, Widespread Panic announced Herring would be taking over the lead guitar spot in the band after the departure of George McConnell.

Also in 2006, Herring and an almost complete original lineup of Aquarium Rescue Unit reunited as Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit featuring Oteil Burbridge, Jimmy Herring, Col. Bruce Hampton and Jeff Sipe with Bobby Lee Rodgers sitting in.

In 2006, Jimmy officially became a member of Widespread Panic as their new lead guitar player.

His first performance with the group was at Radio City Music Hall.

In 2008, Herring released Lifeboat, his first official solo album, on Abstract Logix.

The material consists primarily of instrumental jazz-rock fusion, and features a rotating lineup of long-time Herring collaborators, including Oteil and brother Kofi Burbridge, Jeff Sipe, alto and soprano saxophonist Greg Osby, and others, including two songs featuring Derek Trucks.

The album was met with generally positive reviews.

On February 7, 2009, Herring, along with Steve Gorman (The Black Crowes), guitarist Audley Freed (Jakob Dylan, ex-Crowes, Blue Floyd) and bassist-singer Nick Govrik, made their live debut of Trigger Hippy at the Cox Capitol Theater in Macon, Georgia.

On August 21, 2012, Jimmy Herring released Subject to Change Without Notice, his second solo album on Abstract Logix.

The album received rave reviews and was produced by John Keane who is well known for producing albums for Widespread Panic, R.E.M, The Indigo Girls among others.

Jimmy Herring was also on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine the very same year.

He toured the album extensively in the United States during the Fall of 2012 with Jeff Sipe, Neal Fountain and Matt Slocum.

In 2013, Jimmy Herring, Wayne Krantz, Michael Landau, Etienne Mbappe and Keith Carlock started a band called The Ringers.