The eighth studio album from Athens, Ga.-based Widespread Panic [ tickets ] is due in stores on April 15, and the jam band has lined up a typically robust tour schedule to support the release.

The as-yet-untitled album will be the band's first since the death of co-founding guitarist Michael Houser, who succumbed last August to pancreatic cancer at the age of 40. Houser played his last concert with the band on July 2, 2002.

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 touring acts.

Widespread Panic has just released a new two-DVD set titled "Live from the Backyard in Austin, TX," which was recorded during a three-day run of shows 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 official 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, peaking 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.