Area Teacher Writes A Children’s Book Inspired By Widespread Panic

Interview: Pete Mason
By: Rob Smittix

RRX: I know you got a book coming out, that’s what we need to talk about. I purposely don’t know much about it yet. I’d like to learn together. So you tell me what’s going on.

PM: Well, the new book is the first in a series of three that I have planned out. One for this year, one for 2028, and one for 2030. The first one being the Widespread Alphabet, which focuses on the music of Widespread Panic. Great band from the great town of Athens, Georgia, where the B-52ss, REM and Drive-By Truckers all came from… and Panic, I would say that they have to be the biggest of the four. Their music and lyrics… ever since I’ve started listening to them, which is literally 26 years ago, the other day. Driving to Hartford to see Phish, my brother popped in ‘Light Fuse, Get Away’ and I was hooked. From there, I’ve just been seeing the band, listening to every single show that comes out, collecting tapes and CDs back in the day and trading them. Somewhere during COVID, I started working on a Widespread Panic kids’ book because I just finished my 2nd Phish one and Panic just seemed natural. It took a few years to track down the proper illustrator to work with me alongside this.

RRX: What a concept. I love that. It’s obviously for the kids and all that but also you’re pointing them in the direction of keeping it cool with the music. Does the band know about this? Because they should.

PM: They do, we reached out to them and it turned out they were somewhat interested in selling the book possibly. They wanted to see some of the pages and we shared them and we kinda got the okay, no notes and we moved forward. They were just at Red Rocks and they got a couple weeks on the road out west. I figure after that’s over, this Kickstarter should be over too and hopefully successful, so we can move ahead to tighten it up, get it published and get it out there. It’s gonna be a hit. This is a band that has a huge fan base stretching all across the South, up into the Midwest, big fan base in Colorado and other points west. They do have some children’s items but nothing beyond some clothing here and there. I didn’t go into this thinking, what’s the band’s void that I can fill? I just started working on it. We put it together and turned out they were interested in it, on top of all this. So they’re aware, it’s the first time we let the band know. We’re not using any anything copyrighted or trademarked on their end. It’s all inspired by the music, so it’s fun for the kids. It’ll be well received by kids and fans alike.

RRX: Absolutely, it’s almost like one of those things where no idea is too crazy. It’s definitely an original idea to take inspiration from a band that’s well known and then communicating it through a children’s book. I think you’re onto something here and that void that you’re talking about as far as merch for kids… with the exception of onesies and stuff like that, you really don’t see much out there for kids at concerts and stuff.

PM: Yeah, there’s small tchotchkes and things that could qualify as something for a kid and maybe they’re just getting a small poster or postcard or whatever, but actual kids’ items… especially something that is written by a teacher with literacy skills in mind, that’s kind of been the focus of it. It’s not like this is just a quick job, just to get it done. There’s, a lot of time and thought putting into it to make sure that the kids are gonna be able to read the words, pronounce the words and sound them out. Try not to put a word that’s too heavy in there for them and make sure that whoever’s reading to them can also read the words. The font had to be adjusted and make it all as accessible as any children’s book should be. Because if it’s not accessible, the kid’s not gonna go pull it off the shelf and say, read this to me. And that’s our target audience, kids that say I want this read to me.

RRX: That’s pretty cool and you’ve done this a couple of times before with Phish?

PM: Yeah, I wrote two. The first children’s book I wrote were in like 2016, ‘The Alphabet Book for Little Phans/From Antelope to Zero.’ And then I did a Grateful Dead book in between, ‘The Grateful Book of Letters.’ Then I went back to Phish and I did ‘Counting Down the Number Line’ and I took every numerical reference of Phish that I could find in their songs, I only use like one cover song, 2001. And just kind of went backwards from 2001 to 1,055 and went backwards down the number line, just like the song. All three books have been wildly successful and I’m selling on average at least one a day which is great.

RRX: No kidding, that is great.

PM: It’s going great and we stay away from all the trademark stuff or stuff they might complain about. I can even say with a bit of confidence that there was a show on October 28th, 2021 in Las Vegas for Phish and it opened up with 2001. They don’t do that very often, very rarely and then the second song was 1999 and I turned to my friend and I was like… you’ve gotta be kidding me. I think they’re gonna start going backwards here, aren’t they? And the next song was 5:55 and then 46 days and I was like wow, this is basically the book.

RRX: Right!

PM: If you look at the set list and you read the book… If you took out the covers that they threw in like “If 6 was 9” and a couple other songs you’d be like… yeah, this is entirely the book. The band didn’t confirm it and I don’t wanna hear yes or no either way but it’s kind of obvious because they have copies of it.

RRX: That’s right. Now, you said that the new book that you’re working on based on Widespread Panic… you mentioned that it’s gonna be the first of a series of 3. What are the other books in that series of 3 going to be about?

PM: The first one’s the ‘Widespread Alphabet.’ The second one is gonna be… I don’t have the title for it yet, but it’s gonna be a
Billy Strings centric story that also has the alphabet but it’s gonna have an added aspect to it where we follow the hero’s journey which is a literary style, you know? Pretty much like any Harry Potter or Percy Jackson hero’s journey, it’s cool. I actually learned it from a teacher in Green Island and so I’m having that Billy String story follow that because it’ll create a deeper story for kids and more than just at learning the alphabet ages. The third book is gonna be Grateful Dead geography.

RRX: Well they’ve been everywhere.

PM: I am very excited to see how that all unfolds, we got a lot of the pieces of that already done and we’re just looking to do the next step.

RRX: I love all of it! Anytime we can intermingle good music with education for kids, I’m all about it.

PM: If anyone wants to pick up the current books they can get them at my Etsy store, https://www.etsy.com/shop/phanart
They can pick up the any of the books there and for now if they wanna support the Widespread Alphabet, they should visit the Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phanartpete/the-widespread-alphabet

If we can meet that goal and reach our printing goal this book will be printed and out within a month and available for kids of all ages. They’ll make a great gift and you get it for the ground floor price for the first printing. And then when we get to the next couple of books to follow, you’ll be the first to know if you support the Kickstarter for this one. I got my part done and then finally linked up with a really great artist Mark Serlo out in Pittsburgh, and we’re gonna crush this one. We just gotta get the funding together and that’s where music phans come in.