Soul Searching
by Matteo Bossi
It’s been a while since Warren Haynes put out a solo album, “Ashes And Dust” his previous one, came out in 2015. And nine years is certainly a long time for a hard working artist like him, who’s always active and involved with different projects and collaborations. And “Million Voices Whisper”(out now on Fantasy/Universal), this is the title of the new one, named after a line in the song “Day Of Reckoning”, is another very fine chapter in an ongoing musical journey that manages to seamlessly keep together different elements. Most of all it is a very soulful record, it’easy to imagine some of these songs being interpreted by classic soul singers. “I think it’s very much a soul music influenced record. Soul music was my first influence, I started singing at a very young age and mostly listening to soul music at that time. Four Tops, Temptations, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding…and that’s the way I learned to sing long before I started playing guitar and before I discovered rock music. So that music has stayed with me my entire life. I think with this record and also with “Man In Motion” a lot of that influence comes out. Which is very fine for me. It is combined with a lot of other influences as well, obviously, but even though it’s not strictly soul music there is a common thread that runs through it.
And also the lyrics on most of these songs come from a place of empathy and love and connecting people. It was already the case with the Gov’t Mule album you put out last year, “Peace…Like A River”.
Yes, I would agree with that. I think the last few years I’ve been focusing more on those types of subject matters and trying to not get pulled into the trap of writing a bunch of dark songs based on the Covid lockdown and the things that everyone was going through. I think we’re all going through changes together so let’s focus on how to deal with it and how to get out of it, what to embrace and what to let go of.
How did the writing process for this album come about? Some of the songs you have co-written with Derek Trucks or Jamey Johnons and Lukas Nelson.
Well, most of the songs were written in the past two or three years…a couple of them go further back to the Covid lockdown, “From Here On Out” and “Day Of Reckoning” definitely go back that far. “Till The Sun Come Shining Through” goes back pretty far as well, but most of them are brand new. The songs that I wrote with Derek are very new, I went to his farm in Georgia and we spent three days together hanging out just the two of us, Mike Mattison from the Tedeschi Trucks was there for a short period of time but we mostly just spent three days writing music, which was wonderful. We wrote four or five new songs, two of them appear on this record, “These Changes” and “Hall of Future Saints”.
The song I wrote with Lukas goes a little further back and the one with Jamey Johnson around the same time period, we were all hanging out together. Most of the songs were written at home with an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar by myself and most of them did not have a demo recording. So when we got into the studio I would just sing and play the song for the band and we would interpret the song as we went along. And I was very open minded about letting the songs take whatever direction felt comfortable. Not being too close minded about preconceptions of how they should sound. And it was a wonderful experience because anytime you are working with great musicians a lot of surprises are gonna happen. And it’s a good thing.
And surely on every record you did outside of Gov’t Mule you have had great musicians. For “Man In Motion” you had Ian McLagan, George Porter or Ruthie Foster, this time it’s John Medeski, Terence Higgins or Greg Osby.
Yes, that’s the beauty, I’m lucky to be surrounded by wonderful musicians in all the different projects that I do. And I think it helps keeping me inspired and keeping a fresh attitude about the music. If I only did one thing all the time I would kind of get burned out much easier. For me I’m very fortunate that I’m able to have these kind of opportunities and it is very inspiring playing with these guys in a different way from Gov’t Mule, which is very inspiring as well.
“Real Real Love” seems to be the centerpiece of the record, and it is a song Gregg Allman had started that you were able to finish?
Yes, “Real Real Love” is song Gregg started writing and never finished, it was just an incomplete lyric, there was no music. And I finished the lyrics and wrote music for it. And after it was finished I called Derek Trucks on the phone and told him about it and I asked him if we could record it together. And that was kind of the inspiration for the reunion between the two of us on this record, that inspired us to go into writing mode together. That song was a catalyst.
It sounds very classic.
I tried to write the music in a way that Gregg would have written it, if he were still around. I wanted to honor his style or writing and his style of singing with this song, more so than any other song that I have been a part of.
Phil Lesh & Warren Haynes, Best Buy Theatre di NYC marzo 2011 (foto Antonio Boschi)
The three songs Derek plays on are at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the record. You two go way back and there is such a great chemistry when the two of you play together.
Yes, we played together hundreds of times and the chemistry that we have together is very uncanny, very natural. So I thought it was very important to capture that in the studio and to me it was very important that he was able to be there physically as opposed to us doing our parts in different studios. Originally we were going to do in his studio but his studio was under construction, he’s rebuilding and remodeling, so we did at Power Station in New England, which is the same studio where Gov’t Mule recorded “Heavy Load Blues” and “Peace…Like A River”. Derek came in for two days and it was a great experience.
On the Deluxe Edition you also revisit “Back Where I Started”, a song you and him wrote together for his “Already Free” album.
Yes, we wrote that song many years ago and there was demo of me singing it. I’ve always wanted to record it but since they did on that Derek Trucks record with Susan Tedeschi singing it I was in no hurry. But it seemed like it was appropriate for this record. So the version of “Back Where I Started” on the bonus disc has me playing acoustic slide guitar and Derek playing the acoustic rhythm guitar and my voice, otherwise it’s very similar to their version.
Talking about the Allman Brothers Band, it’s about to be released the final concert that you guys did at the Beacon in 2014. How does it make you feel thinking about that legacy and those memories?
Well, that was fantastic night, I thought the band performed exceptionally well, everyone rose to the occasion. I think it was the longest show that the Allman Brothers Band ever played and we did that intentionally, everyone agreed going in, let’s just leave it all on the stage. And I have very fond memories of that night and hearing the recording recently with the new mix it sounds great and I’m glad people are gonna be able to experience that show.
This year Dickey Betts passed away and he was a dear friend and mentor to you. And also Johnny Neel another friend.
Dickey is someone who I studied very intensely long before we knew each other. I was a big fan of his guitar playing, songwriting and singing. We met for the first time when I was 20 or 21 years old and he was very encouraging to me, very supportive. And then a few years later I would join his band which had Johnny Neel, who passed away recently as well. That experience led to me joining the Allman Brothers. So Dickey Betts is the one that brought me into the Allman Brothers, he gave me the biggest opportunity of my career, which opened so many doors from that point forward. Johnny Neel and I were very close as well, we wrote a lot of songs and played a lot of music together, and he was a fantastic musician and singer. Another big loss. We joined the Allman Brothers together, myself, Johnny and Allen Woody. It’s very emotional to think about that now, it doesn’t seem like so much time has passed but it definitely has.
And next year it’s gonna be the thirty anniversary of Gov’t Mule.
Yes, the first Gov’t Mule record came out in 1995…so we’re planning on some archival releases for that occasion and doing some special shows. Again I can’t believe that it’s been thirty years! We never expected to do more than one record and a short little tour, that was the plan in the beginning, it was just a side project, something to do for fun. But then something happened, it started growing on its own in a way that none of us expected and now it’s thirty years, which is crazy. I’ve been very fortunate to have been a part of a lot of amazing music over the last thirty five years, I guess. And I’m very grateful that I’m able to express myself in all these different ways, it’s important to me because I love a lot of different types of music and I write a lot of different types of music. And as a singer and a guitar player I love to be able to express myself differently, in different projects. I would never be happy just doing one thing all the time.
Warren Haynes – Gov’t Mule Chiari Blues Festival 2022 (foto Matteo Fratti)
Speaking of which, I know you played some gigs with on orchestra over last summer and even some years ago. Is it challenging experience?
Well, it the beginning it was very challenging. The first experience that I had with an orchestra was when I was asked by the Jerry Garcia Estate to do something called the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration. They wanted to have symphonic orchestras interpret Jerry Garcia’s music and they wanted to have different artists in the front doing that. They asked me if I wanted to be the first one and I said, “oh absolutely, I’d be honored”. So I did a couple of tours that way and it was a learning experience because I had never worked with a symphony orchestra before. Since then I did a live recording with the Ashville Symphony Orchestra in Ashville, North Carolina, my hometown. It’s gonna come out next year. I had Oteil Burbridge on bass, John Medeski on keyboards, Jeff Sipe on drums and Greg Osby on saxophone. It is mixed and ready to go. We’re gonna release it next year and I’ll do more shows with the orchestra as well.
How did you choose the material to play with the orchestra? Did you know that a song would work and another would not?
Well, it’s kind of a retrospective of my career, so there are Allman Brothers songs, Gov’t Mule songs, Grateful Dead songs, songs from my solo records…and since there was a large catalog to choose from, or so many different catalogs choose from, I was able to pick just songs that I felt like would work very well with the symphony. I’m not really a fan of matching or pairing rock and roll music or jazz or even pop with a symphony just for the sake of doing it. It has to be on a song by song basis. Some songs work very well and others don’t. It really turned out wonderful and I’m excited to be putting it out. Next year is a big year, a lot going on. We did seven shows this year with the symphony, with the same band that’s on the this record, with two background singers, Saundra Williams who sings on the album and Mayteana Morales and it was called “Dreams and Songs”.
A week ago or so you were involved in the Life Is a Carnival concert celebration of Robbie Robertson filmed by Scorsese.
It was fantastic, it was at the Forum in Los Angeles and the line-up was amazing, so many great artists. It was an honor to be a part of that. It was very weird to sing “Caravan”, I never wanted to do it, they asked me to do it, but I said, “well, isn’t Van gonna sing it?” And they said “no, he doesn’t want to do it, but he wants somebody else to do it”. I had been singing it in the Last Waltz tribute shows and that’s why they wanted me to do it, but I didn’t feel comfortable with it. I kept saying no. They talked me into it. But in hindsight I’m glad that I did it because it turned out great, but it was very strange to sing it with him being there.
Years ago you were part of a tribute to The Band, “Endless Highway”, with both the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule. They were part of your musical upbringing.
Yes, I was a big fan of the Band, as was everyone, I guess. And I was very close to Levon Helm, we played together quite a few times. And I was also part of the Last Waltz tribute concerts, over the last few years, that’s where Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson and myself worked together. That’s what gave me the idea of having the two of them on this new record.
You produced yourself your records or the Gov’t Mule ones, is there anything that you learned from other producers you worked with over the years, like Tom Dowd when you first joined the Allman Broteher, for example.
Well, every album that I have been a part of I have learned something from the producer. And being able to work with Tom Dowd for, I think, we did four studio records and two live albums…or working with people like Don Was, I learned everyday just from watching how these people work. I think one of the most important things that I learned from Tom Dowd is to treat every situation differently. I noticed the way he worked with different bands, different artists…it varied from person to person, he formed a relationship with each one based on that person’s personality and he was able to make that work and tap into a way of getting the best out of people. In the case of Tom Dowd a lot of times he was invisible when things were going well, you didn’t even know he was there. If things were at a turning point then he would step in and have some sort of solution or just offer some mild suggestion. But when the band was in a creative mode he would step back and let things happen. I watched him work and I learned so much and try to keep it with me.
Warren Haynes (per gentile concessione)
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