How Warren Haynes Found a ‘Whole New Life’ With His Latest LP

Warren Haynes has often gone down the road less traveled.

One can argue that it has been his general practice of coloring outside of the accepted lines that keeps him moving creatively, because there’s always something new to chase. There’s never a shortage of projects roaming around in his mind, both potential and ones that are already in motion.

From the very beginning, it’s been about the music, something the former Allman Brothers Band guitarist continues to demonstrate through his chosen work, He spent the first part of the fall out on the road with Gov’t Mule, as the band shared the bill with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Appropriately, the group modified their own sets to have more of a reggae tint — they’re consistently musical shapeshifters in that way.

That chameleon aspect has been a constant element of Haynes’ work. Which makes Dreams & Songs: A Symphonic Journey, his latest release, a particularly welcome visitor. Hearing his own “Dreams and Songs Pt. 1” open the set, shifting seamlessly into a version of “Dreams” by the Allman Brothers, pushing deeper into the Mule’s “Banks of the Deep End,” you really start to hear how everything that the guitarist has done throughout his career connects.

READ MORE: How Warren Haynes Shaped His Career With the Allman Brothers Band

Watch Warren Haynes Perform ‘Dreams’ in Asheville

How Warren Haynes Put the Pieces of His Long Legacy Together

No matter how different it might have felt in certain moments when you were hearing the records or seeing the live shows, collectively, it all makes sense here on Dreams & Songs. Available as a triple LP or double CD set, the material was recorded live in Haynes’ hometown of Asheville, North Carolina at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in 2019 and takes stock of a good amount of his body of work.

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra added an additional creative wrinkle — and a whole lot of depth — to the evening’s music. Haynes himself was also joined by a formidable group of players for his core band. Bassist Oteil Burbridge, John Medeski on organ and keys, Jeff Sipe on drums, and Greg Osby on saxophone as well as Edwin McCain and Jasmine Muhammad on background vocals form the lineup of talented folks he played with on the night.

He took the concept of what started there in Asheville and eventually hit the road, playing additional Dreams & Songs concerts in a variety of locations, including a memorable night at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. The next pair of dates will happen Mar. 11 and Mar. 12 in Nashville. Though he still had plenty of challenges and things to figure out on that initial night in North Carolina, he shares that the similar work he did playing Jerry Garcia’s music in a symphonic setting helped out a lot.

Warren Haynes in Asheville 2019

He Started Down the Path by Honoring Jerry Garcia

“The Jerry Garcia estate had called and said they wanted to do his music with a symphony and some different guest artists and wanted to know if I was interested in being the first one,” he remembers now. “I said, ‘Yeah, I would be honored to do that.’ And at that point, I’d never done anything with a symphony. I’d thought about it, but never in a real serious manner. But it was such a cool experience that I started thinking about doing it with my own music.”

“In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what that was going to be. But once we settled on the idea of doing some sort of retrospective type thing, then it made sense to have all these different catalogs to choose from,” he explains. “It turned into highlights of what I’ve been doing the past 30-something years, all done differently with with an orchestra.”

“You know, it took a while for me to to get comfortable in that environment, but that whole thing with the [Jerry] Garcia Symphonic Celebration was wonderful for that,” Haynes says. “By the time I got to doing Dreams & Songs, I had been pretty comfortable working with an orchestra and felt better and better and better about it. But what a wonderful opportunity.”

Watch Warren Haynes Perform ‘Shakedown Street’ in Asheville

‘Dreams & Songs’ Brought New Life to Old Favorites

Haynes honors the time he spent working with members of the Grateful Dead years after Garcia’s passing as well, with a particularly potent version of “Shakedown Street.” He loves the additional twists and turns he was able to add into the material, working with the orchestra.

“Just Another Rider” is one example that he points to, when it comes to how they were able to expand their musical horizons. Gregg Allman had included the track, which he cowrote with Haynes, on his 2011 solo album, Low Country Blues. It quickly became a fan favorite in the Allman Brothers Band community.

“Actually, the Allman Brothers rehearsed that song but never performed it. It was at a time when we were looking at some new material, but some of the stuff never made it to the stage,” he explains. “Gregg decided to to do it for his solo record. I had written this horn line that didn’t make it to his studio version.”

Performing “Just Another Rider” in Asheville, he realized, gave him an interesting opportunity.

“When I decided to include that song with the orchestra, I thought, ‘Oh, I could bring that horn line back,'” the guitarist recalls. “I sent it to Steven Bernstein, the arranger, who utilized it in his orchestral arrangement, and it really turned out great,” he says. “That’s another one of my my favorite arrangements on this project.”

“I’m really happy with all of them, but that song turns into something else. You know, the studio version is is very cool, but this orchestral version kind of takes on a whole new life,” he shares. “There’s another four or five minutes at the end where it turns into another piece of music. I’ve always loved that song, and was glad to include it.”

What’s Next for Warren Haynes?

New Year’s Eve will find Gov’t Mule breaking away from their traditional concerts at the Beacon in New York City. This year, they’ll perform in Boston instead. The MGM Music Hall will host Gov’t Mule and Friends, featuring a wide variety of guests. Former Black Crowes members Steve Gorman and Audley Freed will be there, as will Kevn Kinney of Drivin N Cryin and early Allmans associate, keyboardist Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble)

Haynes’ fellow former Allman Brothers Band players Chuck Leavell, Jaimoe and Marc Quinones are also on board for the gig and there will be additional guests as well. The advance press pledged that they would be bringing what they’re billing as A Southern State of Mind to Boston — and with this lineup, how can they not deliver on that promise?

“After doing 20 years at the Beacon in New York City, taking it to Boston was like a semi-logical next step,” he tells UCR. “That’s always been a great market for us, and you know, it was like, ‘Well, what can we do that would really kind of bring in the new year?'”

“We thought about celebrating music from the South, not just what people would call Southern rock, but other things that that people may not expect. Other music that came out of the South,” he explains. “So, looking at our network of friends and who might be available to join us, let’s see what we can. Let’s see what dots we connect and and you know bring a lot of cool southern music to Beantown.”

His annual Christmas Jam will also be returning to Asheville on Dec. 12 with a lineup featuring Greta Van Fleet, the War on Drugs, JJ Grey & Mofro, Daniel Donato, Lukas Nelson and many others.

As for the next musical steps he’ll take? He’s got some interesting ideas rolling around in his brain, as always.

“I’ve been concentrating on a lot of music that is kind of somewhere between my Ashes & Dust record and Million Voices Whisper, my latest solo release,” he shares. “There’s a lot of songs that I’ve been writing in that vein.

“I’ve also been thinking about an instrumental jazz-influenced record that’s been, you know, on on the list for a long time, but never been checked off,” he adds. “So both of those things are kind of front and center at the moment. We’ll see where it all goes.”