Warren Haynes on balancing "flow" on solo LP, completing unreleased Gregg Allman song, more

By: Ray Chelstowski

Warren Haynes has always been one of rock’s most prolific recording artists. Outside of the acts he is most closely associated with — The Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule — Haynes has contributed to the recorded work of artists as diverse as Garth Brooks and Buckwheat Zydeco. But as a solo artist he’s been more careful about what he releases, always seeming to prefer a “band approach.” However, in November that changes with the release of Million Voices Whisper, his fourth solo album and an example of why his patience has been such a virtue. With this record, Haynes presents a collection of music that is arguably his most cohesive in sound and message. Across eleven tracks, Haynes shares songs centered on how to make things better – in love, in life, in the world. They reside within music that is anchored to a remarkable soul-filled atmosphere and it includes some of his tastiest guitar work to date, especially on slide.

Accompanying Warren on the collection are members of his current all-star band including John Medeski on keyboards, longtime drummer Terence Higgins (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) and Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott. Million Voices Whisper also features guest appearances from his Allman Brothers band mate Derek Trucks. He joined Haynes in the studio for the first time since the Allmans disbanded and is featured on “Real Real Love,” a song initially co-written with Gregg Allman that Warren finished in Allman’s style and methods. It’s a show stopper and extraordinary musical homage.

The Million Voices Whisper Tour kicks off September 19th and stops throughout the east coast before wrapping October 12th. Goldmine caught up with Haynes to talk about how the creative process for this record unfolded, what he enjoyed most about the process, and how he came to finishing a song that Gregg Allman had once hoped they would complete together.

Goldmine: This album has a great sense of soul and many songs start out with tasty but gentle guitar parts. Is that how the song writing process began, on guitar?

Warren Haynes: Well every song is different. Gregg Allman used to say there’s as many ways to write a song as there are songs. What he meant is that each song comes from a different place and that allows you to take a different approach; there’s no set way of having to do things. I’ve noticed that the up-tempo songs start with a guitar riff or pattern and the some of the down tempo songs begin with a lyric. But there’s no tried and true formula for any of it. Most of these songs were written over the last few years. A couple of them even go back to the lockdown. But most are a bit newer. It just felt like I was writing a lot of songs that seemed to have a kind of musical and lyrical thread that made them work together so it made sense to make a record in that direction.

I think that after I had written three or four songs that felt that they belonged together from a music standpoint it prompted me to start looking at all of them as a collective. In the beginning it was more about the way they felt. But of course with all of my songs the lyrical approach is really important regardless of how a song feels. It has to represent where I am at that time. If I feel like that’s not happening I’ll put a song on the back burner. Over the last few years though I’ve been on a real roll with my writing and I’m exploring directions that are new for me. It’s all still influenced by very timeless music and music I grew up loving. But I feel like I’ve opened some new doors.

GM: “These Changes” opens the record and it seems like the perfect song to kick things off. How do you approach song sequencing?

WH: I experimented with a bunch of sequences and spend a lot of time exploring all of the possibilities. That song always seemed to be the one that needed to open the album. The only other one that I thought could have been a good opener was “Go Down Swinging.” My only reservation about “These Changes” was that I didn’t want people to feel that things started off too mellow. But it gets out of that really quickly. If you’ve got 20 seconds to spare you’re not going to think this is a mellow record. Then from a messaging standpoint it just seems to represent what this record’s all about and where I am in my life at this moment.

The album versus tracks dilemma is something we’re all faced with these days. I think enough of our fans still appreciate the album concept to make spending time on the sequencing an important factor. For those that don’t listen that way or understand what it means I hope they receive it well. But I still have to look at things that way because that’s where I came from as an artist. The flow and balance of a record has always been important to me, so I’m never going to turn my back on that.

GM: John Medeski’s keyboards play a very prominent role in this record. Did you know that they would before entering the studio?

WH: John and I have been working a lot together over the last few years and we’ve really gotten closer as friends and musicians. I wanted his presence to be very felt on this record. It started with the writing and arranging before anyone had even heard the songs. But it carried over into the studio. I like to throw things out there and see what happens without being married to any preconceived arrangements or approaches. I always have arrangements in my head but I want to see what the band thinks before I go too far down that road. Many times the songs will take a turn on the floor in the studio that surpasses what I expected. These guys are all such great musicians that it was really important to me that individual and collective personalities are represented. This is a real band now. We’ve played together enough to have a group personality.

GM: There’s quite a bit of slide guitar on the record. Again, is this something you went into the recording session prepared to add or did it evolve once the band began to play?

WH: It’s a little of both. I’d wanted to play more slide guitar. But for me it’s a song by song decision. Even that changes when we’re in the studio. I feel like some songs cry out for it and some don’t. On this record there were quite a few that were crying out for slide and I was really happy about that because it gave me the chance to go down that road a bit more than I’ve been able to recently.

GM: The song “Real Real Love” features Derek Truck. How did you come to completing the song and getting Derek involved?

WH: Gregg had started writing that song a few years back. He showed it to me but we never tackled it. Then after he passed I found the lyrics he had written. There was no music that I’m aware of. So I just finished it in a way that honored his way of writing. It came very quickly. As soon as it was finished I called Derek to tell him about it and we began talking about performing this together from that moment forward. It was really important to me to have Derek involved with it. I felt that Gregg’s presence was looming large when we recorded it in the studio, especially on the take that we captured. I was constantly aware of how Gregg would have interpreted the song. That’s one of the reasons why we put the horn section on there. He would have totally pushed for that. He loved horns, especially on soul ballads like this. It turned out beautifully.

Million Voices Whisper Tour featuring The Warren Haynes Band

September 14 – Fredericton, NB @ Harvest Music Festival

September 19 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ The Parker

September 20 – Fort Myers, FL @ Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall

September 21 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre

September 22 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Mahaffey Theater

September 24 – Pensacola, FL @ Saenger Theater

September 26 – Richmond, VA @ The National

September 27 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa

September 28 – Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium

September 29 – Salem, VA @ Salem Civic Center

October 3 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre

October 4 – Ashland, KY @ Paramount Arts Center

October 5 – Memphis, TN @ Mempho Music Festival (early set)

October 5 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

October 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia

October 10 – Syracuse, NY @ The Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater

October 11 – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre

October 12 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre

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