Cover photo © 2025 Bob Kieser

GRAMMY-Award winning artist Warren Haynes is in a unique position. When he puts out a new record, it generally goes to number one on the Blues charts and crosses over to Rock and Americana radio. He has an international following that allows him to tour broadly and fill venues such as Madison Square Garden. He has a been a vital part of the blues scene for 45 years with The Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule, his own band, Grateful Dead-related groups, The Dickey Betts Band, David Allan Coe, and other configurations. His 2011 solo record Man In Motion was one of the best blues records of that decade. He’s a guitar hero of the blues and jam band scenes. He can basically do what he wants and what he wants this month is to release a very different and immediate new album, The Whisper Sessions, a nine-track, digital-only record that largely features just himself and, on several songs, his longtime compadre Derek Trucks. Seven of the songs are gorgeous, reinterpreted originals from Haynes’ chart-topping 2024 album Million Voices Whisper. The album closer is a stunning first-take duo version of The Allmans’ standard “Melissa”.

“It kind of came about as an afterthought,” Haynes said. “We were filming a bunch of solo performances and a handful of performances with myself and Derek Trucks of the songs stripped down just for promotional reasons and when I was listening back to the performances I thought there was something cool that adds insight to where the songs came from and how they sounded before we turned them into full band arrangements. The way I would interpret songs if I were doing a solo performance, which I do from time to time, but it’s really rare. The guitar takes a back seat, I’m really just accompanying myself. It’s more about the song and my voice. So, I was thankful that there were three with Derek also where we could stretch out and play guitar a little bit too. It just offers a different view into the songs. At first, I thought just the hard-core fans would like it and then I realized maybe the casual fans would like it as well.”

Million Voices Whisper was Haynes’ first solo album in a decade and it featured some of the best writing of his career. “This Life As We Know It” and “These Changes” are among the standouts. “Real Real Love” was a song his long-time bandmate Gregg Allman started, but never finished. After years playing with Allman, Haynes was able to channel his friend’s spirit to finish the tune in his style. Many of the songs seem very personal and speak to where he is in his life.

“I think they were inspired by a revelation that it’s time to concentrate on the most important things in your life, love being the predominant one, family, friends, work. I’m very thankful that I love my job. It’s something we can all take for granted sometimes if we have that luxury, but you have to remind yourself that most of the planet doesn’t like their job. I’m very fortunate to do what I love for a living and to have been doing it for so long. When the COVID lockdown thing came about, I didn’t want to write a bunch of dark, gloomy songs that I wasn’t going to want to hear in five years. So, I intentionally went down another path, looking at life through a fresh lens. With songwriters, every few years you have to find reasons to shake things up and kind of approach writing from a different angle. That’s what it’s been for me from that point forward. I’ve written a lot of dark songs through the years and it was refreshing to express myself differently. People ask me why I don’t write more happy songs. I’m like, ‘If I’m happy I don’t feel the need to write a song. If I’m happy, I just enjoy life.’ Writing can be therapeutic. It can bring out the stuff in your life that’s being repressed. I feel fortunate to have this luxury. These songs represent a new chapter and it’s important that people get a glimpse at both sides of that.”

Haynes and fellow blues guitar-ace Derek Trucks have been closely intertwined over the years, starting with The Allman Brothers, but then maintaining a long-term personal and professional relationship.

“Well, we’ve known each other since 1990,” Haynes remembered. “We’ve played together hundreds of times over the years. Our chemistry together was always good from the very beginning, but if you allow that to grow organically over time, it’s amazing how far it can take you. The two of us communicate in a non-spoken way on stage that only happens in the best chemistries if you allow yourself time to grow and the relationship to grow into itself. There’s a lot that we do that is not only unrehearsed, but kind of completely impromptu. We both really enjoy that a lot. There’s a mutual respect. There’s a lot of contrast. We have a lot of the same influences, but we have different influences too and that’s what makes for a good overall picture.”

The two collaborated this spring in the band The Brothers, a two-night sold-out tribute to The Allman Brothers Band at Madison Square Garden. Haynes and Trucks played with original ABB drummer Jaimoe, Otiel Burbridge, Joe Russo, Reese Wynans, Marc Quinones, Isaac Eady, Chuck Leavell, and others. The crowd was particularly moved when the video screens showed a montage of photos and video of original Allman Brothers members, most now gone, during “No One To Run With”.

“Thankfully I couldn’t see all the photographs. Yeah, it gets pretty emotional,” Haynes said. “Those shows were very emotional in general, but beautiful. I was so proud of everyone and the band was fantastic. I thought the shows really went beyond even our own expectations.”

Will there be more shows from The Brothers in the near future?

“We’ll see. Everybody’s busy doing their own things and that’s great. It sure is fun. I would like to see us do something in the future, I don’t know what that would be, but I’m open to possibilities. It’s a lot of schedules to juggle.”

Gov’t Mule is in the midst of their Back in the Saddle Tour, which started in August and rolls through November 1. Some of the shows are co-headlining bills with Tedeschi Trucks Band.

“Both bands are excited to be playing together. There’s going to be a lot of collaboration. It’s a win-win for the audience and they can tell we’re having fun.” When asked about TTB’s level of mastery at this point, Haynes said, “I think the band is a combination of all these amazing elements mixed together in a way that comes out defying even the combination of elements. That’s been the mission the whole time with those guys. Especially for a band like that to exist in 2025 is just such a breath of fresh air, exposing young music fans to something they might not have otherwise been able to experience live. I’m really glad they’re bringing that to the table.”

Gov’t Mule will cap the tour with their annual Mule-O-Ween extravaganza. This year the shows will be October 31 at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C. and November 1 at The Met in Philadelphia. The name and logo for the tour kind of gives away their intention.

“We don a different costume every Halloween. We’re giving a lot of hints as to what the music is going to be. In the past we’ve done complete albums like Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy, Who’s Next, we’ve done artists like Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, it goes all over the place. So, this year we’re going to be doing what most people would guess is an evening of Aerosmith. It’s fun. I’m looking forward to digging into all those songs. Never played those songs. We played one or two here or there, but it will be exciting to do a whole set. What we normally do is one set of Gov’t Mule and one set of covers for Halloween. It will be in full regalia.”

Will Haynes attempt the impossible task of looking or singing like Steven Tyler?

“I’m not planning on doing either one of those things!” he exclaimed.

Gov’t Mule will play their traditional New Year’s Run of shows as well in 2025: December 28 at Proctors in Schenectady, NY and December 30 and 31 at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The Mule is celebrating an amazing 30 year-run together.

“Since we started as a side project to The Allman Brothers, thinking we were only going to make one album and do one tour, it blossomed beyond that in a way that surprised all of us. Once we realized that we were becoming a bona fide band, our goal was for every record to be different from the one before and with each album to bring to the surface influences that weren’t on the previous album. Even in a band like us that’s been around for thirty years, you can never bring all of your influences to the surface. We’re lucky enough that our audience allows us do it to the extent that they do. We listen to so many different types of music and so eventually all that stuff comes out in the songwriting and the recordings. I’m proud of the amount of material that we’ve generated over the years and the different influences we’ve utilized. I think a lot of people, especially if you’re not a hard-core Mule fan, may not realize how much material there is behind us. 12 or 13 studio albums that cover a lot of ground. For us it’s amazing that we can utilize in a way that we can play a different show every night, a different set list every night. One night you might get more old material, one night you might get more new material, but it’s always kind of a composite of the journey. I love that fact that we’re able to get away with that, that our audience encourages us. It keeps us fresh and excited and that’s the most important thing. In order for us to give the best show we can give, we need to feel good about it ourselves and that starts with the first note.”

Haynes has reached a different kind of vaunted status in recent years, in that he has his own signature Gibson guitar, an honor shared by the likes of B.B. King, Slash, Dave Mustaine, Kirk Hammett, and Marcus King.

“This is the first time that we’ve released a signature model guitar that’s in full production. We’ve released some in the past, my first signature Les Paul and a copy of my 1961 ES 335, but they were limited edition. So, it’s nice to be able to have this to the extent where people can access it. A lot of people were not able to able to purchase the early ones because the limited edition ran out so quickly. I love this guitar, it’s got P-90s instead of humbuckers, it’s a little different for me. I’m playing it more and more, which is inspiring. It’s an opportunity for guitar players to buy a guitar that has my endorsement in that this is the way I want it to feel and the way I want it to sound. Everybody is different, it may not be perfect for you, but for me this guitar inspires me to play.”

Perhaps no one has played more shows in the history of the Beacon Theatre in New York, which is owned by Madison Square Garden. Between playing the Garden itself and the Beacon, Haynes has developed relationships and often pop-ups up in VIP seats at sporting events at MSG. Man cannot live on blues alone.

“The last ten years or so, I’ve become a big Knicks fan. I loved all sports growing up. The more I played music, the more I drifted out of that. I played baseball as a kid and basketball and football to a lesser extent. Now that I live in New York, the opportunity to take my son to Rangers games and Knicks games is just fantastic and I’ve become quite a fan over the past decade or so.”

Haynes may live in New York now, but he is an Ashville, NC native. He feels for his hometown, which suffered catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Helene, about one year ago.

“It’s tough, it’s going to take a long time. The devastation was even beyond what people can imagine. They’re a resilient people, they’re doing great. From my personal perspective, most of my family that’s there relocated for several weeks and then gradually made their way back. My brother has a record store there, it’s called Records in the RAD, which stands for River Arts District. And it was completely flooded, they had to start from scratch, but they’re still there. For the most part, we got lucky that it could have been way worse, I guess. It’s going to take a while.”

Haynes has performed many Christmas benefit shows over the years in Asheville to give back and build community. One can still sense that southern thread through his soulful singing, guitar playing, and personal charm. Haynes is indeed in a unique position. He’s become an institution, while still performing at the top of his game.