Warren Haynes photo by Emily Butler
Warren Haynes Incorporates Improv into a Symphonic Situation with the “Now is the Time” tour featuring the Dreams & Songs Symphonic Experience
You may know Warren Haynes from Gov’t Mule. You may have seen him with the Dead, or the Allman Brothers. A road warrior and staple of the jam scene, Warren exemplifies self-expression with his masterful guitar playing and commanding, gritty blues and soul vocals. He’s a powerhouse of passion, and – with this upcoming tour – he’s delivering it with the ambitious, mesmerizing Dream & Songs Symphonic Experience, which hits the road July 18 through Sept. 14.
Warren doesn’t want to give anything away, but Americana Highways caught up with the improv master to talk about his upcoming tour: how it came to be, what excites him about it and how much joy playing live music brings him in a post-pandemic world:
Americana Highways: First of all, Warren, thanks for taking a few minutes with Americana Highways today. You have an ambitious tour coming up: the return of Dreams & Songs Symphonic Experience that you debuted in Asheville five years ago. What makes now the time for this endeavor? And what excites you most about sharing this showcase with the fans?
Warren Haynes: I guess it all started a few years ago when I got a call from the Jerry Garcia estate saying they wanted to do the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration, where different artists performed the music of Jerry Garcia with a symphony, and they wanted to know if I was interested in being the first one. I said, “Absolutely! I’d be honored!” So I did a couple tours that way, and it was a blast. Prior to that I’d never done anything with a symphony. It was a little intimidating at the beginning, but the more I did it, the more I enjoyed it, and the better I got at it.
So a few years ago, right before COVID, I did some shows in my hometown – Asheville, North Carolina – with the symphony and a great band. We recorded them for an upcoming live album, which we were going to put out shortly afterward, but then when COVID hit we thought that wasn’t the right time and we decided to put it out later. Now that release is approaching and I’m getting back into gear to do shows with the symphony that will be more similar to what I did for that record, which is a retrospective of what I’ve done the past 30-35 years: Allman Brothers songs, Gov’t Mule songs, songs from my solo records, some Grateful Dead songs, even some covers I’ve been associated with through the years. That’s the Dreams & Songs Symphonic experience.
AH: When playing with a symphony, how much more of a challenge is the performance? Do you feel like a conductor? Or do you feel like you’re just doing your thing with a shitload more musicians?
WH: It’s a unique experience. Rich Daniels is the conductor. He’s done almost all the symphony shows I’ve done. In addition to being a great conductor, he’s also a great jazz sax player. There are a lot of instances where I’m giving cues to Rich and he’s cueing the symphony. There are a lot of ways we have incorporated improvisation into a symphonic situation. Sometimes there will be part of the arrangement where the symphony lays out and the band improvises on its own until I give a cue to the conductor and he gives a cue to the orchestra and they come back in. There are other times when I am improvising or the band is improvising to what the orchestra is playing. Sometimes the orchestration is taken from music that was originally improvised and now it’s orchestrated. In those three ways we are incorporating improv into a symphonic situation.
AH: You debuted this tour with a few dates in the northeast earlier this month. How did it feel? How did the audience respond? And what did you find most exhilarating about it?
WH: I think it’s exhilarating playing with an orchestra. That sound is so powerful. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing that can replicate that. It’s really cool to see the audience respond because in some cases they really don’t know what to expect.
There have been a lot of situations through the years where bands or artists pair themselves with a symphony, but in a lot of those cases I’m not a fan of combining rock music and symphonic music or pop music and symphonic music. I think it has to be the right combination and the right approach for me to enjoy it. It was a big challenge to pick material that I think works with a symphony because I don’t think all my songs work with a symphony, and I think that would be the case for any artist. But I do feel like there are a lot of songs that work extremely well. We are trying to pick the songs that offer something unique when we blend the two worlds together. When that happens the audience can feel it. They are experiencing something new that they haven’t experienced before in the same way the musicians are.
AH: Has the experience of playing with a symphony changed your approach to songwriting or arranging?
WH: I haven’t written anything specifically for symphony but I have gone through my back catalog and looked at them differently than I have in the past. I’ve dusted some off and worked with some great arrangers we are hand-picking to bring that to fruition, which is really cool to witness.
AH: Talk about giving a new song new life! Are there any examples you’d like to share?
WH: I don’t want to reveal any of the ones I haven’t done yet, but as an example, when I did the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration I came up with an arrangement of “Terrapin Station” that segues into “Slipknot” and back into “Terrapin” in a way that’s really cool. The orchestration is fabulous. Of course the original “Terrapin Station” was with an orchestra and most fans of that music never got to hear that done live, so it’s cool to bring that out. But it’s kind of a weird curveball putting “Slipknot” in the middle.
Also, David Campbell did an arrangement of “Whipping Post,” which is fantastic. We closed the second set with it in Asheville. That was great, too, because we do this wonderful improv version of it where the symphony is weaving itself in and out of the arrangement, and we still improvise a la the original spirit of the tune.
We’re also working on quite a few songs that are new to the symphony that I’m excited about…it’ll be a little different every night. It won’t be as different as a normal Gov’t Mule show would be because [Gov’t Mule] has hundreds of songs to choose from. But we’ll try to do a somewhat different set list every night. Most of the shows will be two sets with the symphony and then a set with just the band, which is really fun.
AH: A lot has changed in the past five years. How does this show differ from the ones you did in Asheville in 2019? And how have you changed as a person and an artist in this post-pandemic world?
WH: Let’s start with the difference in the band. The band I put together for Asheville was just a one-time band. We had Oteil Burbridge on bass, Jeff Sipe on drums, John Medeski on keyboards and Greg Osby on saxophone. The new band includes Medeski and Osby but will have Terrence Higgins on drums and Kevin Scott on bass. That’s also the same band I’m touring with without the symphony. We just got back from Europe performing our first tour in Europe, and it’s fantastic. This band also plays on my new solo record coming out later this year.
…As far as how I feel as a musician post-pandemic, for me it’s made my appreciation for music even greater. I have so much love for what I do and appreciate this opportunity to express myself in so many different ways. That’s something I can’t take for granted. I’m really thankful to be back out on the road. There’s kind of a new vigor that comes with coming out on the other side of the whole pandemic because the entire music business was affected and changed so much. A lot of us wondered if it would ever get back to normal. And now we are seeing a world where more bands are touring than any other time in history. There’s never been a time when all the bands were touring at the same time until now because everybody’s excited to do what they love.
AH: One thing I love about your style is that every song you touch you make your own. When it comes to inserting your soul into each and every number, who are some of your greatest influences?
WH: My first inspiration was soul music. Before I ever picked up a guitar I had two older brothers who were music lovers. They had a lot of vinyl records. They had the Beatles and the Stones, but they also had the Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, the Temptations and Otis Redding. James Brown was my first hero. That music made such a deep impression on me. Then, I started hearing rock and roll. My oldest brother was into Hendrix, Cream and Johnny Winter – that’s what made me want to play guitar. All the music I was lucky to be exposed to at such a young age was created during such an inspirational time period. There was so much to learn from, and I was exposed to so many different types of music: jazz, blues, folk, soul, rock and roll. It was endless. There was always something to be excited about. This is why I always encourage young musicians to expose themselves to as many different types of music as possible, and I feel like in your quest to find your own voice, the more influences you have the more likely you’ll discover your own voice.
AH: Is there anything else you’d like Americana Highways to know about? What else do you have going on right now?
WH: I should mention there are only seven symphony shows this year. The majority will be next year (2025). A majority of the dates will be the new band on its own. Our first shows are on Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival Tour, which will be exciting. We’ve got a lot of friends on this tour. I enjoy hearing them and playing with them, so I know it’s going to be a blast.
I’m also really excited about my new solo record, which I’m hoping will release in September; it’s very much this band’s interpretation of soul music combined with a lot of other influences. It started with a Muscle Shoals sort of vibe but it kind of goes all over the place. I’m really proud of the songs and the performances, as well as the production. I think the record turned out fantastic.
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Warren Haynes!
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Tickets for the “Now is the Time” tour featuring the Dreams & Songs Symphonic Experience (as well as all other Warren Haynes tour dates) are available at https://warrenhaynes.net/
Enjoy our previous coverage of the show a couple years back: Show Review: Warren Haynes’ “Symphonic Journey” in Asheville NC was Beautiful and Immaculate