Orchestral Dreams
By Matteo Bossi
The last time we talked with Warren Haynes, he was about to put out a solo studio album, “Million Voices Whisper”, he told us his next record was ready and mixed. He was referring to this live album, recorded in his hometown, Asheville, North Carolina, aptly titled “Dreams And Songs”. It is taken from two stunning live shows at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in march 2019 that saw Haynes surrounded by both a band of some of his celebrated friends (Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Sipe, Greg Osby, John Medeski, Edwin McCain, Jasmine Muhammad) and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra with Rich Daniels as conductor.
“Initially we were planning on recording in the studio, then as the project was going closer we were realized that we were not gonna be able to record the orchestra and the band live at the same time. And I was not happy hearing that news, because I wanted to have the inspiration to hear the orchestra as we were performing. So Don Was suggested that maybe we should make it a live record and everything changed at that moment. Don co-produced the record as well, he was there for all the rehearsals and the performances and we spent a lot of times together in the studio picking performances, dealing with technical issues…He brought Bob Clearmountain in to mix it.
How did you put together the set list and manage to narrow down the songs from your extended repertoire?
Well, that was probably the most important aspect of this project, picking the songs…and after that, picking which arrangers would arrange which particular song. I spent a lot of time going through all the songs, not picking my favorites, because I think that some of my favorites would not necessarily work for an orchestra…but songs that represented me as an artist and my career so far, but also that would work very well with the orchestra. We made a long list and there were quite a few more songs that we were able to eventually perform as well, but the ones that we did in Asheville over those two nights are the ones we included in this recording. The only song that didn’t make it onto the record was “Fire In The Kitchen”, from my first solo album. We played it one of the two nights, but we were not happy with the version so we didn’t use it.
It also feels very much like a complete listening experience, from beginning to the end.
Yes, and the sequencing was very important. Not only picking which song to perform, but the way they flow together, I wanted it to feel like a concept, that’s why the title “Dreams And Songs – A Symphonic Journey”, it’s meant to be a trip from start to finish. That was intentional and I’m very happy about the way it flows. The sequence is different for the vinyl than the CD and digital but I think they both work very well.
So you did some rehearsals with the arrangers and the conductor of the orchestra, Rich Daniels?
Yes, for the most part the arrangers were not present, just the band, the symphony and Rich Daniels, most of the arrangements were done prior to rehearsals. All the arrangers live in different cities and we were communicating remotely, but each of them did a fantastic job. Rich is a jazz saxophone player in addition to being a classical conductor…and he’s open minded, he has a lot to do with the way the music came together and him being able to understand both our world and the orchestra world and bring them together appropriately.
How did you pick the Grateful Dead songs for this one? You had performed some of them with an orchestra for The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration some years before.
You know it’s hard to say why I chose certain ones… “Terrapin Station” has always been one of my favorites and of course the original version had an orchestra, yet the Grateful Dead were never able to bring that to fruition in a live setting, so that one was kind of obvious, but the way we included “Slipknot” in the middle was something very unique, that I came up with on my own. Because of my association with Phil Lesh & Friends and with The Dead, I did two tours with them in 2004 and 2009, I was playing and singing a lot of those songs through the years, and it was quite an honor for me. It turned into a big part of what I would choose to be in the future. So I wanted to honor my association with both The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers, those were two very important chapters in my life. Especially my twenty five years with The Allman Brothers.
Bob Weir passed away earlier this years.
Yes, Bob and all the remaining members were on the tours I did and then we played together in a lot of other settings as well, it was always a great pleasure. I knew Phil starting in the late Nineties and then Bob a couple of years later. I never knew Jerry, I had an opportunity to meet him one night at Madison Square Garden but I chose not to go backstage and say hello, which was a mistake, I should have made that effort, but in my mind I thought “oh I’ll say hello next time”, but of course there was no next time.
The band for this gig included some longtime friends, like Greg Osby, John Medeski, Jeff Sipe and Oteil Burbridge. I might be wrong but these were probably some of the first gig Oteil played after the passing of his brother Kofi in februrary of 2019.
That’s correct, it was a very emotional time for all of us, but especially for Oteil. Kofi was a good friend and a brilliant musician.
I think he would have loved this thing with the orchestra.
Yes! Oteil and I have talked about that. Kofi had roots in classical music and orchestral music, I think he first started out playing flute before he picked up other instruments. I would have love to collaborate with him.
You have selected “Just Another Rider”, a song that you wrote with Gregg Allman and he recorded on his “Low Country Blues” album.
I love that song and I knew that arrangement could be wonderful…a lot of people don’t realize that The Allman Brothers actually rehearsed that song but never performed it live. And there was always a possibility that it could have been recorded by the band had we continued to record. But when we wrote it, I had this horn line that I was able to include on this version that was not on Gregg’s studio version. I collaborated with Steven Bernstein, the arranger, and made sure he put the original horn line back in the arrangement.
What was it like being on stage performing with the orchestra behind you?
It was very inspiring, I could hear the orchestra very loud from where I was standing…and it was such an inspiration to perform that way. Each musician had to kind of re-interpret their role based on hearing how much the orchestra was providing. And that was a beautiful challenge in itself, because as improvisers our role is to fit in the overall picture and adapt to what we’re hearing, and what we’re hearing was so much that it caused us to interpret our approach far differently than we would have in a smaller setting. That’s part of the beauty of this project, it all works together in a way that sounds, to me, very unique. I can’t think of any preceding project that sounds like this.
Warren Haynes Asheville Symphony Orchestra
And it’s not just scripted music, there’s a lot of room for improvisation.
Yes, I feel like this one it strives to include improvisation much more than most symphonic projects would allow. I didn’t want it to be conservative. I wanted the spirit of improvisation to be front and center too. There’s a few songs that are complete interpretations moment by moment, that’s what I love about it.
You did a great version of “Whippin’ Post”.
Thank you, it was quite an honor to be able to perform “Whippin’ Post” that way. It feels like it needed to happen.
Will you perform with the orchestra again, at least every now and then? I know you are scheduled to play in Nashville next year.
Yes, we have the two Nashville shows for now but I’m pretty sure there will be some more. For me it’s always exciting, so I look forward to do more. Then I’m hoping we can make a new Gov’t Mule record with Kevin Scott, our new bass player, he has brought an incredible energy into the band. He played on “Million Voices Whisper” as well, but his personality with Gov’t Mule is fantastic.
I wanted to ask you about two very different artists we lost this year, John Hammond and Dolly Parton, you played on one of her records.
I knew John a little bit, we played together a few times with the Allman Brothers and he was fantastic. His history with the Allman is very important, he and Duane Allman were very close. Unfortunately I didn’t know him very well, but I love what he contributed to the world of music, he was blues through and through. As for Dolly Parton, playing on her “Rockstar” record was a real honor, I’ve always been a fan, since I was a kid. Even though most artists similar to her were not really artists that I was a fan of, for some reason I always connected with her music, her personality and her voice. She was such a great songwriter. I think I realized at an early age how important it was that she was writing her own songs. She was just a wonderful example in this world of show business that being a real human being is of vital importance and she did so much good for so many people.
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