Warren Haynes collected Duane Allman’s legacy

The guitarist of Gov’T Mule Warren Haynes he joined the Allman Brothers Band In 1989, when the historic Alfieri del Southern Rock gathered to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. At the time Warren had not yet turned thirty years old and was ready to take the place of the legendary Duane Allmanat least until 1971 when he died in a tragic motorcycle accident at just 24 years old.

Haynes was a fan of the band, he knew the material, the musicians and their attitude, and this, in addition to his undeniable talent, was very helpful. Speaking with Musicradar he said he was the country musician David Allan Coe To present it for the first time to the founding members of the group, the singer/keyboard player Gregg Allman and the guitarist Dickey Betts.

Warren Haynes he would have helped both in their soloist careers, playing with the Dickey Betts Bandplaying and sharing the writing credits on the 1988 Betts studio album, “Disruptive patterns”and participating as a guest in the title track of the album of the Gregg Allman Band, “Just Before The Bullets Fly”of the same year.

The frontman of
Gov’t mule
However, he had some small doubts. “Well, it was intimidating because the Allman Brothers Band had always been one of my favorite bands and I didn’t expect it to happen. But I played with Dickey and his band for two or three years, and this really helped me to prepare myself to enter the Allman Brothers. When I joined the Allman Brothers, I and I said we played and wrote songs together for three years, so we had that period of initiation, say, that made things a little easier. ”

Gregg Allman
And
Dickey Betts
They did not take musicians just to play the successes as they were performed on the records. This was not enough. Allman and Betts wanted the new levers to shape their sound, they wanted them to put their personal touch into it.

In this regard, Haynes recalls: “They were very good at allowing and encouraging everyone to give their personality to music. From the beginning, they never asked me to play more like Duane Allman, or not as Duane Allman. It was always: ‘Be you yourself. It sounds as you want. Sonon it as you want it’, knowing that I had a deep admiration for the way of playing Duane, and for music in general, and Too much from the feeling and the spirit of music.

Haynes did it perfectly. Take
“Blue Sky”
if there had ever been a part of guitar of
Duane Allman
who required a little finesse, it was this classic written by Betts for the album

“Eat in Peach”
of 1972 “Even playing” Blue Sky “with the slide was strange, because Duane never played him. But Dickey probably asked me to do it for his band, or maybe it was my idea, I don’t know. Furthermore, at the time we played him in Sol, while the original was in Mi. Dickey changed the shade somewhere along the way.”

Derek Trucks
Haynes’ old partner in
Allman Brothers Band
speaking with Musicradar in 2021, about the slide style of
Duane Allman
He said: “Duane’s slide played as if it could turn out completely or derail at any time.”

Still today Warren Haynes continues to honor the legacy of the Allman Brothers Band. Has just announced the release, for September 12, of “The Whisper Sessions”a reduced version of its 2024 studio album, “A Million Voices Whisper” (Read the review here). “The Whisper Sessions” he reworks the songs only for Haynes’ voice and guitar, with the exception of a trio of songs with Trucks, including a cover of “Melissa” of the Allman Brothers Band and a song entitled “Real Real Love”written by an unfinished song by Gregg Allman that Allman’s manager, Bert Holmanhe had sent to Haynes.