Larry McCray released his debut album, Ambition, way back in 1990, heralding the arrival of a new force in modern blues guitar.

He not only had great songs – mixing elements of soul and funk with his powerhouse blues originals – but every one was packed with explosive guitar fills and solos that were mini masterclasses in intensity and phrasing.

McCray also possessed a fantastically expressive voice, one that was able to deliver everything from a whisper to a scream with complete conviction.

Drawing from the influence of the three Kings – Albert, Freddie and B.B. – with a little Albert Collins thrown in, McCray added his own unique mojo to the pot, utilizing a searing sustain and the kind of chops usually reserved for the shred arena.

Following a string of successful albums in the ’90s, it looked like McCray was set to become part of the blues establishment, but his career got waylaid by personal issues.

Enter Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith in 2022, responding to a query from McCray. They worked with Larry to produce what was, effectively, his comeback album, Blues Without You, released in 2022 on Bonamassa’s KTBA label.

The overwhelmingly positive response the record received led to the release of Heartbreak City in 2025, which was only McCray’s 10th album in a 35-year career of “all killer, no filler” records.

This year should see McCray build on the success of recent years to rightfully claim his place as one of the most important names on the blues scene. He has tentative plans to record an album with his brothers, Steve on drums and Paul on bass.

”We started off as the McCray Brothers, so it would be full circle for me,” he says. McCray is also delighted to be taking his son, Bleau Otis of the Bleau Otis Band, on the road with him.

A lifelong guitar nerd, McCray was also excited to talk to Guitar World about why the following three (or so) guitars are the most important in his career.

Gibson Flying V (1967)

In the ’80s, I was playing in clubs, working for General Motors and playing a Strat. My first professional tour was in 1990 as part of Gary Moore’s Still Got the Blues tour, which kicked off in the U.K.

When I first arrived and saw his rig and heard the sounds he was getting from a humbucker compared to my single-coils, it really made me think. As soon as I got home, I started looking for something with humbuckers.

I had no experience of playing Les Pauls, etc., at that time. A lot of blues guys were playing ES-335s, but I wanted something different. I saw the caramel-colored Flying V reissue in the store and – bearing in mind that I was a huge Albert King fan – I decided to go for the V, which ended up being my favorite guitar. I paid less than $1,000 for it, which works out pretty cheap after all these years of constant use.

I loved the way you had such easy access to the upper register; you could get all the way up to the top of the neck. It had a real fast neck, a great sound and it was a little bit different. It definitely affected the way that I played, with having so much sustain from those pickups.

I very rarely modify any guitars, but for this one I had some double-wound humbuckers with a splitter fitted to give me even more options. I still take this guitar on the road. I play everything; I always say when I die someone else will be playing them anyway, so I might as well get as much time with them as I can while I’m still here.

Gary was the first person I ever saw with a Soldano amp, so when I got home I got one of those as well. On that first tour, Gary and I had a great rapport, and at the end of the tour he gave me a gold-finish Custom Shop ’57 Strat reissue with a special plate on the back that said “To Larry, from Gary.” I still have that guitar.

My first good guitar was a ’61 ES-330 that my brother-in-law, who worked at GM, bought from a co-worker. It got stolen, which really pained me because I loved that guitar, but I haven’t had too much bad luck on the road with guitars.

Gibson Les Paul 1959 Goldtop reissue

I reached a point by the 2000s when I was feeling a little unsure about my sound. I had a rethink about what worked best for me. I think my friendship with Warren Haynes around that time made me reassess the worth of a Les Paul.

I happened to run into Jimmy Archey, the customer-relations rep for Gibson, in New York City. I went to their offices and they gave me a fantastic Les Paul Custom ’58 reissue in white. It had a thick, baseball-bat neck. I’d been playing it and talking to them about how great it was, and they asked me if I wanted it. You can imagine how amazing that was.

Not only that, but they also gave me a black Blueshawk, which was another great guitar. They were the first guitars I ever got directly from a manufacturer; once I signed with Pointblank Records in the Nineties, all kinds of opportunities opened up.

Once I realized how much I liked the white ’58, a couple of years later I came across the ’59 goldtop, which was a little lighter. I was reaching the point where the weight of a regular Les Paul was becoming uncomfortable on stage, so I appreciated the difference.

I was heavily favoring the goldtop once I got that. At that time, I was probably taking about eight guitars into the studio, including the Gary Moore Strat, the Blueshawk and a Gibson Nighthawk. I was also using a prototype 336 that I got from Gibson; I was the first artist to play that prototype, which I had for about a year.

One night I was playing at a place called Manny’s Car Wash in NYC, and Jimmy Archey asked me to bring the prototype to the show; they took it back and gave me one of the very first production models. That must have been one of the first they produced.

Heritage Artisan Aged 1215 Build H-150

Heritage Guitars is based where I live – in Michigan. This guitar is based on a Les Paul, but – very importantly for me – it’s chambered, which relieves a lot of the weight. I’m always hunting for lighter guitars, and it’s the guitar I’ve been playing the most since I got it.

This is a standard model that they produce that anyone can buy. The quality is amazing, but I’m also working with them on something with some custom specs. I’d always wanted to give Heritage a try but couldn’t seem to get around to it as they don’t have them in a lot of stores, so I went to their factory.

A friend put me in touch with Pete Farmer, master luthier at Heritage, and he invited me to come over and try something. He had picked what he thought would be the ideal guitar for me. As soon as he put it in my hands I said, “What do I need to do to get this guitar?” It feels like a vintage guitar; the finish is called Dirty Lemon Burst.

The pickups are their own custom shop humbuckers. I believe the body is made from ultra-light mahogany with the curly maple top, and the neck is rosewood. It’s finished in nitrocellulose, so it’s got the feel of a premium vintage guitar. I guess it’s going to be all over my next record; it’s a long way from my first guitar, which was a Silvertone 335-styled model.

When I’m just sitting around bored at home, I reach for my 1960 Harmony H160. It belonged to my older brother, James, who passed away in 2019. As a tribute to him, I had it fixed; it sounds great and I use it all the time.

He drew – on the guitar – an image of a guy with dark glasses and an Afro smoking a cigarette, and he called it Daddy Kool, so when I’m sitting around, that’s what I reach for – Daddy Kool.

I should also mention the Guild Polara S-100 I played a lot on my last album. It’s got a unique mix of Gibson and Fender. I like it so much that I asked Guild about maybe doing some kind of signature model, but I’ve had no luck so far.

I think it’s hard for blues artists to get endorsement deals in the current market, but hey, if someone at Guild is reading this, give me a call! [Laughs].

• Heartbreak City is out now via KTBA.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

This month on Cover Stars, we are turning the clock back to July 1994, a hot summer in which Guitar World was paying tribute to the late Kurt Cobain, interviewing the high-flying Zakk Wylde, and featuring the Allman Brothers on the cover.

Dickey Betts was there, with his PRS. Warren Haynes was there, too, with a Gibson SG. But wait, an SG? Where did his Les Paul go? Here he explains the story behind the SG, why he had it, why it got retired.

How did you acquire this guitar?

I got it from Gibson. I was looking for a guitar to play in Gov’t Mule as an alternative to my [Gibson] Les Paul [the guitar he used often with the Allman Brothers Band]. I wanted something a little brighter and less thick, sonically speaking, to play to get a different tone for certain songs.

Did you modify this guitar or use it with an updated rig?

I left it stock. At that time, I was playing through my modified Soldano SLO-100 through a PRS 4x12 cabinet that’s the size of a 4x10 enclosure with custom Celestion [speakers] made for PRS.

Why was this guitar perfect for you at the time?

I actually didn’t play it as much in the Allman Brothers Band as I did in Gov’t Mule. The SG sound is a very unique one, and, as with any sound, it forces you to play to what you’re hearing.

Did you use this guitar on any notable recordings or tours?

I used it a lot during the first couple of years of Gov’t Mule and some on our first recordings, which came out years later as The Tel-Star Sessions [2016].

At some point, we had made the decision to tune down a half-step for certain songs, which for me seemed better with [Gibson] Firebirds, so I retired the SG as they don’t do as well tuned down.

Why did you choose this guitar for this particular GW cover shoot?

It was a new guitar for me at that time, plus it looks cool. Also, the photographer – Danny Clinch – might have brought up doing some shots with that guitar from a visual standpoint. There were other shots with my Les Paul as well.

Do you still have this guitar?

Yes. It’s in the Big House, the Allman Brothers’ museum in Macon, Georgia.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Joe Bonamassa and I go way back, so when he told me about the B.B. tribute, I was like, ‘Yeah, sounds fun.’ I used to cover How Blue Can You Get in the ’70s, so I was glad they suggested that song because it would have been my first choice, for sure. I heard it first on Live In Cook County Jail [1971], then Live At The Regal [1965]. You can hear BB’s connection with the audience on that song – it always brought the house down.

My favourite line is: ‘I gave you seven children, and now you want to give them back.’ And, of course, with our version we had to update the price of the dinner. In the original, it’s $10, which at this point would barely cover a McDonald’s!

When they sent me the track, it was complete other than my guitar and vocal. I was at the Power Station in Connecticut, so I overdubbed my parts. To tip the hat, I played with a little more homage than I normally would, so I busted out the one-note vibrato. But I also threw a few curveball licks in there, just to liven up the party.

Again, I wanted to honour his sound and personality, so I played my 1961 ES-335, and the amp was a combination of a Gibson Falcon and my Alessandro.

I saw B.B. for the first time aged 19, and he gave me a guitar pick that I carried in my pants pocket for years until it eventually got lost. Then when I joined the Allman Brothers, we played with him in Texas. During the show, B.B. invited Gregg to sit in, and he went up to the mic and asked, ‘Anyone else want to join me?’

More than anything, I wanted to go, but I’d never met B.B. and thought he’d look at me like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ So I just froze. It was years later that I finally got another opportunity to play with B.B., and I have to say that was an extremely proud moment.

My other memory was in Memphis. The Allmans and B.B. were staying at the same hotel. There was a fire alarm and we had to evacuate. So I rode down in the elevator with B.B. in his pyjamas, and we were stood next to each other on the street, wondering if this hotel is going to burst into flames!

• B.B. King's Blues Summit 100 is out now via KTBA Records.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Warren Haynes’s love of a Les Paul might have been recognized with last year’s P-90-laden signature model, but before that, he was once a fierce advocate for another Gibson guitar – the SG.

The guitarist’s three-pickup SG featured on the cover of Guitar World in July 1994 as he posed alongside his Allman Brothers Band co-guitarist, Dickey Betts. But the axe was retired for good when Haynes' needs changed.

As Haynes says in the latest issue of Guitar World, which looks back on that cover story some 32 years ago, he was looking for a sidekick to his Les Paul in Gov’t Mule.

“I wanted something a little brighter and less thick, sonically speaking, to play to get a different tone for certain songs,” he explains.

“I actually didn't play it as much in the Allman Brothers Band as I did in Gov't Mule. The SG sound is a very unique one, and, as with any sound, it forces you to play to what you're hearing.”

It featured heavily on early Gov’t Mule recordings, including the retrospectively released The Tel-Star Sessions in 2016. But its position would soon be usurped by the Gibson Firebird.

“At some point, we had decided to tune down a half-step for certain songs,” Haynes continues. “Which, for me, seemed better with [Gibson] Firebirds, so I retired the SG as they don't do as well tuned down.”

Despite it playing a limited role in the Allman Brothers Band, Haynes says he armed himself with the SG for the Guitar World photoshoot because the guitar was still a new, shiny toy at the time.

“Plus, it looks cool,” he laughs. “Also, the photographer, Danny Clinch, might have brought up doing some shots with that guitar from a visual standpoint. There were other shots with my Les Paul as well [that weren’t used].”

Today, the guitar lives behind glass in “the Big House,” the Allman Brothers' museum in Macon, Georgia.

In related news, a documentary about Gregg Allman is coming to cinemas this summer. It tells the story of his revolutionary work with ABB, as well as his life off-stage, including his marriage to Cher, and the tragedy of Duane Allman’s passing in 1971.

Haynes became the latest big-name guitarist to play Jeff Beck's Yardburst Les Paul on stage late last year, but has been left lamenting the time he missed the chance to play with B.B. King.

The new Guitar World issue is out now, and features a bumper cover story on Joe Perry and his penchant for leftfield gear. Head to Magazines Direct to order a physical or digital copy.

Warren Haynes has looked back on his earliest exchanges with B.B. King – revealing that he passed up the first opportunity he got to play with the legendary bluesman.

With the release of Joe Bonamassa’s Blues Summit 100 B.B. King tribute album – and Guitarist magazine celebrating what would be the King’s 100th birthday – players from all corners of the guitar world are paying tribute to the blues great’s life and legacy.

And, in the new issue of Guitarist, Haynes – one of the many guest guitarists on Bonamassa’s star-studded tribute – explains how he walked away from his first B.B. King gig with the ultimate memento.

“I saw B.B. for the first time aged 19,” Haynes recalls. “He gave me a guitar pick that I carried in my pants pocket for years until it eventually got lost.”

Haynes would cross paths with King again years later as a member of the Allman Brothers, who ended up sharing the stage with B.B. in Texas. However, though King opened the stage up and invited players to join him, Haynes just couldn’t bring himself to trade licks with his hero. Fear took hold.

“When I joined the Allman Brothers, we played with him in Texas,” Haynes continues.

“During the show, B.B. invited Gregg to sit in, and he went up to the mic and asked, ‘Anyone else want to join me?’ More than anything, I wanted to go, but I’d never [properly] met B.B. and thought he’d look at me like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ So I just froze.”

Fortunately, Haynes wasn’t left to regret missing the chance to play with King for the rest of his life. Later on in his career, the opportunity came back around – and he seized it.

“It was years later that I finally got another opportunity to play with BB,” he says. “And I have to say that was an extremely proud moment.”

Elsewhere in the new issue of Guitarist, Billy Gibbons reveals the game-changing advice that B.B. King gave him about guitar strings – and it changed his approach to playing forever.

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up a copy of Guitarist issue 534.

Warren Haynes will play a trio of electric guitars tied to three bona fide guitar legends at Gov’t Mule’s celebratory show at New York’s Beacon Theatre on New Year’s Eve.

The show will be the band’s 50th at the iconic venue and will be a celebration of all things 1971. It's been described by Haynes as “arguably the greatest year in rock music history,” and he’ll play three guitars that Jerry Garcia, Dickey Betts, and Bob Dylan made history with for a special set.

The first of those is Jerry Garcia’s 1976 Travis Bean TB500 #11. It featured extensively on the Grateful Dead’s ninth album, Terrapin Station, and was played at over 90 shows before it was auctioned off in 2013. The late great is said to have retired the guitar once the Tiger came into his life.

Dickey Betts' main guitar between 1969-71 – a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top Dark Back – will also play a key role. The guitar starred in their iconic Fillmore East shows and was used to track the Allman Brothers Band’s first three albums – The Allman Brothers Band (1969), Idlewild South (1970), and Eat a Peach (1972).

Rounding out the trio of history-makers is “the guitar that killed folk”: the 1963 Fender Telecaster that Mike Bloomfield played during Bob Dylan’s 1965 Newport Folk Festival set, the first time he went electric.

It was later used to record Highway 61 Revisited, a record that saw Dylan further establish his rockier, more electrified sound. The Tele, which went up for sale for $275,000 in January, received a crude left-handed modification sometime after Bloomfield opted to swap it for a ’54 Les Paul in late 1965.

John Nuese, who took the hacksaw to the instrument, was the guitarist during Gram Parsons' early career.

Haynes will use the guitars to perform songs from a barmstorming year in rock. Albums released that year include Led Zeppelin’s IV, the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, and John Lennon’s Imagine, which should give you an idea of the evening’s setlist.

After years of trying to convince him, Haynes and Gibson finally worked on a signature Les Paul earlier this year. It's loaded up, in a shock twist, with P-90s – and the hybrid pups might just be having a renaissance.

Jeff Beck's guitars are finding a new home in the hands of some of the best players out on tour at the moment.

Marcus King recently wielded the ‘YardBurst,’ alongside KALEO's JJ Julius Son at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre – while Lenny Kravitz's longtime guitarist, Craig Ross, took it for a spin after it fetched $496,484 (£403,200) at auction earlier this year.

Warren Haynes is the latest in a line of guitarists breathing new life into the ‘Yardburst,’ as seen in several social media videos of him jamming alongside Derek Trucks. According to the official Gov’t Mule Instagram account, it all took place while the band was recently on tour in Chicago.

“We had the chance to meet the team behind @timeless.gem + @family_guitars. One thing led to another, and a jam session turned into @thewarrenhaynes sporting some of rock and roll’s most iconic guitars on stage during our Northerly Island play on Sept 9 – including the Jeff Beck “Yardburst” and Doug Irwin #24.”

The caption continues, “We had such a great time exploring @timeless.gem’s collection and having them at our show, that we’ve decided to link up again for our NYE run in New York at the end of this year. Their team will be generously lending a few guitars (hand selected by Warren himself!) for our end of year run culminating with our 1971: The Year Music Changed The World show.”

Jeff Beck's famed 1959 ‘Yardburst’ Gibson Les Paul Standard was one of the many tools of his trade sold at auction in January. The sale generated $10,746,430 (£8,727,284) – over eight times the pre-sale estimates.

Leading the sale was Jeff Beck's 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Gibson Les Paul, which went under the hammer for around $1,315,708 (£1,068,500) – breaking the world auction record for the most expensive Gibson Les Paul ever sold.

On what would have been B.B. King's 100th birthday, Joe Bonamassa has announced he’ll be joining forces with an astonishing cast of guitar heroes to celebrate the blues great's legacy via the upcoming tribute album, B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100.

The project has just launched with the release of its first five tracks out of a total of 32. The rest will be released in monthly installments through February 2026. Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, George Benson, Keb' Mo', Slash, Shemekia Copeland, Marcus King, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Larkin Poe, Warren Haynes, and many more are set to feature.

Speaking about why this collaborative effort is important for blues history, Bonamassa says, “Very few people in music define the genre in which they flourish, and B.B. King is one of them. When B.B. was alive and active, he was the blues – he was the sun which all planets rotated around. Only a few artists are the true north guiding the genre in which they participated, but he was that shining star.”

Bonamassa first opened for B.B. King at the age of 12, and therefore credits the blues titan for jump-starting his career and shaping his approach to both his life and career.

“He mentored me,” he says matter-of-factly. “But I wasn't the only one. All the people in his orbit have the same story about how kind B.B. was, and how he embraced the younger generation.”

For the other artists involved, the project goes beyond simply being a collaborative music project, but a reflection of King's immense legacy. Bobby Rush, who first met King in 1948, calls him “the man I looked up to all my life,” while Kenny Wayne Shepherd talks about receiving life advice from him on his 16th birthday.

The album title itself is a nod to King's Grammy-winning 1993 album Blues Summit, which, for Bonamassa, continues to solidify one of the blues greats' mission statements: “B.B.'s only wish was, ‘Do what you can to keep the blues alive.' Well, hopefully this album gives a B12 shot to his legacy – and to the legacy of the blues.”

For more information, visit Joe Bonamassa's official website.

In more recent news, fellow blues veteran Buddy Guy reveals that his cameo in the Michael B. Jordan movie Sinners was one of his many attempts to keep the blues alive.

Nothing pulls on the heartstrings of a guitarist more than the thought of a beloved axe being stolen. But when Warren Haynes lost his go-to electric guitar – a red Custom Shop Fender Strat that was by his side as he went from Dickey Betts' foil to a star of the Allman Brothers Band – it forced him to rethink his guitar of choice.

“That particular Strat, it had a really beefy and wide neck, it had the Lace Sensor pickups with the Clapton midrange boost, but there was something really special about that guitar,” he reminisces with MusicRadar.

To Haynes, it wasn’t just another Fender Stratocaster; its feel and quirks made it one of a kind. In particular, that peculiar midrange boost, designed by Fender to supercharge single-coil pickups into fatter, ultra-hot humbucking territory, was a game changer. However, one day it was cruelly stolen.

As the 1990s dawned, Haynes pivoted to a white Strat to fill the hole left behind after the theft of his beloved. But it wasn’t the same, and it fast-tracked a tonal switch that was already in motion.

“When it got stolen, I was already starting to concentrate more on playing Les Pauls and gravitating back towards the Gibson sound,” he confesses. “And when the Strat got stolen, it forced me to think differently because every other Strat I picked up at the time didn’t have the same feeling to me.”

Three decades later, the Strat remains missing, but its lineage lives on in his all-new P-90 loaded Les Paul signature. Amongst its cluster of Tone and Volume controls is a toggle clean boost, which acts similarly, and its cherry red colorway is a far less subtle nod to his former flame.

“I am looking for new inspiration, something to change the way that I play at any given moment,” he told Guitar World as the Les Paul hit the shelves, marking a third different era following Strats and PAF-loaded LPs.

In the early '90s, he'd done likewise when he realized he couldn't replace the Strat like-for-like. Both instances showcase Haynes' adaptability and prove that, no matter how experienced a player may be, there is always room for further experimentation.

That being said, he still harbors hopes of being reunited with the red Strat. Hell, Paul McCartney's Höfner bass was missing for 50 years before it was found in an English attic, and Bon Jovi was recently reunited with the first-ever guitar he bought, 45 years after selling it. So the hope he hangs onto isn't overly fanciful.

“I would love to get that guitar back,” Haynes admits. “I got a call a few years ago, someone thought they had found it, but it wasn’t the one.”

Meanwhile, Haynes has discussed his greatest Gov't Mule riffs and confessed a love for one particular Jazzmaster.

For a Gibson loyalist with a resume as action-packed as Warren Haynes’, it seemed obvious that the rock guitar veteran eventually be honored with a signature guitar.

After some Les Paul creations as part of Gibson’s Inspired By series in 2022 and 2023, a fully-fledged, P-90 stocked signature arrived earlier this year, bearing his name – but, he says, he wasn’t convinced about the idea at first.

“I've played Gibson all my life, and they've just been really wonderful to me through the years,” he tells Setlist.fm. “So when they [Gibson] first started approaching me about making a signature model Les Paul years ago, maybe decades ago, my first reaction was, ‘Well, there's only one Les Paul.’

“Les Paul invented the electric guitar, and I happened to play a Les Paul guitar. There's nothing really special about it, so I kind of prolonged the conversation.”

Haynes liked his Les Paul as it was. A signature build would have been pretty straightforward, he understood that. Were a model to bear his name, it had to stick its head above the stock guitar parapet in some way.

“Eventually they were like, ‘Well, if you come up with some stuff about yours that's very different…’” Haynes explains. The firm was desperate to twist his arms, and this change of tact struck a chord with the guitarist.

“So we were able to make a Les Paul that was different than normal,” he says, with work beginning after Gibson had first copied his 1961 ES 335. “We're talking technical shop now, but the big difference is that it has P-90 pickups instead of humbucker pickups. And that's not normal, but I really like it a lot. I think they did a fantastic job. It was an honor to do that.”

Having spent most of his career playing humbucker guitars, the switch to P-90 pickups, which sit somewhere between the bite of a single-coil and the girth of humbuckers, was a shock. Even for Haynes. But he says change is a good thing.

“I’m really loving the hum-free P-90s,” he beams. “It’s a really cool tonal change, and the boost offers even more tonal options.”

The move comes after gear guru Joe Bonamassa made a bold claim that “most people who are real dyed-in-the-wool Gibson people will say behind closed doors that their favorite pickup is a P-90”.

“They're cleaner,” he argues. “There's a sparkle on top that a humbucking pickup doesn't get.” And that argument is compounded with his gorgeous Copper Iridescent Epiphone Les Paul signature. So, are we witnessing a P-90 renaissance?

“We’re all looking for new inspiration,” Haynes believes. “Some of us have been playing humbuckers for a long, long time. Most of the sounds I enjoy come from the guitar anyway. I’m not depending on pedals for the majority of the sounds that I use. I like to change the volume knob on the guitar to get a lot of different sounds that way, and P90s are definitely great for that.” A P-90 Firebird is also expected to follow in its wake.

Haynes has also sat down with Guitarist to discuss the greatest riffs of his career and the stories behind them after he reunited with Derek Trucks to finish an old Duane Allman song as a tribute to the late great.

Through his work with the Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule and his solo group, Warren Haynes has established himself as one of blues rock’s finest electric guitar greats, assembling a bevy of records – and, by extension, notable guitar riffs – along the way.

Taking a career-diving look into the finest riffs he’s penned for Gov’t Mule in an exclusive Guitar World interview, Haynes isn’t lying when he says “there's a lot of riffs to choose from.”

Playing his new P-90 equipped signature Les Paul for the spot, he’s leaned into techniques as a way of separating the best from the rest, showcasing that he is far more than a foot-to-the-floor blues player.

“I’m playing with my fingers and I’m only really using two strings at a time, getting the one and five combination,” he says of Mule from their 1995 debut LP. It’s also a little tricky to follow, as it takes in a 10-beat phrase.

“It’s not your common four-beat repeating pattern,” he develops, “but it’s just something that was sticking in my head and still does stick in my head. When we play it live, I play slide on it. So I have to play all the chord patterns with the slide on on my third finger, which provides yet another challenge.”

Live, it’s a song that requires plenty of sleight of hand as he traps his guitar pick with his third and fourth fingers for when it’s needed.

When the song modulates to Eb in the bridge, he was forced to relearn the chord shapes without the use of his third finger, which in itself is a lesson on Hayne’s adaptive, utilitarian playing style.

The opening riff of Blind Man in the Dark, from sophomore Dose, is also “a little tricky” as a walking bassline weaves around some strange chord movement choices.

“On the studio recording, the bass is in one side and the guitar is in the other side in the verse. In the pre-chorus and chorus, they both go into the middle,” he explains, which is why he needs to maneuver both parts simultaneously.

“It’s very weird,” he adds, “and the only song we ever did that on. We had talked about how it would be cool how on early Cream records the bass and guitar were on other sides of the mix.”

Rocking Horse, meanwhile, presides over a slinky, spacious groove in 7/4 that leaves lots of “space for the bass to do cool stuff,” showing Haynes’ ability to not always think guitar-first. He cites Jimi Hendrix for its “very different” chorus, which is fuelled by a staccato attack to “bring the riff out a little bit more”, with a major third tonality.

Peace I Need, from the band’s latest record, also creates some interesting chord voicings. Though the song is in the key of B, the riff hinges off the low E string, “which is kinda like putting a low 4th chord before the actual riff.” It also utilizes a lot of palm muting and dead string hits to drive its groove without overpopulating it.

Speaking of his pivot towards P-90 pickups for the latest signature, he says, “Being traditionally a humbucker guy, I’m really loving the hum-free P-90s. It’s a really cool tonal change, and the boost offers even more tonal options.”

He’s also revealed that another signature is in the works: a customized Gibson Firebird saddled with three P-90 pickups for even greater scope.

On his latest solo album, Million Voices Whisper, Haynes reunited with his former Allman Brothers Band bandmate Derek Trucks to revive an unfinished Gregg Allman track.

First-call Nashville studio guitar ace, Justin Ostrander, has had his fair share of anecdotes. He has, after all, featured on over 20 number-one hit country records, with his recording credits including Steven Tyler, Cody Johnson, Luke Bryan, and David Lee Murphy, to name a mere few.

Being a busy session guitarist means keeping an eye out for guitars and accessories that can give you an edge over other players and help you land the gig – and, in Ostrander's case, one of his trump cards is a Coricidin bottle slide...

The story starts with Ostrander's search for an offset, specifically a Jazzmaster, that he could add to his arsenal.

“So Dan, of Danocaster [Guitars in Nashville] fame, is a huge Fender offset nerd, and I bought a Tele from him a few years ago,” he tells Vertex Effects.

“He said, ‘Well, if you find one that you think you want to buy, let me know, and I'll go with you and we'll check it out. I know those guitars inside and out, or I could just build you one.’”

Ostrander explains he scoured the menagerie of guitar stores in Nashville, but he still didn't find anything that tickled his fancy.

“So I said, ‘Okay, let's do a build then,’ and he asked me what color I wanted. And I said, ‘You know, I've always really liked that Burgundy Mist Metallic from the ’60s.” Dan worked his magic, and lo and behold, the guitar was finished – but, as Ostrander puts it, there's another cool part to the story...

“I went to play it at his house and to pick it up. He told me, ‘No pressure. Play it. See if you like it.’ And he actually had this slide sitting on his [Fender] Deluxe Reverb. And so I picked it up, and I started goofing off.”

The slide wasn't just any slide. As Ostrander notes, “I was like, ‘Man, this sounds different than all the glass slides I have,’ and I noticed that it's kind of wavy on the sides, and it's got this little logo on it.

“It was this old Coricidin bottle – one of the ones that people pay way too much money for on eBay. And I was like, ‘You know what you've got here? Like, this is a really great slide.’”

Traditional bottles of the cough and cold medicine Coricidin, from which DIY glass slides were made, were favored by Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, and Gary Rossington, and famously formed a key part of Duane Allman's signature tone.

They have since taken on a life of their own, with vintage bottles fetching insane amounts on the secondary market.

“And he goes, ‘If you take the guitar, you can take the slide.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure? Because the last time I saw one for sale on eBay, somebody wanted $300 for it.’”

“I mean, it had the original label in it and everything,” Ostrander details. “But that's literally the Duane Allman slide, and it's real glass. It's not like the Pyrex thing that people do now. And so I got a free slide with my sweet Jazzmaster.”

However, as the guitarist explains, there's a downside to playing such a highly sought-after slide...

“I'm terrified to play at most places because I don't want to drop it!” he adds with a laugh. “Especially [if] backstage has a concrete floor.”

In other session legend tales, Dann Huff recently talked about his intimidating experience recording with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones for the first time.

Almost 70 years since it was usurped by the humbucker, the P-90 pickup seems to be staging a comeback. The surge in P-90 interest among fans of guitar pickups has been buoyed by the Warren Haynes signature Les Paul. In a new interview with Guitar Player, Haynes explains why he made the switch from humbuckers.

"When I switch back and forth from my first signature model guitar, which has humbuckers, and I then plug in the new guitar with the P-90s, it instantly is the tonal change I’m looking for without turning knobs," raves Haynes.

It's not that Warren is unhappy with the humbucker tones he is known for. "As much as we’re all happy with the sound that we work on through the years and get dialed in, I think most guitar players are also looking for other sounds to be equally inspirational," he clarifies.

He says the P-90 pickups in his signature guitar offer "different sounds that inspire me to play differently."

"It kind of started [with] me wanting to find some tones that were different from my normal go-to sounds," he explains. "When I started experimenting more with the P90s, I was like, 'Oh, this adds to my tonal range!'"

Diving deeper, Haynes adds: "You definitely get options that aren’t there with humbuckers. Most of the sounds I enjoy come from the guitar anyway. I’m not depending on pedals for the majority of the sounds that I use.

"I like to change the volume knob on the guitar to get a lot of different sounds that way, and P90s are definitely great for that."

Haynes is one of many rock and blues players who are looking to P-90s for an alternative to thick humbucker tones. Joe Bonamassa, Phil X, and Jared James Nichols are also P-90 champions.

Phil X's forthcoming signature Gibson SG will feature the hot single coil pickups, and he has long used his Arcane PX-90 signature pickups on tour.

Joe Bonamassa has made his love of the pickups well known, and can often be found waxing lyrical about the differences between P-90s and PAFs.

Jared James Nichols launched his signature Seymour Duncan Silencer P-90 back in 2023, with its triple coil hum-cancelling design.

After seven decades of humbucker dominance, perhaps the P-90's time has come.

Joe Bonamassa certainly makes a case for why you should try them. If you're not sure, check out our deep dive on P-90s vs humbuckers, or our history of the dog-ear P-90.

Warren Haynes has been one of the greatest, most active musicians on the roots and jam scene for four decades now, working with Gov’t Mule, the Allman Brothers Band and the Dead, among many others. Yet the new Million Voices Whisper is only his fourth studio solo album across all those years.

Like its predecessors, it’s a collection that focuses a bit more on the songcraft than jamming, a diverse set of songs with a heavy soul underpinning.

The headline for fans of the Allman Brothers Band is that Derek Trucks appears on three songs that the two guitarists co-produced. Though they’ve played together on stage many times since the ABB’s last show a decade ago, these tracks represent the first studio collaboration between Haynes and Trucks since 2003’s Hittin’ the Note, the ABB’s final album.

One of the songs, Real Real Love, was based on lyrics written by Gregg Allman, who never completed the song. These three tracks go a long way in completing an unbroken circle for Haynes and Trucks, who played together in the ABB from 2001 to 2014.

“I always wanted to do one more Allman Brothers studio record, but that just wasn’t meant to be,” Haynes says.

The Allman Brothers Band’s final concert, which took place October 28, 2014, was released in a newly remastered version on the 10th anniversary of the show, further adding closure to Haynes and Trucks’ sparkling partnership in the group.

Million Voices Whisper also features guest appearances by Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson, whom Haynes toured with for several years as part of The Last Waltz Tour, a tribute to the Band.

The album’s core band, now on the road with Haynes, is John Medeski on keyboards, New Orleans drummer Terence Higgins and Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott. Though the quartet had never played together before the album sessions, Haynes says, “it felt really natural really quickly.”

Haynes has been a fixture since he came to national prominence as a member of the reformed Allman Brothers band in 1989. Gov’t Mule, which began as a side project for him and ABB bassist Allen Woody, who passed away in 2000, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

He’s also worked extensively with the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, toured as a member of the Dead and been at the center of countless classic jams, including at his mostly annual Christmas Jam.

The holiday tradition has brought musicians including Dave Grohl, Billy Gibbons, John Paul Jones, Gregg Allman, Bob Weir and Dave Matthews to Haynes’ hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, raising millions of dollars for Habitat for Humanity, building more than 50 homes and creating three new neighborhoods.

Million Voices Whisper feels a little different from anything else you’ve done. The songs really work together as a cohesive album. Did you write specifically for this project or did you end up with a certain number of songs that felt similar and then decide you should make a solo album?

“A little of both. I wrote a few of the songs during the lockdown, but most of them are brand new, and once I started writing with a sonic goal in mind, it became easier to focus on what songs belonged together.

“It’s a very song-oriented album that falls somewhere between Ashes and Dust and Man in Motion, which it’s closer to because it’s also very soul-music influenced.”

Real Real Love is a song Gregg Allman started and you finished. You co-wrote a lot with him. Was this something you had worked on together?

“No. He had shown it to me, but we never did tackle it. Bert [Holman, Allman Brothers Band manager] sent me a copy of Gregg’s incomplete lyrics and asked if I remembered the song, which I did.

“I don’t know if he had music to it or not, but there’s no evidence if he did. So I wrote the music and finished the lyrics, all based on how he would do it. We spent enough years writing together that I had a good idea of how to shape it in a way that would be reflective of what he would want it to be.”

Did that impact how you sang it? Did you have his voice in your head?

“Yeah, absolutely. More so than probably anything I’ve ever done. I was thinking of how he would sing it and how he would arrange it. That was one of the reasons I added the horn section – because I could hear Gregg saying, ‘Hey, we need to add horns.’”

Lukas Nelson, Jamey Johnson and Derek Trucks all make significant contributions to the album. Did you make a conscious decision that you wanted to do a project with a lot of collaborations?

“Not really – except for Derek. When I finished writing Real Real Love, I sent Derek a work tape and said, ‘We need to record this tune together.’ It just made sense to have him on that side because of the Gregg connection.

“Then we decided to get together and write, so “I went down to his farm in Georgia and we spent three days writing together and wrote quite a bit of music, including These Changes, Hall of Future Saints and a couple of others that I think will surface because I really like them a lot.”

Of the three songs, Hall of Future Saints has the most extended guitar jamming. Was it structured that way?

“Sort of, but we were really getting into it in the studio and it became over nine minutes long with that extended outro. We kept the long jam at the end as opposed to fading it or cutting it out just because we felt like the fans would want to hear it.

“I think what we wound up with is the proper way to capture what we were trying to do, which is capturing the live energy and chemistry of everyone playing together in real time in addition to the songs themselves.”

How did Lukas and Jamey end up on Day of Reckoning?

“We worked together on The Last Waltz shows, and I loved the way our voices blend together and wanted to do something with the three of us. Lukas co-wrote Day of Reckoning, making some suggestions that made a big difference, and then Jamie co-wrote Go Down Swinging.

“Lukas plays the first two solos on Day of Reckoning, and it was very exciting as it happened, which wasn’t necessarily how it was structured. He was playing his Les Paul Junior through an AC30 that was in the studio, and it sounded amazing.”

Lies, Lies, Lies sounds like it could slide onto a Gov’t Mule album, partly because it’s so driven by Kevin Scott’s bassline. He seems to have unleashed something in your playing since he joined last year, and he’s the only other connection between the two bands.

“Kevin is such a strong musical personality that he’s constantly pushing everyone else to play differently, based on his approach. Much of my music is pretty bass-driven, but Kevin takes it the extra mile.

“This was the first time we had worked in the studio together, and it was interesting to watch the way he approaches recording as opposed to live performance. It’s a very different thing, but his playing is very similar in both contexts, and I love that.

“Most of the musicians I choose to work with don’t get caught up in the recording traps. It’s nice if we can approach the music much more similarly to the way we approach it on stage than the average person does.”

“I’ve always tried to do that, but it’s interesting getting other people’s perspective on it, and we were forming a new band in the studio rather than on stage. Terence [Higgins, drums] and John [Medeski, keyboards] are such strong players that we easily forced a chemistry upon ourselves.

“I had played with everyone individually, but the four of us had never played together until then; it felt like a band right from the beginning, which is the most you can hope for. I always want a band, not a group of backing musicians, and I could feel that growing day by day.

“Then when we went on the road, we added [saxophonist] Greg Osby to the fold, which brought another fantastic sonic layer and it has continued to grow.”

Your playing on You Ain’t Above Me is very B.B. King inspired, almost a tribute. That may have sounded derivative 20 years ago, but it’s so welcome now. B.B. is gone, and for those of us who miss him and that type of playing so much, it’s very powerful and heartening to hear it so well executed – and there aren’t many people who can do it justice.

“Thanks. I agree that the more time that passes, the more it’s not only okay to honor your heroes and influences, but absolutely the right thing to do. A lot of guitar players are going to keep B.B.’s style alive, but he influenced us all more than most people even realize. Still, this is just what happened naturally responding to what I was hearing. I did not write the song as a tribute to B.B.

“In fact, I thought of it more like a soul ballad, which is just a short walk away, and when we started playing it, I naturally gravitated toward that B.B. influence when Medeski started playing that gospel organ intro. That kind of thing is why I like to let the songs breathe and unfold as we work them out.”

If you get the right people in the room, the right things will happen.

“Yes, exactly right. You know, there’s also a strong B.B. influence on Go Down Swinging, so the second and third songs on the album tip the hat to B.B. King, which is fine by me.”

You have a very nice, mostly clean, tube-driven sound throughout the album. What was your primary gear?

“My two main guitars were my signature Les Paul and my blonde 335. On the bonus track, Baby’s On the Move, I played a signature J Mascis guitar that he gave me when I sat in with him. It’s basically a Squier Jazzmaster, a very inexpensive, fantastic-sounding guitar. I really don’t think I had ever played a Jazzmaster and certainly had never recorded with one and it was very cool and a lot of fun.

“I used a combination of three amps, as I’ve been doing a lot recently. It was mostly my little Alessandro recording amp, a Homestead combo and one of my Gibsons, mostly the prototype of the new Falcon. We swapped some stuff out, but that was my main combination. We would record all three, then decide what combination we wanted to use, which was different on every track but worked well.”

“Effects wise, the [Hughes & Kettner] Rotosphere appeared here and there. I used a Boss OC-2 octave divider on the solo for Day of Reckoning and there are a couple of backwards solos on Lies, Lies, Lies, where I just stepped on the Hardwire DL-8 [delay/looper] pedal while playing.

“Maybe one was overdubbed and one was live. I keep saying I’m going to do more overdubbing, but I wind up keeping the solos from the track because it’s so much more fun.”

You’ve been telling me “The next one will have more overdubs” for 30 years!

“I know. I start every album saying I’m going to do more overdubbing on this record and there are a few here, but I’m always going to favor playing live!”

• Million Voices Whisper is out now via Fantasy.

Warren Haynes' long-awaited P-90 Les Paul signature guitar has been given an official release after months of anticipation.

Back in November 2024, the Gov’t Mule and former Allman Brothers Band electric guitar star teased he had not one, but two Gibson guitars in the works. They had a surprising spec, though – they were promised to come loaded with P-90s, rather than humbuckers.

It was a curious choice for the humbucker loyalist, but one that came after Haynes himself decided to double down on his fondness for P-90 pickups. When rumors of the LP first surfaced, Haynes said as much, when he asserted: “I am about to delve into the P-90 world pretty hard.”

The guitar itself broke cover back at NAMM this year, but now Haynes’ stylish new single-cut has been given its official release.

We knew what it looked like, of course – it was present during Gibson’s behind-closed-doors product preview display – so the gorgeous ’60s Cherry finish doesn’t surprise us, nor does the immaculate 1960s-inspired stylings of the wider instrument.

Its maple cap-topped mahogany body boasts sleek binding, as does the chunky ’50s Vintage profile mahogany neck, which also offers a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with acrylic trapezoid inlays.

It’s a very tidy Les Paul indeed, and the seeming lack of any Haynes insignia – there are no signatures or scrawls, not even on the truss rod cover – makes this particular LP look as though it's been lifted straight from the highest end of Gibson’s standard production guitars.

But, naturally, it is the unconventional pickup choice that makes it really stand out. The two P-90 DCs offer hum-free performance with authentic P-90 tones, and are both wired to a 15dB boost – located in between the control circuit knobs – that can be activated via a mini toggle switch.

“I’ve always been a Gibson guy – I got hooked on that sound as a teenager and have been playing them ever since,” says Warren Haynes. “Needless to say, I’m honored to be partnering with Gibson to release my Signature Les Paul Standard.

“Being traditionally a humbucker guy, I’m really loving the hum-free P-90s. It’s a really cool tonal change, and the boost offers even more tonal options. I’m really enjoying playing this guitar on stage and looking forward to using it in the studio.

“I’m equally psyched that other guitar players will now have the opportunity to own and play one as well.”

The Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard ’60s Cherry is available now for $2,799.

Visit Gibson for more.

NAMM 2025: One of the biggest stories in the lead-up to this year’s NAMM show was the fact a handful of big brands would be returning to the Anaheim Convention Centre to rejoin the gear festivities – and Gibson’s much-anticipated return was particularly notable.

However, like most of its returning peers – such as PRS and Fender – Gibson didn’t have a booth in the conventional sense this time out. Instead, it set up a cosy, behind-closed-doors showcase, which put on display all its new releases (electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars and guitar amps among them) for those lucky enough to get past the security guards.

Fortunately for our on-the-ground reporters, we were able to get an exclusive, hands-on look at everything Gibson, Epiphone and Mesa/Boogie have got planned in this particular drop window, from Warren Haynes’ newly-announced signature Les Paul, those special edition NAMM 2025 LPs, and even some fresh-off-the-press releases.

The highlights, of course, were the new Les Pauls. To celebrate their 70th Anniversary, Gibson has paid homage to the five Custom Color models that were put on display way back in 1955, reviving them with the very best aging that the Murphy Lab has to offer.

Copper Iridescent, Nugget Gold, Samoa Beige, Platinum and Viceroy Brown (we only saw those first two) car-style finishes are available, recreated in a metallic nitrocellulose lacquer for the first time ever.

Up close they really were a sight to behold, and our tour guide – Gibson’s Mat Koehler – highlighted the fact the Murphy Lab has upped its game for its new releases, now artificially aging all aspects of its guitars, and not just its finishes, for the first time. Because of that, they certainly look and feel more, err... vintage-y.

Warren Haynes has developed a bit of a thing for P-90s in recent years and the fruits of that passion can be seen in his new Cherry Red signature model. It might look like a simple refin at first, but it’s well worth a closer inspection.

For a start, those aren't standard pickups, but a pair of P-90 DC units – offering hum-free-performance. It’s also augmented by a custom boost circuit, which can engage 15dB of clean boost via the mini toggle secreted near the tone/volume controls.

Pair all of that with the traditional Gibson Les Paul specs, an unassuming top and chunky ’50s Vintage profile neck and this looks like one hell of a stage guitar – and a lot of fun.

We were also privy to the all-new Les Paul Standard 50s and 60s Double Trouble models – two cheekily named six-strings that not-so-subtly nod to a well-publicized legal disagreement with a pair of uncovered Classic White humbuckers.

There were a few unexpected previews, too, most notably the return of the Tobias bass. Classic IV, Classic V, Growler IV, Growler V, Killer B IV and Killer B V models have been launched, all of which work to revive the retro-yet-boutique bass brand in striking fashion.

Last but not least, let’s not overlook the new Gibson Custom Margo Price J-45 signature model, a stunning double-scratchplate acoustic for the award-winning country artist, which she based on her mid-’60s J-45 – her “main baby,” as she terms it.

It reportedly uses a thinner mahogany for the body than the standard build and combines it with a solid red spruce top, Grover strap tuners and an L.R. Baggs Element VTC under-saddle pickup. The artwork on the scratchplates is unique to the build – inlaid with red-tailed hawks, which hold special meaning for Price.

“They are common all over the United States,” she explains in the press release for the signature. “But to me, they are otherworldly, and they always come to me in my time of need with messages of strength and perseverance.”

Keep an eye on our NAMM live blog, for more show floor updates across the weekend, and for more information on the new models, head to Gibson.

NAMM 2025: Last November, Warren Haynes – he of Gov't Mule and formerly the Allman Brothers Band – revealed that he had two new Gibson signature models in the works.

The most notable aspect of said models, Haynes said, were their P-90 pickups.

“I have always played humbuckers for the most part, but whenever I pick up a guitar with P-90s in it I get some inspiration from it,” he explained in an interview with American Musical Supply. “[Haynes and Gibson] have been talking about it for a long time.”

Now, the first of the two models, a Cherry-finished Les Paul, has arrived.

Now, details of the guitar are quite scarce, but what we do know is that the guitar boasts a mahogany body with a plain maple cap and that aforementioned 60s Cherry finish, which is modeled after that found on his beloved 1961 ES-335.

The mahogany neck with a chunkier 50s vintage profile, in turn, takes after Haynes' favorite Les Pauls.

Aside from the P-90s, the Haynes Les Paul is also notably fitted with a toggleable on-board clean boost.

In addition to the Les Paul, Haynes said last year that a rare triple P-90 Firebird was also in the works. (“I am about to delve into P-90 world pretty hard,” he said, to be exact).

“They had made me a Custom Shop Firebird one time with three P-90s in it, and I had never played a three-pickup Firebird before,” Haynes explained last year.

“It took some getting used to with the middle pickup, but once I got used to that, the tonal options were great. You could get so many different sounds, and so I loved experimenting with all the different possibilities.

“I am looking for new inspiration, something to change the way that I play at any given moment,” he continued. “I love the fact that I have settled into a great sound with my Les Pauls through the years, but it is nice to challenge yourself sometimes – it creates a new spark that takes you into some new direction.”

We'll keep our eyes out for more info on the guitar as it becomes available, but for now visit Gibson to see the company's other new-for-2025 offerings.

An all-star lineup, featuring members of the extended Allman Brothers Band family, will perform at a Dickey Betts tribute concert, In Memory of Dickey Betts, scheduled for February 28 at the Macon City Auditorium in the group's stronghold of Macon, Georgia. The event will be hosted and curated by Betts' son, Duane Betts.

Alongside former Allman Brothers Band members Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Jaimoe, Chuck Leavell, and Oteil Burbridge, the concert will feature Susan Tedeschi, Duane Betts, Gregg Allman's son Devon Allman, Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr, Wet Willie's Jimmy Hall, and Lamar Williams Jr., the son of ABB's bassist during the '70s, Lamar Williams. More musicians are expected to be added and announced soon.

“For so many of us, Dad's gift to the world was music,” reflects Duane. “I'm so happy to come together with some very special friends to honor the depth and beauty of his life and, of course, to share that sweet, melodic sound he is so well known for.”

A portion of the proceeds from the star-studded concert will go toward furthering music education in honor of Dickey Betts, including the new Dickey Betts Scholarship at Berklee College of Music.

Tickets for the show will go on sale on January 13 at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster. A limited number of VIP ticket packages will also be available, including an artist meet-and-greet, a T-shirt, a signed poster, and a commemorative laminate.

Dickey Betts passed away on April 18, 2024, at the age of 80. As a tribute to Betts' legacy, Guitar World’s Andy Aledort, Betts' right-hand man who played over 250 shows around the globe with him, reflected on his experience touring with Betts, asserting that he “laid the foundation for what was at the time a new style of music to be known as Southern rock.”

Warren Haynes has revealed he’s got two Gibson signature guitars in the works – both of which will see the Allman Brothers Band legend lean into his new-found affinity for P-90s.

Haynes is no stranger to Gibsons and humbuckers, having almost exclusively played Les Pauls, Firebirds, and other Gibson guitars throughout his career. He’s also had a few signatures already in the past, including a Les Paul Standard in 2007 and an ES-335 in 2014.

P-90 electric guitars, though, are another story altogether, and as the Southern rock heavyweight explains in a new American Musical Supply interview, he’s planning to make the switch for his next run of signatures.

“I am working on some prototypes with Gibson, an upcoming Les Paul with P-90s and an upcoming Firebird with three P-90s,” he said. “I am about to delve into P-90 world pretty hard.”

As for why he’s decided to defect pickup ranks after all this time, Haynes explains that, although he’s familiar with humbuckers, he finds P-90s to be especially inspiring. It’s a feeling that can be traced back to a Custom Shop Firebird that Gibson once gifted him, which unusually came loaded with three P-90s.

“I have always played humbuckers for the most part but whenever I pick up a guitar with P-90s in it I get some inspiration from it,” he continues. “We’ve been talking about it for a long time.

“When I first brought up that I wanted to do another signature model Les Paul, P-90s became the obvious choice, and they had made me a Custom Shop Firebird one time with three P-90s in it, and I had never played a three-pickup Firebird before.

“It took some getting used to with the middle pickup, but once I got used to that, the tonal options were great. You could get so many different sounds, and so I loved experimenting with all the different possibilities.”

Haynes enjoyed his quirky Firebird so much that he’s used it as inspiration for his forthcoming signature drop.

“I am looking for new inspiration, something to change the way that I play at any given moment,” he reflects. “I love the fact that I have settled into a great sound with my Les Pauls through the years, but it is nice to challenge yourself sometimes – it creates a new spark that takes you into some new direction.”

It's worth noting that triple P-90 Firebirds aren't entirely unheard of, though they are rather rare. In the mid-1960s, a run of Firebird II Non-Reverse models – which have been reissued a number of times – were introduced.

These, naturally, aren't the same as regular Firebirds, and you'd be hard pressed to find examples of those out there that come stocked with a trio of P-90s.

Depending on what form it takes, Haynes' upcoming signature could plug that gap. Either way, it will make for one very cool signature guitar.

Haynes’ guitars have yet to be officially announced, and since it seems they’re both still in the development stages, we imagine we won’t hear anything more concrete until next year.

Head over to Gibson in the meantime.

The Martin Scorsese-led Robbie Robertson tribute, The Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson, took place at Los Angeles' Kia Forum on October 17 – and it was a veritable who's who of the music industry paying tribute to The Band legend.

The roughly five-hour concert, which included performances by the likes of Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Trey Anastasio, Mike Campbell, Lucinda Williams, Bob Weir, and Warren Haynes, was clearly meant to evoke Scorsese's 1978 classic The Last Waltz, which documented The Band's farewell concert appearance at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving Day 1976.

Fast forward to 2024, and the all-star blowout paying homage to Robertson, also set to be released as a concert movie, made its mark on music history.

“We’ve had four days to learn these songs,” announced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell, setting the tone for the event, “and we’re gonna play every single one of them tonight.”

Heavyweights Van Morrison and Eric Clapton, who both appeared in The Last Waltz, put their own spin on some bona fide classics, with the former delivering back-to-back performances of Tupelo Honey (from his 1971 album Tupelo Honey), Days Like This (from his 1995 album of the same name), and Wonderful Remark – which has a clear Robertson link in that it was part of Scorsese’s 1983 film The King of Comedy, whose soundtrack The Band guitarist oversaw.

Clapton, who recently revealed why he’s not particularly proud of his Last Waltz performance, gave a Strat-laden performance of The Band's The Shape I'm In (from the 1970 album Stage Fright), Chest Fever (from 1968's Music from Big Pink), Forbidden Fruit (from 1975's Northern Lights – Southern Cross), and Out of the Blue (from 1978's The Last Waltz), plus Bobby Bland's Further On Up The Road, which he also performed in The Last Waltz.

Anastasio, who, together with Mavis Staples and Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, gave a heartfelt rendition of The Weight, the Robertson-penned 1968 hit that served as the first single under the moniker The Band, told Rolling Stone right before the show, “In the style of music that I play, the Band is the foundation – I grew up listening to this music and it’s the high water mark. So being able to take part in a couple of the songs from this huge legacy of masterpieces that were left behind by Robbie and the Band it just means so much.”

Brandishing one of his trusty Languedoc guitars, he also performed The Unfaithful Servant (from the 1969 album The Band) and Look Out Cleveland (from that same album).

While the setlist was unabashedly The Band-heavy, pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph and record producer Daniel Lanois – who produced Robertson’s first solo album – chose songs from Robertson's post-Band career, delivering Straight Down The Line (from 2011's How to Become Clairvoyant) and Broken Arrow (from 1987's Robbie Robertson) respectively.

“It’s a song that’s very dear to me,” Lanois told Variety, “and brings up a lot of memories of us huddled up in the little studio at the Village, working up these arrangements. It was a great honor for a Canadian kid, because as a guitar player, Robbie was always a hero for me. And so there I was working with one of my heroes, and we had a nice exchange because he loves imaginative thinking. The wildest idea, he would really accept.”

The evening’s full setlist is below [as reported by Variety]:

Set 1
Peyote Healing – Verdell Primeaux
Up on Cripple Creek – Eric Church
Ophelia – Ryan Bingham
The Best of Everything – Mike Campbell
Evangeline – Margo Price
Acadian Driftwood – Allison Russell, Julian Taylor, and Logan Staats
Straight Down the Line – Robert Randolph
Who Do You Love – Taj Mahal
Down South in New Orleans – Dave Malone and Cyril Neville
Go Back to Your Woods – Bruce Hornsby
King Harvest – Bruce Hornsby
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – Jamey Johnson

Set 2
Broken Arrow – Daniel Lanois
Life Is a Carnival – Warren Haynes
Whispering Pines – Lucinda Williams
Twilight – Nathaniel Rateliff
Across the Great Divide – Nathaniel Rateliff
Rag Mama Rag – Jamey Johnson
Don’t Do It – Nathaniel Rateliff with Margo Price
Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison
Days Like This – Van Morrison
Wonderful Remark – Van Morrison

Set 3
The Shape I’m In – Eric Clapton
Out of the Blue – Eric Clapton
Forbidden Fruit – Eric Clapton
Chest Fever – Eric Clapton
Further on Up the Road – Eric Clapton

Set 4
Forever Young – Ryan Bingham
It Makes No Difference – Jim James
Stage Fright – Warren Haynes
Caravan – Warren Haynes
When I Paint My Masterpiece – Bob Weir
The Unfaithful Servant – Trey Anastasio
Look Out Cleveland – Trey Anastasio
The Weight – Mavis Staples with Trey Anastasio and Bob Weir
I Shall Be Released – Jamey Johnson, Jim James, Allison Russell, and full company

Warren Haynes has recalled the first time he saw Derek Trucks play electric guitar, and admitted he was blown away by his talents after initially being skeptical over the youngster's chops.

Across the years, the pair have developed a strong musical bond, having locked fretboards via spells in The Allman Brothers Band, as well as collaborating on various occasions under The Derek Trucks Band moniker and beyond.

Furthermore, they recently reunited to revive a lost Gregg Allman song on Haynes' new solo album, Million Voices Whisper. During the promo trail for the record, Haynes was asked about his first impressions of Trucks.

“He's obviously gotten better, and better, and better, but he was great even at 11, surprisingly,” he tells Mike Hsu of 100 FM "The Pike” [transcribed by Ultimate Gutiar].

Trucks was barely in his 20s by the time he was sharing The Allman Brothers stage with Haynes, who in turn had rejoined for a second stint in 2000. But, by Haynes’ account, even as an 11-year-old, Trucks seemed destined for greatness.

“I remember the first time we played together,” Haynes goes on. “The Allman Brothers had a night off, and we were recording in Miami for the Seven Turns record [1990], and Butch [Trucks] said, 'What are we going to do on our night off? We should all go hear my nephew play. He's amazing.'

“Somebody said, 'How old is he?' Butch said, 'He's 11.' And we're all like [dismissively saying], 'Yeah, okay.'”

Their skepticism was quickly questioned by bass player Allen Woody, who backed up Butch’s hyperbole.

“And so we all went out there, and we wound up playing on stage together in his second set, Gregg [Allman], Butch [Trucks], myself, Allen Woody, and Derek. He was smaller than his guitar, but playing like a grown man. And I just remember all of us being like, 'Wow, this kid's really got something special,' you know?”

Trucks and Haynes' return to the studio marks the first time they've recorded together since their Allman Brothers days, which came to an end in 2014.

Trucks is set to feature on a trio of tracks, including a Greg Allman tribute titled Real, Real Love. A new slide guitar-heavy version of the Trucks-Haynes composition Back Where I Started is included with the deluxe CD edition.

Haynes, who teamed up with Slash and Billy Gibbons for an all-star tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gary Rossington at the CMT Awards last year, recently told Rick Beato that he prefers a guitar that puts up a fight when you try to play it.

Warren Hayne's Million Voices Whisper is due for release on November 1.

Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes has announced his forthcoming solo record, which will feature a long-lost Allman Brothers song that’s been revived and completed with the help of Derek Trucks.

Million Voices Whisper will find Haynes lean further into soul music, with Trucks set to feature on three songs. One of those, Real, Real Love, was initially co-written with Gregg Allman and later finished by Haynes in the late guitarist’s style.

The song was completed to honor the guitarist, who Haynes says “lived to perform… There was no separation between Gregg and his music.”

The record marks the first time Haynes and Trucks have shared a studio together since their time in the Allman Brothers Band, which ended in 2014. Trucks also features on album opener These Changes and closer Hall of Future Saints.

Among the four bonus tracks on the deluxe CD version is a new version of the Trucks-Haynes composition Back Where I Started, originally recorded by the Derek Trucks Band. This new version sees Haynes take center stage on lead vocals and slide guitar.

“This album is quite different than my previous solo records,” Haynes says. “There's a lot of soul music influence but [it’s] very song-oriented with subtle nods to a few of my heroes,” with longtime bandmate Gregg Allman chief among them.

“And what a treat to get back into the studio with my brother Derek,” he continues. “Big shoutout to him as well as Lukas [Nelson] and Jamey [Johnson, producers] for being a part of it. I'm really proud of this new album.”

We’ll have to wait a little longer to hear any of the Haynes-Trucks tracks – including the unearthed ABB song – but the first track, This Is Life As We Know It, can be heard via the video above.

Real Real Love will follow Everything a Good Man Needs, which featured Gregg Allman on guitar alongside Taj Mahal. The song was released posthumously in 2018.

Haynes' new album releases November 1 via Fantasy Records.

Million Voices Whisper is available to preorder now.

Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers' Warren Haynes is a master of nuanced guitar tones and dynamics. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he puts a lot of emphasis on getting his sound right, however long that takes.

“If my sound isn't right, I feel like I'm wearing ankle weights,” he notes in a recent interview with Rick Beato.

“I can play you know, you can go through the motions and play stuff that you know works. But that's not fulfilling. That's not gratifying. To me, playing to a good sound is the most inspiring part about playing guitar.”

Part of what makes his sound distinctive is his preference for guitars that aren't easy to play. “I call my action, 'Too high for lead, not high enough for slide.' It's a compromise where I can do both.

“So I just keep it. And it works for me. And it also makes me slow down and fight the instrument a little bit more. I think there's something to be said for having to fight your instrument, you know.

“And I love Les Paul's for that, too. Because they put up a fight. They're not the easiest guitar to play. No, they're very gratifying and give you an amazing sound. But life could be easier. There are a lot of choices that are much easier to play, but it just doesn't feel right to me.”

He also reveals that he's currently working with Gibson on another signature guitar – one that features two P-90 pickups. 

“The sound that P-90s have is pretty amazing,” Haynes observes. “And I've been kind of getting back into it. It's gonna take me a while to get as comfortable with the P-90s as I am with humbuckers, but I'm ready for the challenge because I love the sound.”

As a longtime collaborator of the late Dickey Betts, Haynes also talks about how influential Dickey was in shaping his guitar playing and career. “It's a sad day. Losing Dickey, you know, I was a huge Allman Brothers fan from the time I was nine years old. Before I ever started playing guitar.

“It was such a thrill to be invited to be in his band and be the other guitar player and slide guitar player. Really, at that time, I was playing some slide, but not a ton. And he kind of forced me to step up my game. Because if I was gonna play slide standing next to Dickey Betts, I better get better at it.”

Thanks to a distinct melting pot of genres, a scintillating dual guitar act that reinvented the wheel for two-pronged player partnerships and a borderline unrivaled live energy, the Allman Brothers Band became one of the most influential rock groups of their time.

Born into the music world at the turn of the ‘70s and initially masterminded by Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts and a handful of other instrumentalists, ABB helped progress the Southern rock sound, and pushed the boundaries of the jam genre in the process.

Across the band’s lifetime – which bore witness to tragedy, turmoil and triumph in equal measure – Allman and co. commited countless hits to tape. 

Theirs is a history that can be charted through their music, from the timeless live cuts of At Fillmore East in 1971, recorded before the untimely death of Duane Allman, to the comeback singles of the ‘90s, when Betts’ penchant for country music shone through.

Here, we take you through the ABB story by counting down their 25 greatest tracks, starting with a little number lifted from one of rock’s most enduring live records…

25. Stormy Monday

At Fillmore East (1971)

The Allman Brothers Band were essential in bringing classic blues music to a worldwide audience in the late Sixties/early Seventies, and their masterful rendition of the T-Bone Walker classic (Call It) Stormy Monday, from At Fillmore East, introduced the song to a new generation of listeners.

Duane and Gregg had been playing the song for years as it was a staple in their set with the Allman Joys, basing their version on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s cover. Here, Duane and Dickey display their complete mastery of the blues idiom.

“My biggest blues guitar influences would be T-Bone, B.B. King and Albert King,” said Betts. “A big part of Albert’s signature style was his use of extremely wide bends. He would bend notes all over the place while staying on one string at one fret; he could get four or five different notes out of one single position!

“Albert sounds sort of like a trumpet player on licks like these. On the Fillmore versions of both Stormy Monday and Whipping Post, you can hear examples of Albert’s influence on my playing in terms of using wide bends such as these.”

24. Hot ‘Lanta

At Fillmore East (1971)

Made famous as an impeccably recorded live performance at one of the legendary 1971 Fillmore East shows, this cookin’, jazzy instrumental, an ABB compositional collaboration, features a brisk swing groove in 3/4 meter – a “jazz waltz” – that recalls the feel of Whipping Post but is slightly faster and edgier, with Oakley laying down an aggressive and tastefully crafted walking bassline, lots of Duane’s and Dickey’s signature harmonized lead guitar melodies and some of Gregg’s most inspired and ambitious B3 playing ever.

The tune is based on a repeating blues progression in A minor that’s extended from the standard 12 bars to 13 (if counted in 12/8 meter instead of 3/4), via a dramatic and decidedly jazzy twist – a chromatically descending dominant seven sharp-nine chord, starting on the five, E7#9, and traveling down to C#7#9 – before restating the intro organ riff as a one-bar turnaround.

Gregg, Dickey and Duane all take fiery, well-conceived improvised solos, two choruses each, that lead up to an exhilarating duet drum break. Not content, however, to just leave it at that and come back in with a restatement of the “head” (melody), the Brothers inject a clever ensemble interlude riff into the arrangement, built around the drum break, giving both the composition and their performance of it added richness and depth.

23. No One to Run With

An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set (1995)

One of the highlights from the two excellent live albums the released by the ABB in the Nineties. Betts’ ode to the good old days and lost running buddies quickly became a tribute to Duane, Berry, Lamar and every other fallen brother – sadly added to over the next 20 years.

This live number features a signature Allen Woody bassline, great Haynes and Betts guitar parts, a growling Allman vocal and a spotlight on the three-man rhythm section, with Trucks and Jaimoe augmented by Marc Quinones. In other words, the whole Allmans enchilada. No wonder the song remained in heavy rotation until the final show.

22. You Don’t Love Me

At Fillmore East (1971)

“Everything Duane and I play on the extended ending of that track was completely improvised,” said Dickey Betts. “I played a piece of an old gospel song, some train sounds and things like that, and Duane picked up on those things and went off into his own improvisations.”

The success of the Allman Brothers Band exploded with the release of the incendiary masterpiece At Fillmore East, recorded over two nights in New York City, March 12 and 13, 1971. What is largely forgotten is that the band was originally the “special guest” opening act for Johnny Winter, but in short order the Allmans were switched to headliners.

You Don’t Love Me is an old blues tune originally written and recorded by Willie Cobb in 1960. In 1965, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy released a cover version on Junior Wells’ debut release, Hoodoo Man Blues, upon which the Allmans based their version. The band uses this track as a vehicle for a near 20-minute jam, comprising the entire second side of disc one. Duane and Dickey trade intensely burning solos through the first segment of the performance, joined by Thom Doucette’s harmonica.

At the seven-minute point, the band stops and Duane ventures into a two-minute unaccompanied improvisation that is simply stunning, followed by an equally inspired solo turn by Betts.

“What you hear was played in the spur-of-the-moment, which is exactly what the blues is all about,” said Betts. “You have to be fast on your feet, and react instantly to all of the sounds around you, allowing the music to happen in as spontaneous a way as possible.”

21. Seven Turns

Seven Turns (1990)

The Allman Brothers Band had a lot to prove when they regrouped for the second time in 1990 – namely if they could really make a run at the glories of the original golden era with new members Warren Haynes and Allen Woody. The title track of their comeback album answered a lot of questions.

A classic Betts, country-tinged rocker, it tipped its hat to Native American philosophy, offered Blue Sky-like uplift and featured Haynes’ slide and Betts’ leads side by side. The signature call-and-response vocal that closes the song came about naturally. Gregg Allman was shooting pool as Haynes and Betts worked out vocal harmonies and unconsciously answered their lines. Haynes had the good sense to recognize the missing piece to the puzzle.

20. Black Hearted Woman

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Like Whipping Post, this early Gregg Allman–penned gem from the band’s debut album features one of their earliest uses of odd meter, opening with a bluesy, repeating one-bar ensemble riff in A that drops an eighth note from the last beat, resulting in a meter of 7/8, before giving way to a more “stable” groove, in this case 4/4.

The song’s funky, hard-driving verse sections are based on a clever twist on the standard 12-bar blues form that extends it two bars, with the two-dominant chord (B7) interjected after the five (E7#9) and the progression capped off by an octave-doubled ensemble break riff that brings to mind the soulful themes of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies repertoire.

Duane and Dickey both serve up inspired, fiery licks throughout the arrangement, their guitars panned hard left and right in the stereo mix, with punchy lead tones and aggressive string bends and finger vibratos. Gregg kills it vocally, Berry Oakley’s bass line cooks and Butch Trucks’ and Jaimoe’s percussion interlude/breakdown, featuring drums and congas, ushers in a dramatic minor pentatonic “tribal” riff that Oakley scat sings along to, adding intensity and soul to an already earthy melody.

19. Come and Go Blues

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

This underrated masterpiece, originally conceived by Gregg on a fingerpicked acoustic guitar in open G tuning, is built around a hauntingly beautiful, descending blues turnaround that repeats over a G bass pedal tone for the song’s verses. (Check out his stirring live solo performance video of the song from 1981 on YouTube.)

The full ABB reading of Come and Go Blues featured on Brothers and Sisters, with bassist Lamar Williams admirably stepping into the late Berry Oakley’s large musical shoes, develops the composition into a rather ambitious arrangement, with inventive instrumental interludes and ensemble breaks throughout and tasteful improvised solos by Leavell and Betts.

18. One Way Out

Eat a Peach (1972)

One Way Out is a blues song originally recorded (or so it seems) by Elmore James in 1960/’61. Before the Elmore version was released, however, Sonny Boy Williamson II recorded it for Chess Records, releasing it in September 1961. He then re-recorded the song with blues guitarist Buddy Guy in 1963, and this latter version features the arrangement covered by the Allman Brothers, replete with the well-known signature guitar line. Elmore’s version was released posthumously in 1965, bearing a closer resemblance to the earlier Sonny Boy track.

The version released on Eat a Peach was recorded during the band’s final performance at Fillmore East on the night of the venue’s closing, June 27, 1971. It is included on the deluxe, expanded editions of At Fillmore East. The track fades in on Betts’ statement of the primary guitar lick, with the entire band dropping in 16 bars later as Duane emulates Sonny Boy’s harmonica lick with slide guitar. Dickey takes the first solo and it is simply stunning, with laser beam-like intensity and, probably, the greatest Les Paul/Marshall guitar tone ever heard.

Following a brief drum solo, Dickey and Duane trade four-bar licks, and during Duane’s last phrase, bassist Berry Oakley enters a beat early, briefly throwing the band off kilter. They quickly readjust, and this wrinkle is considered an essential part of the song’s charm. The Allmans’ version of One Way Out has been featured in many films, none more effectively than Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, used as the backtrack to a brutal bar fight.

17. Little Martha

Eat a Peach (1972)

Duane Allman’s sole songwriting credit closes Eat a Peach on a wistful note, as it did every Allman Brothers concert of the last 20 years, piped through the P.A. Said to come to Duane in a dream and pieced together over the years, the lilting dobro duet with Betts is played in open Eb. Like so much about Duane, it leaves you wondering “what if.”

“My brother loved playing that kind of stuff, and I have to think there would have been more music coming out of him,” said Gregg.

16. Nobody Knows

Shades of Two Worlds (1991)

The Allman Brothers are revered for instrumental masterpieces like Jessica, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Hot ‘Lanta, Don’t Want You No More, Mountain Jam, Little Martha and Les Brers in A Minor, but they have on occasion directed that instrumental magic touch to vocal tunes such as Whipping Post, as well as this tour de force from the band’s early Nineties incarnation.

Gregg Allman had derided the tune for being too similar to Whipping Post – both songs are in A minor with a 6/8 feel (as is Hot ‘Lanta) – but make no mistake; Nobody Knows is as powerful a track as any in the band’s history.

“Nobody Knows is one of the best lyrical songs I’ve ever written,” Betts said in ’91. “These are nice, abstract, poetic lyrics. I wrote that about as fast as I could write the words down, at 4:30 in the morning after rehearsal.

“[Producer] Tom Dowd had said, ‘We could use a tune as heavy as ‘Whipping Post” for this record,’ and I thought, ‘Man, that’s a tall order!’ I sat down and those words just started flying out. In 30 minutes I’d written the whole thing, like I was writing a letter to someone.”

15. Mountain Jam

Eat a Peach (1972)

Based on the 1967 Donovan song There Is a Mountain, Mountain Jam served as an extended instrumental jamming vehicle for the Allman Brothers Band throughout the band’s long history.

The first recording of the song is from one of their very first gigs, May 4, 1969; they also played the song on the very last night the Allman Brothers Band ever performed, October 29, 2014. This is wholly appropriate, as no song better represents the adventurous, experimental spirit of the band’s musical DNA.

Listeners get the first hints of Mountain Jam and the end of the album that precedes Eat a Peach, At Fillmore East, following the last strains of Whipping Post as the album fades out.

At nearly 34 minutes in length, Mountain Jam is a wild ride, through beautifully delicate harmonized guitar lines, intensely extraordinary guitar solos from Duane and Dickey, expressive Hammond organ work from Gregg, and lock-tight, swinging rhythm section work from Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe. Dickey and Duane burst into improvised harmonized lines, all the while displaying incredible chops and dreamlike Les Paul/Marshall stack guitar tones.

A furious tandem drum solo is followed by a deeply syncopated bass solo from Berry and a shift to a shuffle feel and reference to Jimi Hendrix’ Third Stone from the Sun, transitioning seamlessly to a 6/8 instrumental take on Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

14. Statesboro Blues

At Fillmore East (1971)

For a great many of us – especially those who were teenagers in 1971 when At Fillmore East was released – Statesboro Blues represents the very moment the Allman Brothers Band blasted into our lives.

As an aspiring young guitar player, its impact was instantaneous. Duane Allman’s dramatic and distinct slide guitar intro grabs you from the very first note and, as the opening track on what would be the band’s breakthrough album, the hard-rocking, lock-tight sound and spirit of the Allman Brothers was now firmly set in stone. Even Michael Aherns’ understated introduction, “Okay, the Allman Brothers Band,” is now considered an essential part of the track.

Statesboro Blues was written by Piedmont blues guitarist/singer Blind Willie McTell, who first recorded the song in 1928, backing himself on acoustic guitar. Blues singer/guitarist Taj Mahal recorded a great version of the song on his 1968 eponymous debut, featuring guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, and this version is the one Duane heard, inspiring him to learn to play slide guitar.

The story goes that brother Gregg had given Duane the album for his birthday, simultaneously giving him a bottle of Coricidan, a cold medication, as Duane was sick at the time. Inspired by the recording, Duane emptied the pills from the bottle and, wearing it on the ring finger of his fretting hand, taught himself to play slide guitar. 

Today, millions of guitarists the world over use bottle-type slides on their ring fingers – such as Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks – in emulation of Duane Allman.

13. Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’

Idlewild South (1972)

Rhythm and blues and soul were the two styles of music that had the strongest influence on Gregg Allman as a performer and as a composer. He had stated often that such artists as Ray Charles, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Little Milton were hugely influential on his singing style and musical sense.

According to Gregg, “When I heard Ray Charles, I said, ‘That’s my goal in life.’ Ray Charles is the one who taught me to just relax and let it ooze out. If it’s in your soul, it’ll come out.”

Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ kicks off with a dual slide guitar/harmonica lick, followed by a funky blues-like rhythm part laid down by Dickey Betts, abutted by slide guitar from Duane and harmonica from Thom Doucette. Duane plays a stinging, high slide solo that culminates with a syncopated band figure similar to those heard on Black Hearted Woman.

12. Les Brers in A Minor

Eat a Peach (1972)

Like Betts’ earlier masterpiece, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, this majestic nine-minute instrumental, penned by the guitarist in 1971 and recorded by the ABB in the wake of brother Duane’s tragic death late that year, showcases Dickey’s eclectic musical sophistication as a composer and grasp of both jazz harmony and classical orchestration.

The piece begins with an extended, mesmerizing intro, featuring a highly interactive ensemble crescendo that swells from a whisper through a series of meditative tonal-center shifts, from A to G and back, performed in a “floaty” free-time feel and culminating in a climactic succession of loud, dramatic “orchestra hits,” in a way that brings to mind the opening strains from the first and second movements of Beethoven’s ninth symphony.

Near the four-minute mark, Berry Oakley nimbly kicks off the tune’s main theme and establishes its brisk tempo with a growling, flat-picked bass riff, a repeating ostinato figure that outlines an A minor hexatonic tonality, over which Dickey and Gregg then proceed to double the tune’s melody in unison over a rich, syncopated percussion groove.

This is followed at 4:25 by an inventive, jazzy bridge, or interlude, that momentarily interrupts the driving 16th-note groove for about 20 seconds with a somber melody, set to an intriguing chord progression played with a half-time feel, followed by a return to the 16th-note groove and some inspired open-ended soloing and jamming, with each individual solo bookended and punctuated by tight ensemble riffs.

11. Ain’t Wasting Time No More

Eat a Peach (1972)

As the lead single from Eat a Peach, the first Allman Brothers Band album released following the tragic death of founding band member and leader Duane Allman, Gregg Allman’s heartfelt composition captures, in part, his feelings at one of the most difficult times of his life.

The lyrical content of the song deals with overcoming depression, with lines like, “Last Sunday morning the sunshine felt like rain, the week before, they all seemed the same... But with the help of God and two friends, I’ve come to realize, I still have two strong legs and even wings to fly,” and also, “You don’t need no gypsy to tell you why, you can’t let another precious day go by.”

The song is driven by Gregg’s rock-solid piano playing, supplemented by lyrical slide guitar playing by Dickey Betts, ably picking up the Duane Allman mantle, as well as gently flowing percussion from Jaimoe.

10. Ramblin’ Man

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

Written by Dickey Betts in 1972, Ramblin’ Man was the Allman Brothers Band’s only top-10 hit single and the last song recorded by bassist Berry Oakley, shortly before his untimely passing in November of that year. Inspired by a 1951 Hank Williams composition of the same name, the song features Betts singing lead vocal.

Ramblin’ Man saw the Allmans reach a commercial peak and, together with other Betts-penned songs included on the album, represented a stylistic change in direction for the group, from their foundational blues-based and jazz-tinged rock to more of a country-pop flavor, while still upholding their credo of collective improvisation and the jamming spirit that the ABB has always embraced.

Ramblin’ Man was written and performed in the key of G, but the original recording was sped up in the mastering process, which, in addition to increasing the tempo by a few beats per minute, raised its pitch a little more than a half step, resulting in the finished track sounding slightly sharp of the key of Ab.

Along with other Betts compositions featured on Brothers and Sisters, namely Southbound, Pony Boy and the instrumental Jessica, Ramblin’ Man represented Dickey’s emergence as one of the outfit’s principal songwriters, alongside Gregg, and demonstrated that the guitarist could admirably carry the torch as the band’s only full-time guitarist, as they chose, for the time being, not to replace Duane with another six-stringer, instead bringing in the very talented pianist Chuck Leavell as a second instrumental soloist.

Ramblin’ Man gloriously showcases Betts’ signature lyrical soloing style, which is characterized by owing eighth-note rhythms, rolling melodic contours, soar- ing, pedal steel-like bends, smooth legato phrasing and the frequent use of the major hexatonic scale, a sound that is regarded by many as his musical calling card.

Guitarist Les Dudek made a guest appearance on the track, providing the arrangement’s signature sweet harmony leads, which he layered by overdubbing single-note parts.

9. Revival

Idlewild South (1970)

Revival, aka Revival (Love Is Everywhere), represents Dickey Betts’ first songwriting credit with the band. “Revival started out as an instrumental tune,” said Betts. “In fact, we would refer to that first instrumental section of the song as ‘The Gypsy Dance.’ When I wrote it, I had the image of gypsies dancing around a fire in my mind, and I tried to conjure that spirit in the music.”

The song opens with Duane Allman’s strummed acoustic-guitar rhythm part, followed immediately by an evocative, bluesy harmonized guitar line. Once again, the influence of modal jazz is present, as the song moves seamlessly through different tonalities, such as major, natural minor and the Dorian mode.

Drummer “Jaimoe” Jai Johanny Johanson is featured on percussion on the track, lending a Latin feel. This Latin feel, also present on In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, was inspired in part by Latin jazz as well as the Latin flavors South Florida musicians like Mike Pinera (Blues Image) were incorporating into their music at the time.

“In writing this tune – or any of the instrumentals – you have to decide what you are trying to do, and then see if you can make it happen,” said Betts. “These are the mental tools I use to help guide me through, to find the proper direction for whatever piece of music I am working on. I used this approach for songs like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, High Falls and Revival. Just like the use of words in the telling of a story, every note is of essential importance in crafting a successful instrumental.”

After this initial minor-key instrumental section, the song moves back into a major key for the uplifting gospel-like vocal sections.

8. Jessica

Brothers and Sisters (1973)

Brothers and Sisters was the first album to feature neither Duane Allman nor Berry Oakley, both of whom had died tragically in motorcycle accidents over the previous two years.

Quite incredibly, the band pulled together to create the most successful album of its entire career, on the strength of such powerful Betts compositions as Jessica, Southbound and the band’s only Number One hit, Ramblin’ Man. Brothers and Sisters sold over a million copies within a month of its release, and to date over seven million copies worldwide.

“Here’s the story which has been told many times,” recalled Betts. “I had a general idea of a melody and a feeling for Jessica, but I couldn’t get started on it; nothing was really adding up. My little girl Jessica, who at the time was an infant, crawled up to me and I started playing to her, playing to the feeling of the innocence of her personality. And soon the whole song just fell together. The song was justly named after her for providing the needed inspiration.”

Jessica also displays the influence of some other elements that were important to Betts’ musical development, such as the playing of legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

“Django only used two fingers to fret with,” said Betts, “so I devised a melody that I could play with just the index and middle fingers.” Additionally, Betts’ ancestry includes the fiddle players of Prince Edward Sound, which is located in eastern Canada just above Nova Scotia.

“These fiddle players were known for possessing a very distinct style,” explained Betts, “and the style of the Prince Edward Sound fiddlers sounded just like the fiddle playing of my dad and my uncles. This provided me with an instinct for a melodic approach to playing. One of the best examples of this influence coming to the fore is Jessica.”

7. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Idlewild South (1970) and At Fillmore East (1971)

This is the first of many distinctly original instrumental songs Dickey Betts would write for the Allman Brothers Band and, like Whipping Post, its true power, breadth and scope came to fruition in the live setting. It remains one of the most recognizable songs in the band’s catalog, and was a staple in the live shows from the song’s inception until the band’s final shows in 2014.

Said Betts, “[Late Allmans bassist] Berry Oakley and I inspired each other’s improvisational creativity while we were in Second Coming, the band that presaged the Allman Brothers.

One of our favorite things to do was to jam in minor keys, experimenting freely with the sounds of different minor modes. We allowed our ears to guide us, and this type of ‘jamming’ served to inspire the writing of songs like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Les Brers in A Minor. We were both fascinated with the modal jazz improvisation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, such as that heard on Kind of Blue.”

“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed was inspired by a woman I knew named Carmella. At the time, she was involved with a friend of mine, but something started to happen be- tween her and myself. She was a very seductive, sultry, secretive woman, and I thought our little cloak-and-dagger romance was a beautiful image for a song. She and I would rendezvous in this old abandoned graveyard by the river, which was the place I liked to go to write songs.

“I wrote just about everything there at that time; I wrote Blue Sky there, too. When I wrote this song for her, the gravestone next to where I was sitting happened to say, ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, so that became the song’s title.”

An essential signature element in this song is the brilliant use of harmonized guitar lines, present in both the initial “intro” section of the tune as well as the main theme and the harmonized melodic lines that wrap up each guitar solo section.

“I first discovered harmonized melodies from listening to western swing music, like Bob Wills, where the melodies are harmonized by guitar, pedal steel, piano and violin,” said Betts.

“Devising harmonized guitar parts became something Duane and I really enjoyed working on together. We would let our imaginations guide us as to what the harmony line should sound like. Of course, the presence of these guitar harmonies became essential to the sound of the Allman Brothers Band.”

6. Melissa

Eat a Peach (1972)

Gregg Allman said that he wrote and threw out 300-400 songs before he wrote his first keeper: Melissa, in late 1967, shortly after Duane traded a beloved guitar to get Gregg a quality acoustic. Allman said that he picked up the guitar not knowing that his brother had tuned it to open E.

“I just started strumming it and hit these beautiful chords,” he said. “It was just open strings, then an E shape first fret, then moved to the second fret. This is a great example of the way different tunings can open up different roads to you as a songwriter. The music immediately made me feel good and the words just started coming to me.”

The brothers Allman cut the song first in 1968 with Butch Trucks’ 31st of February, a demo that was eventually released under the misleading name “Duane and Gregg Allman”. After Duane’s death, as the band finished a few tracks for Eat a Peach, Gregg took out his old favorite.

5. It’s Not My Cross to Bear

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Along with Dreams, It’s Not My Cross to Bear is the second of two songs that Gregg had in his back pocket when he traveled from Los Angeles to join the new band in Jacksonville. And, again, it’s remarkable that he wrote such a deep, world weary blues at such a young age, promising a departing lover, “I’ll live on, I’ll be strong,” a promise that seems primarily determined to convince himself.

In a demo recorded in Los Angeles in January 1969, the song is structurally complete and Gregg’s vocals are already deep and true, but it also provides keen insight into what the band added: a sure groove and steady time through the deepest, slowest blues and two contrasting but equally powerful guitar voices, with Duane and Dickey playing solos that bleed, cry and gnash just as surely as Gregg’s simply phrased, powerfully emotive vocals.

No song better encapsulates the way in which the Allman Brothers Band delivered on the elusive goal of countless hippie rockers who loved Muddy Waters: playing blues that were equally original and rooted in the classics.

4. Dreams

The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Gregg Allman said that he arrived in Jacksonville to join his brother’s new band with a catalog of 22 songs. His confidence in his songwriting flagged as the first dozen songs were rejected, before he got to Dreams, which he always maintained was the only song he ever wrote on a Hammond organ. (He generally preferred guitar or piano.)

The song’s minimalist lyrics read like a blues haiku, anchored by the existentialist dread of being haunted by redemptive dreams so distant you can’t even dream them.

The song, which was immediately worked up by the band, became a perfect skeleton to hang their interpretation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s modal jazz explorations. With a bassline directly pinched from Davis’ All Blues and Jaimoe playing drum fills from the same song, Duane Allman played a deeply moving two-part solo over a simply swinging two-chord vamp.

It is the only classic Allman Brothers song to feature one instead of two guitar soloists, with Duane playing a “straight” solo, then picking up his slide to kick the song into overdrive.

Like so much of the debut album, Dreams remained a live staple until the last show. It is arguably the band’s spiritual core.

3. Midnight Rider

Idlewild South (1970)

Gregg Allman’s theme song came to him almost whole in a flash of inspiration. “Midnight Rider hit me like a damn sack of hoe handles,” he said. “It was just there, crawling all over me. And about an hour and 15 minutes later I had the rough draft down... and was putting it down on tape.”

The only problem was that Allman’s inspiration came in the middle of the night and drummer Jaimoe was the only band member he could find to record a demo – and besides, he was locked out of the Capricorn Records studio. When studio managers said to leave them alone after being woken up at 3 a.m., Allman and roadie Kim Payne broke in. Along the way, Payne contributed a crucial line that completed the song: “I’ve gone past the point of caring/some ol’ bed I’ll soon be sharing.”

With his other bandmates nowhere to be found, Allman put a bass in the hands of the awoken road manager Twiggs Lyndon, showing him how to play the distinctive lick running through his brain and telling him to play absolutely nothing else.

After wildly flipping switches trying to turn on the studio boards, Payne managed to get tape rolling and Gregg recorded a demo of Midnight Rider with himself on 12-string guitar, Lyndon playing rudimentary bass and Jaimoe on drums, or maybe percussion – no-one’s recollection is quite clear on that.

They all say, however, that the final version differed little structurally from the quickly recorded demo, other than Duane Allman and Dickey Betts’ subtly sweet guitar work, which put the song over the top, creating a haunting, simple, perfectly crafted classic that will be played long after we are all dust in the wind.

2. Blue Sky

Eat a Peach (1972)

Blue Sky is a gentle ballad-like song with a country feel, revealing the country influences present in the songwriting style of Dickey Betts. He wrote the song as a tribute to his wife, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig, who was of Native American descent.

Eat a Peach was the first album released after the passing of Duane Allman, and Blue Sky represents one of his final recordings with the band. Played rarely in concert at the time, a great version featuring Duane is available on S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71, self-released by the band in 2003. Blue Sky, Dickey Betts’ debut as a lead singer on an Allman Brothers album, features beautifully inspired harmonized guitar lines from Dickey and Duane.

“When we originally recorded Blue Sky, Duane and I tried all different kinds of harmonies until we found the one that best suited the song,” said Betts. “We found that the softer-edged harmony was what worked best.”

In many instances, the relationship between the melody and the harmony changes to a combination of thirds and fourths, and this is exactly the case with Blue Sky. The initial guitar melody in the song is based on a scale known as E major hexatonic, which is the same as a standard major scale, but the seventh tone is removed, resulting in a six-tone major scale. The very first melodic line in the song, however, was not harmonized by another guitar.

1. Whipping Post

The Allman Brothers Band (1969) and At Fillmore East (1971)

Of the many timeless classic rock songs residing in the Allman Brothers Band canon, Whipping Post stands as the heavyweight champion of them all.

Released originally on the band’s eponymous debut, the song’s full power was realized in live performance, captured in all its brilliance on the band’s watershed double live album, At Fillmore East. At 22 minutes in length, this version comprises the entire fourth and closing side of the album. It is widely revered as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

This live version showcases everything original – and everything truly extraordinary – about the Allman Brothers Band: distinctly original music, soulful, expressive vocals and lyrics from Gregg Allman, fiery, virtuoso guitar playing from Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, and jazz-like musical intricacy and precise band interplay.

Whipping Post, written by Gregg Allman, started out as a basic slow blues in A minor. While initially working on it in rehearsal, bassist Berry Oakley said, “Hold it! I have an idea for this tune – let’s work on it tomorrow.” And the next day he came in with a completely rearranged, re-imagined structure and feel that became the Whipping Post we all know.

He had reworked the intro into an odd 11/8 meter that somehow sounds perfectly suited for the song. From there, Duane and Dickey began to forge their unique harmonized guitar lines.

“When Duane and I would work on harmonizing guitar parts, we didn’t use any kind of technical approach,” said Betts. “We didn’t study the structure of the scales or spend time figuring out on paper what should work.

“We approached harmonizing guitar parts in the same way we approached vocal harmonies: we would try a few different ideas, and go with the one that sounded the best to our ears. Usually, I’d have a certain sound in my mind that I was after, and we used a ‘trial and error’ method to find it.”

Slash unveiled his new blues album, Orgy of the Damned, last Friday and today has announced that its release will be followed by a 27-date traveling “blues festival” tour.

The dates kick off on July 5 in Bonner, MT and run until August 17 in Grand Prairie, TX. While not every artist will feature at every date, the tour is set to include a rotating cast of killer blues players, including Warren Haynes, Keb’ Mo’, Larkin Poe, Christone ‘Kingish’ Ingram, Samantha Fish, ZZ Ward, Robert Randolph, Eric Gales, and Jackie Venson. 

And then of course, Slash himself will be performing at every date, alongside his Orgy of the Damned Blues Band, which includes guitarist/vocalist Tash Neal. 

The name S.E.R.P.E.N.T. is reportedly an anagram for ‘Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance’ and a portion of the proceeds from every ticket sold will go towards supporting a host of charities, including The Equal Justice Initiative, Know Your Rights Camp, The Greenlining Institute, and War Child.

“The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. tour is a celebration of blues and rock ‘n’ roll music, and a celebration of unity and togetherness in these uncertain and divisive times,” says Slash. 

“S.E.R.P.E.N.T is a vehicle to help support and uplift people and communities suffering from the injustices of racism and equal rights violations, as well as to support children adversely affected by war and poverty across the world. 

“So, we are contributing a portion of every ticket and VIP package sold from the tour to those ends. S.E.R.P.E.N.T. will also provide an environment where folks can get together for a day of great music and hang out and have a good time.”

Slash debuted the first single from Orgy of the Damned – a romping take on Howlin' Wolf’s Killing Floor, featuring AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson and harmonica from Steven Tyler – alongside the album announcement last week.

It came accompanied by a video clip in which Slash changed up his usual Gibson Les Paul for an ES-335. The rest of the album reportedly features plenty of new company, too, with guest slots from Gary Clark Jr., Billy Gibbons, Demi Lovato, Beth Hart, and Paul Rodgers.

For more information, on the festival dates, head to the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. site.

Slash, Billy Gibbons and Myles Kennedy were three of the guest stars at Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, NC this past weekend (December 9) – and one of the set highlights was their collective cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man.

Kennedy joined mainly on rhythm and vocal duties, leaving the three electric guitar icons – Slash, Gibbons and Haynes – to divvy up lead duties throughout the nine-minute performance.

It’s a great take on the Skynyrd classic, reprising the guitarists’ Gary Rossington tribute from this year's CMT Awards. This time round it lacks Paul Rodgers, but benefits from Kennedy and Haynes’ alternating vocals.

The December iteration is also a little more relaxed and off-the-cuff to our ears, and one of the things that really stands out here is that all of the soloists are performing the same track using a Gibson Les Paul, yet they all sound unique.

Gibbons gets the nod from Haynes to take the first solo pass [around 2:40], melding the track’s epic Rossington bends with his own shuffling rhythms and that distinctive, almost metallic ‘Top tone. 

He then takes a backseat and seems to find his pocket with some almost percussive rhythm playing, pulling out mutes and chucks to make space for the three other guitarists (and keyboardist) in the mix.

Next, Slash gets a run – and the biggest lead section – at around 4:50, hitching his LP to its trademark 45 degree solo position and mixing in a generous handful of his rapid pick 'n' bend technique, bringing a little LA scuzz to the Southern classic. 

He’s impeded somewhat by losing a string [you can see it’s hanging off at about 6:13], but persists nonetheless before handing the lead to Haynes.

Now it should be said that music is not a competition and obviously you can’t win a jam, but... supposing for a minute that it is a competition and you can win a jam: we’d give the prize to Haynes. 

The Gov't Mule man’s section is comparatively short-lived, but his tone is just riding the edge of clean and crunch and you can hear the pick digging into the strings. He weaves in some killer volume control work, riding notes in and out, but also heads down the lower-end, finding some new spaces to play in, as the solo sections conclude.

Elsewhere in the set, Haynes, Slash and Kennedy performed a stomping version of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long [above] and the Bob Dylan/GN’R favorite Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, while Gibbons delivered ZZ Top hits like Jesus Just Left Chicago and Sharp Dressed Man.

When it comes to onstage collaborations, the Gov't Mule man has clearly been busy – it was only last week that footage emerged of Haynes performing an epic cover of Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer with J Mascis.

Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes brought the house down when he joined J Mascis onstage for Saturday night’s set at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, New York.

Dinosaur Jr. had just covered the Stooges’ No Fun with Kurt Vile guesting when Haynes and his Gibson Les Paul took to the stage for a trio of tracks to close out the evening, first playing the Cure’s Just Like Heaven, Forget the Swan from the 1985 Dinosaur Jr. debut album Dinosaur, and bringing proceedings to a close with an epic cover of Neil Young’s Cortez the Killer. 

Fan-shot footage captured all the action, with various videos on YouTube documenting what was a special evening in the Big Apple and further proof that the greats can play with anyone, in any style. 

Haynes looked right at home up there, and afterwards he posted a clip to his Instagram account to say he had “a great time” jamming with Mascis and his Dinosaur Jr. bandmates, bassist/vocalist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph.

There can be few guitarists with a better contacts book than Mascis. He has invited the likes of Richard Ayoade, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields and Debbie Googe, Blur’s Graham Coxon, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and Lee Ranaldo onstage to help the alt-rock trailblazers celebrate 30 years of landmark release Where You Been.

But maybe Haynes could match Mascis for his convening powers, with his all-star annual Christmas Jam scheduled for this coming Saturday, December 9, at the ExploreAshville.com Arena, Asheville, NC.

Slash and Myles Kennedy will be there. It wouldn’t be an all-star jam without Billy F. Gibbons. Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening and Clutch will be there, too, as will Karina Rykman and American Babies featuring Tom Hamilton, Jim Hamilton and Joe Russo.

Dinosaur Jr’s tour continues. Good luck getting tickets. Even when playing multiple nights at the same venue, they have sold out – though there are still some available for January’s run, starting at Revolution Hall in Portland, OR.

The band will perform Where You Been in its entirety, then some choice cuts and a few covers for good measure. And there are sure to be more surprise guests. See Dinosaur Jr. for dates and details.

Mascis recently sat down with Guitar World to talk about the 10 guitarists who shaped his sound, from Ron Asheton and Greg Sage to Tony Iommi and Paul Kossoff. Despite Dinosaur Jr’s influence, he admits that he doesn’t think about all that stuff. This whole enterprise is just his hobby, his job, and the search for new sounds.

“It’s great if somebody likes my playing, but I never think about it,” he said. “I have my heroes, but I don't know if anyone sets out to be Steve Vai. I just like making sounds. This isn't just my job; it's my main hobby. And now, there’s like a million pedals and all sorts of gear that always comes out.

“So, I don't know about being a hero or any of that. I'm focused on searching for that ultimate sound. I haven't gotten there yet, but it's never boring looking.”

Back in late 2021, when Gov’t Mule released the Grammy-nominated Heavy Load Blues, their first proper all-blues album, they actually had another completely different album already gassed up, greased up and ready to hit the streets. Peace… Like a River, the previously under-wraps album, was recorded at the same time as Heavy Load Blues, with the band working on tracks for that album by day, then switching gear to work on the bluesier disc at night.

As Warren Haynes recounts, the band took a novel approach to the already unusual concept of recording two albums at once: “We set up two sets of gear in two studios, keeping everything live for the blues album, which was done in a small studio, adjacent to the main studio where Peace was laid down. Absolutely no gear was shared between the two projects – guitars, amps, you name it – everything was kept separate to maintain the two distinct sounds and feels.”

The resulting album is an ambitious, stylistically diverse record that covers many bases, with some surprising guest vocals by Billy Gibbons and Billy Bob Thornton thrown into the mix. Given that it has been sitting in the can for quite a while, Haynes is still happy with the final result and wouldn’t change a thing, even with the benefit of hindsight. 

“I’m very happy with it,” he says. “In fact, I’m probably happier with this record than anything we’ve ever done. I was really pleased with the material I’d written during lockdown; that was one of the few good things that came out of that whole situation – I had so much time to write.

“I felt really good about the songs, having had so much time to work on them and refine things. I think everybody, regardless of whether they were musicians or whatever, was faced with the same dilemma: how to make the best of a bad situation.”

Haynes is looking forward to taking the album out on the road with Gov’t Mule, and also plans to do a few of their legendary Dark Side of the Mule shows for the final time in 2023. 

“Yeah, we’ll spend a couple of days running down the set, more from a show production point of view as we’ll have a few extra musicians with us on stage,” he says. “We’ll kick off with a Mule set and then we’ll gradually morph into the Pink Floyd stuff. It should be a really interesting show.”

You’ve said you had to change your usual method of working for the new album, as you’d normally try out songs live before recording. Was the change in modus operandi a positive thing?

“It meant a lot more rehearsal on the front end. We spent about eight days in the studio just rehearsing and prepping the songs before we ever started rolling tape. It was cool, although I wouldn’t want to do every record that way. 

“It felt so good to be back together in the studio, working on new material, that we just kind of took a slower pace in the beginning to get back up to speed, but it really felt great to be back together in that environment. Everybody was just so happy to be back in a creative mode, and we spent a lot more time in the studio than we normally would.”

With you having recorded it so long ago, have you been building up a bunch of new songs for the next album? 

“I tend to go in phases; it’s a bit like a sine wave. [Laughs] There can be extended periods where I don’t write very much – it’s not always in sync with the album cycle, but I guess, in most cases it kinda works out that way. 

“There were a lot of songs that were written for this album that we didn’t record, so I look forward to dusting them off in the future, and I’ve also just recently started to write a lot again, but I did go several months without writing anything once we finished recording this album.” 

Most of your new songs tend to stretch out, so that the album is relatively long by modern standards. Do you prefer to have the luxury of space to be able to stretch out, musically?

“We’ve always gravitated to longer songs and stretching out, especially live, where they tend to grow even more. Improvisation is a huge part of what we do. But also, from an arrangement standpoint, I think that is something that’s missing from most of today’s music – songs with detailed arrangements and a lot of moving parts. 

“I don’t know if you could get away with that in the mainstream world these days. We’re trying to bring it back in our own way because, I suppose, it’s a big part of what we love. A lot of the songs on this album have seven or eight different sections, as opposed to the normal two or three these days.”

As you said, there are a lot of parts to most of the songs. Did you know how the songs would work out ahead of time, or did the arrangements evolve out of working with the band?

“Probably half and half. Sometimes I envision the songs having a lot of moving parts from the very beginning, but sometimes it just feels natural as we’re starting to work the songs up as a band. I think it’s a product of the things that influenced me, songs like [Kansas’] Carry On Wayward Son or even [Queen’s] Bohemian Rhapsody.

“Those were real complex songs that you’d hear on the radio all the time. It was a challenge for the listener, in a good way, and I think people were up for that challenge. As long as you maintain the listener’s interest, it’s a good thing, but in today’s world, where people’s attention spans are really short, why not challenge that a little bit?” 

We’re in an age where everything is constantly being dumbed down and reduced to the minimum.

“Yeah, and the alternative to doing what we’re doing is for songs to get shorter and shorter and simpler and simpler, to where eventually everything is just a soundbite, and I really hate that idea.”

With the addition of the five songs on the bonus EP, Time of the Signs, there was enough material for a whole double album. Was that ever a possibility?

“We always wind up releasing everything we finish. Our fans really like the deluxe versions of whatever we put out; we actually sell more of the deluxe versions than the standard versions. So in that way it kind of is actually a double album, with a shorter version available for people who don’t want all the excess. 

“Our fans love as much as they can get, I think, and I’m that kind of music fan. I’d be the same way too, buying someone else’s record – if it was someone I really liked. I’d want as much of their music as possible.”

It’s a double album by stealth.

“Yeah. [Laughs] Even the standard CD runs at about 80 minutes.”

It’s interesting that, although there are a lot of guitar parts, layers and textures, there’s always space for the guitar to breathe. Is that something you’re consciously striving for?

“We always record live, so the interplay among the band is the most important factor; the conversational aspect of the way we play is what we’re trying to capture. That interplay is more important for me than for me to try to take up a bunch of space or even play some acrobatic solo. I much prefer the call and response that takes place naturally when we play together.”

You always seem to have the song as the primary focus, so that solos serve the song and can be fairly minimal.

“Every time we go into the studio I tell myself I want to do more overdubbing and experimenting with different solos and stuff, but I always end up going with the solos that I do live in the take, because it’s more inspired, I think, to play according to what I’m hearing the other guys play. 

“It’s much more gratifying to me than playing to an existing track. If it feels good, we wind up just keeping it, and through the years I’ve figured out that that’s the most representative way to capture what it is we do in that live moment.”

Made My Peace is redolent of the Beatles, isn’t it?

“Absolutely, yeah. It has more of a Beatles and John Lennon influence than anything we’ve ever recorded, and I even sensed that being the case while I was writing it. I double-tracked the vocal in the same way Lennon did, which was a deliberate nod to the influence, but the orchestration also wears that influence, and even the slide solo pays a subtle homage to George Harrison. 

“The arrangement is a little ambitious in the way it goes into all those different sections; most of those sections are definitely very Beatles-influenced. We wouldn’t normally go that far down that road.”

There’s quite a funk feel to Peace I Need and Head Full of Thunder.

“I feel like we’re always mixing influences and genres. These are very much rock songs with a lot of moving parts that each carry their own influences. The main riff for Peace was written just before rehearsal, but I didn’t know what everybody else was going to play. When we worked it up everybody brought things to it that took it to a whole different place.”

What were the main guitars and amps you used for the album?

“I used three different non-reverse Firebirds that have three P-90s in them, and a couple of non-reverse Firebirds with Burstbuckers. The guitar I used most, though, was my signature Les Paul. I also used a ’59 Les Paul on a couple of songs. I have a Custom Shop blonde ES-335 that saw a lot of action on this record. I also recently got a new Custom Shop 335 with P-90s that made its way onto a couple of songs. 

“There was some Epiphone Casino and an Epiphone 12-string here and there. I also played a Flying V on Blue Blue Wind on the bonus EP, and a D’Angelico Excel on The River Only Flows One Way for the jazzy stuff. For acoustics, I used a 1970 Gibson Hummingbird, a J-200 and a Gibson 12-string that belonged to [original Gov’t Mule bassist] Allen Woody. 

“The amps were mostly Homestead or the Diaz blended in with an Alessandro small recording amp. Soldanos, Marshalls and a Vox AC30 also appeared here and there, but not as much as on previous albums.”

Billy Bob Thornton adds vocals to The River Only Flows One Way. How does something like that work? Do you have a specific sound and feel you’re looking for, or do you just ask him to go with what he feels and see how it turns out?

“When I wrote that song, I knew I wanted the verses to be a kind of spoken-word, demented beat poetry, and I knew I didn’t want it to be my voice there. When I thought about Billy Bob, it seemed like a perfect fit.”

And there’s quite a Doors vibe on After the Storm. 

“Yeah, there is definitely a strong Doors feel on that one; in fact, I used a Robby Krieger Les Paul for the guitar solo. It seemed to make sense. This was the last song written for the record – it was actually written in the studio. 

“Danny [Louis, keyboards/guitar] and Matt [Abts, drums] were in the cutting room jamming on what turned out to be the basic track for this song; I was listening in the control room, and I just started writing lyrics down that were inspired by what I was hearing. 

“When they took a break I said, ‘Let’s turn this into a song,’ and the whole thing came together really quickly. The Doors feel grew organically from what they came up with in the first place.”

You take a lot of guitars into the studio. How do you decide what to use for a given track?

“The Firebirds are normally tuned down a half-step, so if I’m in Eb or Ab, that’ll normally be a Firebird to get a twangier sound. The song usually cries out for a certain type of sound; sometimes we’ll try it one way with a guitar, and if we don’t like it, we’ll experiment a bit, but usually the one that cries out to be played is the one that winds up on the record.”

 What keeps everything fresh for you after so long on the road?

“We have such a large catalog of music that we can draw from at any time. The fact that we have such a big setlist – so we can do different songs every night – really helps to keep me sane! We’ll play up to 200 songs over the course of a tour, and that keeps all of us from going nuts. It would drive me crazy to play the same songs every night.”

• Peace... Like a River is out now Fantasy.

Warren Haynes’ electric guitar allegiances lean heavily in favor of Gibson, with his current Gov’t Mule axe arsenal comprising an ES-335, a couple of Firebirds and a few Les Pauls, just to name a few.

But, as he revealed in a recent interview with Premier Guitar, one of Haynes’ most cherished guitars of the bunch is a Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul – a model that, apparently, isn’t even “legally” allowed to be called a Les Paul at all.

The guitar in question, a Tobacco Sunburst example, was headed for the scrapheap due to manufacturing issues when Haynes, on the hunt for such an instrument, visited the Gibson Custom Shop for a spot of guitar hunting.

As the story goes, the guitar was hanging in the office of Rick Gembar – who formerly ran the Custom Shop – and had been rendered unsellable owing to the fact two extra screwholes had been drilled into the guitar adjacent to the neck humbucker. As such, it was exiled as a piece of wall art.

“Years, years, years ago, I went to the Gibson Custom Shop and said that I was looking for a Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul,” Haynes recalled. “They only had a few at the Custom Shop at that time, and I played three or however many they had.”

Alas, “none of them had that magic” that Haynes was searching for, and so Gembar directed the search towards the forgotten Les Paul hanging from his office wall – a guitar that was then without tuners, pickups or hardware.

“My friend Rick Gembar, who was running the Gibson Custom Shop at that time, said, ‘Well, I want you to get one that you love,’” he went on. “And he just happened to remember this guitar that had been hanging on the wall in his office. 

“He said, ‘What about that one hanging on my wall?’ And they said, ‘Oh, well, it's flawed, we can't sell it.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, there's two extra screw holes in it where somebody put screw holes in the wrong place.’ 

“So they were just gonna scrap it, so it's been sitting on his wall for like two years or something. It had no tuners, no pickups, no electronics. It was just wood.”

Shortly after, the Les Paul was set up and given to Haynes to try, which in turn swiftly brought about an end to the Allman Brothers Band guitarist's stuttering six-string search.

“We sat around and tried some other guitars, and they brought it out,” he went on. “And it sounded better than any of the guitars that I had been playing. And I was like, ‘Can I have this one?’ And they're like, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’”

According to Haynes, the drill discrepancies meant “legally, they couldn’t call it a Les Paul”, and as such the guitar had been destined for the garbage. Despite its quirks, though, it became his “favorite” guitar from that era.

“For me, for all the guitars that I had from that time period, this is my favorite one. And had that not occurred, this guitar would probably be in the garbage somewhere. I mean, it's a really cool guitar all the way around, but I play slide on it a lot.”

Dolly Parton has shared details of her upcoming rock album – aptly titled Rockstar – for which she’s recruited a suite of high-profile guitar stars.

Parton’s out-and-out rock album has been hotly anticipated ever since the country icon confirmed her plans to release a rock ‘n’ roll LP in a bid to “earn her keep” as a newly anointed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

What we didn’t know, though, was just how monumental the studio record would be, with Parton now revealing Rockstar’s mega 30-track setlist, as well as the names of those that were recruited for the outing.

The roles of John 5 and Nikki Sixx were already confirmed, but now Parton has revealed Peter Frampton, Richie Sambora, Warren Haynes, Melissa Etheridge, Sting, Steven Tyler and Steve Perry will also be involved in proceedings.

Joining the above are Brandi Carlile, Ann Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Joan Jett, Mick Fleetwood, and Stevie Nicks, as well as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Fogerty.

The late Gary Rossington will also feature on Rockstar, with the Lynyrd Skynyrd legend set to feature on a cover of the band’s 1973 hit, Free Bird.

A handful of other pop icons and vocalists will be joining the fray, with Parton tapping P!nk, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Elton John, Emmylou Harris and many more to feature on Rockstar.

This mammoth collection of A-list musicians will be spread out across Rockstar’s generous tracklist: the two Beatles will feature on a cover of Let It Be, Frampton will play on a rendition of his own Baby, I Love Your Way, and Haynes will feature on a cover of I Want You Back.

Likewise, Sambora will perform on the album’s original title track, while Stapleton will be heard on a version of Night Moves. From a non-guitar perspective, more eyebrow-raising tracks include a cover of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction featuring P!nk and Brandi Carlile, and a rendition of Stairway to Heaven with Lizzo and Sasha Flute.

The full tracklist – along with the names of each guest star and their respective spots – can be found below.

1. Rockstar (special guest Richie Sambora)
2. World on Fire
3. Every Breath You Take (feat. Sting)
4. Open Arms (feat. Steve Perry)
5. Magic Man (feat. Ann Wilson with special guest Howard Leese)
6. Long As I Can See The Light (feat. John Fogerty)
7. Either Or (feat. Kid Rock)
8. I Want You Back (feat. Steven Tyler with special guest Warren Haynes)
9. What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You (feat. Stevie Nicks with special guest Waddy Wachtel)
10. Purple Rain
11. Baby, I Love Your Way (feat. Peter Frampton)
12. I Hate Myself For Loving You (feat. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts)
13. Night Moves (feat. Chris Stapleton)
14. Wrecking Ball (feat. Miley Cyrus)
15. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (feat. P!nk & Brandi Carlile)
16. Keep On Loving You (feat. Kevin Cronin)
17. Heart Of Glass (feat. Debbie Harry)
18. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (feat. Elton John)
19. Tried To Rock And Roll Me (feat. Melissa Etheridge)
20. Stairway To Heaven (feat. Lizzo & Sasha Flute)
21. We Are The Champions
22. Bygones (feat. Rob Halford with special guests Nikki Sixx & John 5)
23. My Blue Tears (feat. Simon Le Bon)
24. What’s Up? (feat. Linda Perry)
25. You’re No Good (feat. Emmylou Harris & Sheryl Crow)
26. Heartbreaker (feat. Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)
27. Bittersweet (feat. Michael McDonald) 
28. I Dreamed About Elvis (feat. Ronnie McDowell with special guest The Jordanaires)
29. Let It Be (feat. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr with special guests Peter Frampton & Mick Fleetwood)
30. Free Bird (feat. Ronnie Van Zant with special guests Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle and The Artimus Pyle Band)

“I’m so excited to finally present my first rock 'n' roll album, Rockstar,” Parton commented. “I am very honored and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers and musicians of all time and to be able to sing all the iconic songs throughout the album was a joy beyond measure. I hope everybody enjoys the album as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together.”

Rockstar's lead single, an original titled World on Fire, will drop tomorrow (May 11), with the album itself set to arrive on November 17.

Parton's rock renaissance kicked off when she was nominated – and later inducted, despite her attempts to withdraw – into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Soon after, the country legend flexed her heavy chops during the show's ceremony, wielding a $99 mini guitar for an original track, Rockin'.

• Rockstar is available to preorder now.

An A-list ensemble of electric guitar heroes and music heavyweights joined forces at last night’s CMT Music Awards show to pay tribute to the late Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist, Gary Rossington.

As reported late last week, the CMT Rossington tribute was headed up by Slash, Warren Haynes and Billy Gibbons, who sought to emulate the Southern rock outfit’s triple entente of six-string action with the help of a handful of guest vocalists as they performed a medley of the band’s biggest hits.

Paul Rodgers, Cody Johnson, LeAnn Rimes and Wynonna Judd assumed vocal duties, with longtime Rolling Stones touring keysman Chuck Leavell also making an appearance.

Since 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the band’s debut album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), Slash and co kicked off with a track from the 1973 effort, Simple Man, for which Johnson and Rodgers shared lead vocal duties. 

Layering up the emotive progressions of the verses, the Gibson Les Paul-wielding duo of Slash and Haynes took turns to embellish proceedings with plenty of pentatonic licks in between vocal lines, with Gibbons getting involved with some tasty turnarounds of his own via the fretboard of his Red Devil Fender Stratocaster as the cover reached its peak.

Towards the end of their two-minute take of Simple Man, Haynes can be seen switching from his own Les Paul to a red Fender Stratocaster – a more apt sonic choice for the ensemble’s second Skynyrd track, Sweet Home Alabama, for which the Allman Brothers star took the lead.

Slash’s humbuckers proved a potent partner to Haynes and Gibbons’ single-coil antics, instilling the twangy track with plenty of beefy licks before the trio were each given eight bars to let loose on a quick-fire guitar solo.

Members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd family were in attendance for the show, including Rossington’s wife and band backing singer Dale Krantz Rossington. Some of Skynyrd’s touring operation was also present, including singer Johnny Van Zant.

Rossington passed away early last month at the age of 71. His passing prompted an outpouring of tributes from a huge range of musicians and guitarists.

The band served up their own tribute to Skynyrd's founding guitarist with a touching rendition of Tuesday's Gone during their first performance after Rossington's passing.

Elsewhere on the CMT Music Awards show bill, Gary Clark Jr. paid tribute to blues guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan with a blazing cover of The House Is Rockin’ from the fretboard of what looked like a charcoal flame burst Gibson ES model.

The forthcoming CMT Awards will pay tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington with a live performance featuring Billy Gibbons, Slash and Warren Haynes, among a host of other rock and country music talent. 

The last of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s founding members, Rossington passed away earlier this month (March 5). The 2023 CMT Awards show will take place on April 2 and will take time to celebrate the life of the guitarist in the year that marks the 50th anniversary of ’Skynyrd’s first album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd).

As you’d hope, Gibbons, Slash and Haynes will handle electric guitar duties for the tribute. Vocals will be provided by former Free vocalist Paul Rodgers and country star Cody Wilson. 

Elsewhere, the lineup features Rolling Stones (and former Allman Brothers Band) touring member Chuck Leavell sitting in on keys, while backing vocals will come from the somewhat over-qualified pairing of LeAnn Rimes and Wynonna Judd –performing here as ‘The Honkettes’.

Other members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd family will be attending the show, including Rossington’s wife and band backing singer Dale Krantz Rossington, plus vocalist Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Rickey Medlocke.

Rossington passed away aged 71 on March 5 and his death drew tributes from a huge range of guitarists and other musicians, many of whom had crossed paths with the ’Skynyrd legend across his 50 year career. 

His cause of death has not been revealed but the guitarist had suffered with ill health and recurring heart problems across recent years. On March 12, Lynyrd Skynyrd paid their own tribute to Rossington during a performance of Tuesday’s Gone at their first show since his passing,

The 2023 CMT Awards will be hosted in Austin, TX and broadcast live via CBS at 8pm ET / 11pm PT. For more information, head over to CMT.

Ann Wilson is one of the premier hard-rock vocalists of all time. Smashing boundaries with longstanding Seattle outfit Heart, she's enjoyed a decades-long career resulting in more than 35 million albums sold and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Wilson recorded much of her new solo album, Fierce Bliss, at Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals in Sheffield, Alabama, and enlisted the company of a trio of guitar powerhouses for good measure: co-producer Tom Bukovac, Warren Haynes and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Haynes, who last worked with Wilson on her Immortal solo release, returns for Fierce Bliss, bringing along Gov’t Mule for a pair of original songs: Gladiator and Angel's Blues. 

Shepherd accompanies Wilson on two covers: a monstrous version of the Robin Trower classic, Bridge of Sighs, and an ambitious take on the Eurythmics’ hit, Missionary Man, the latter of which has Wilson backed by a 40-person gospel choir. 

An ethereal duet version of Queen classic Love of My Life with Vince Gill is also featured on the album, as well as fantasy art by Roger Dean, renowned for his work designing Yes's sleeve artwork.

We spoke with Ann Wilson about Fierce Bliss, working with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Warren Haynes and her favorite memories of Heart.

Was it your desire to create a guitar-driven album?

“Yeah, that’s what I’m comfortable with and what speaks to me. I was blessed to get into the company of Tom Bukovac, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Warren Haynes. They’re great players who are also great humans. After we got vaccinated, we all put on masks and went to Muscle Shoals, where Tom had put together this band with Tony Lucido on bass and Sean Lane on drums.”

What was it like recording at Muscle Shoals?

“I think it’s every musician’s dream to work there. Treading in the footprint of the gods and goddesses. The place is unassuming, small, kind of funky and down-home. It’s a real old-school studio with no big luxuries. The energy of that place was very strong.”

Let’s talk about a few tracks from Fierce Bliss, starting with Greed. What was your vision for that track?

“The conceptualizing for Greed was done beforehand because I already knew what I wanted to sing about and what kind of mood I wanted be in when I sang it. I had all the lyrics written down in my notebook and when I got together with [Wilson's backing band] The Amazing Dawgs, I showed them to Tom and he had just the thing for it.”

Did the track Blackbird have its roots in the pandemic lockdown?

“Yeah, that was a pure pandemic lockdown song from being stuck here in the house for over a year. I live near a big river and was looking out the window at the seabirds and their big wing spans. They were so free and weren’t affected at all by this lockdown. They could go wherever they wanted to go, and I felt envious and started talking to them. Pretty soon I was writing it all down.”

What inspired you to do a cover of Bridge of Sighs? 

“I've always wanted to do that song ever since Robin Trower [released it]. Kenny Wayne Shepherd and I had an idea to do something together. So, we started making lists of songs to do and one of them was Bridge of Sighs. Kenny is a whole generation younger than me, so for him, doing a song like Bridge of Sighs was like returning to his rock roots, and he really lived up to it.”

It was an interesting choice to also do a cover of Eurythmics’ Missionary Man.

“I'm a person who doesn't apply eras to songs, especially if it's a good song that speaks. I thought Missionary Man was relevant with what’s going on in our country today with the left and the right. One side has this dogmatic base, and the other side doesn't. I wanted to make the song into a mega church production, so we got a forty-person gospel choir and just blew it up.”

What made you decide to do a reimagined duet version of Queen’s Love of My Life?

“I've always loved Queen and was listening to A Night at The Opera one day when that song came on. I knew it was sweet song, even with the heavy, baroque, chamber music treatment Queen gave to it, but I wanted to take the song out of that element and lay it out organically and see what it was. 

“That’s when I decided I wanted to do it as a duet with a man. My voice is rock and raspy, so I wanted the man to be an angel and there was only one choice, and that was Vince Gill.”

How did Warren Haynes become involved on Fierce Bliss?

“Warren had invited me to sit in with Gov’t Mule back in 2017 at Lockn' Festival, and we really hit it off. Warren came in and played on my last solo album, Immortal, and when it was time to do this album he had this idea of making an epic song that goes to all these different places. 

“He sent me a demo of him and Mule playing this thing that eventually became Gladiator. I went up to Connecticut to where Mule was recording. They had taken out two rooms because they were making two albums at once: a blues album and a rock/jam band album. The first day we went into the rock room and did Gladiator, and the second day we went into the blues room and did Angel's Blues.”

This is the 45th anniversary of Heart’s Magazine and Little Queen albums, both released around the same time the band was having legal issues with Mushroom Records. When you look back on that era of the band, what thoughts come to mind?

“The whole convoluted legal mess that happened back then was too bad. We had a concept for Magazine that was really good, but we didn't have enough time to finish it before all these legalities set in. 

“We never got to create that piece of art the way we wanted to because our timing was thrown off. We recovered with Little Queen, but for a time it was high drama and really scary, because it was threatening to take us out of the studio altogether.”

Of all the highlights of your career what stands out to you as most memorable?

“That's almost an impossible question to answer because there have been so many super-highs. I think being inducted into the Rock Hall was memorable, for sure. Then there are the various achievements along the way and some of the shows when everything was clicking. 

“I remember one year we did a four-night run in Seattle for New Year's Eve when the place just sort of levitated. Then there was an experience at a Texxas Jam in the middle of summer. It was super-hot and people were fainting and being hosed down. We were on stage and right as we started playing Mistral Wind, a breeze came up and the sky opened up and cooled everyone off.”

What excites you the most about the new album and this next phase of your career?

“I'm looking forward to the small things as we go, like getting back on stage again with The Amazing Dawgs. It's fulfilling to me because it's creative and not mechanical. Each night is different, and each is a thrill.”

• Fierce Bliss arrives April 29 via Silver Linings Music.

You could be excused for feeling surprised at the news that Gov’t Mule’s Heavy Load Blues is Warren Haynes’ first proper all-blues album. The music has been at the heart of Haynes’ playing – not only since Gov’t Mule’s 1995 self-titled debut, but since he burst onto the international scene with the Allman Brothers Band’s 1989 comeback album, Seven Turns, and established himself as one of the great guitar heroes of the last quarter-century.

But Heavy Load Blues is indeed the first time that Haynes has released a complete collection of blues songs, split evenly between originals and tunes by Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells and other blues luminaries.

“I’ve been thinking about doing an album like this for a very long time, but I was not sure if it would be a solo project or a Mule record,” Haynes says. “I’m a bit surprised, too, that it’s taken this long, but what better time than now after the pandemic?”

Gov’t Mule was started by Haynes, bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts as an outlet for Haynes and Woody to bust out of their day gigs in the Allman Brothers Band and stretch the boundaries of music. They were paying tribute to power trios like Cream, Mountain and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with material often rooted in the blues but ready to blast off in any direction.

It’s the template the band has retained for 26 years, through Woody’s 2000 death and the transformation from trio to quartet with the addition of keyboardist/second guitarist Danny Louis. Jorgen Carlsson has been the band’s bassist since 2008. 

Through all those changes and developments, the band’s essential approach has remained steady, as evidenced by the group’s previous studio album, 2017’s ambitious Revolution Come Revolution Go.

When Haynes’ wife and manager Stefani Scamardo suggested that the time was right to record the blues album they had long discussed, Haynes was excited but also hesitant for one simple reason: he had been extremely productive writing songs during the pandemic-induced time off the road.

“I was home more than I’ve been since I was 15 and consequently did more writing than I’ve done in decades,” he says. “There were a lot of negatives about that time, but that was one of the positives. So I thought that it would be a lot of fun but also that I’d written all this new music, and really wanted to record it as well.”

Haynes came up with an ambitious solution, the kind that comes naturally to him: recording two albums simultaneously.

“Our mission became finding a place where we can set up two entirely different setups and record two records at the same time,” Haynes says. “And that’s what we did.” The second album will be out in 2022. 

You actually cut two albums at once, which is pretty amazing. Tell me about that process.

“The other album is what I consider the followup to Revolution Come Revolution Go – the next proper Mule album. We did not record back-to-back albums; we recorded both at the same time. We were set up in two different rooms. 

“In the big room, we had all our Gov’t Mule toys. And there was a much smaller adjoining room, with low ceilings, with an entirely different setup: small drum kit, a bunch of little amplifiers, and no headphones. And we just played live like we were in a little club in there. 

“We would go in early in the day and record new songs all day. Then somewhere around dinnertime, we would take a break and over the next couple hours, move over to the blues room and start playing blues for the late night. Same routine every day.”

Did you even have to think about whether the blues album should be cut late at night?

“No. It was kind of obvious. Johnny Winter said that Muddy Waters said that Hard Again was his favorite recording experience because Johnny let him record late at night. He said it’s not natural to play the blues in the middle of the day, and I tend to agree.

“Also, there was something really cool about the fact that we would go in and record these Gov’t Mule songs all day that were much more complex or structured, and then at the end of the day we could stop thinking and just play blues. It was like taking off ankle weights. We could step away and kind of get lost in the other world for a while.”

The album has a real vintage feel. Were you aiming to evoke a specific sound or era?

“It was important that the two records sound completely different from each other. We wanted Heavy Load Blues to sound [the way] those old records – cut between about 1955 and 1975 – sound in our heads. Since we were set up completely live, with even vocals going down on the track, everything’s bleeding into every microphone, with no way of separating one instrument from another. 

“And we were literally right on top of each other, like being on a small stage, except facing each other. Matt had a really small drum kit, the organ was playing through an Ampeg B-15. I had all these old little amps set up and I could just plug into one or more; I often had one in the room with us and two out in the big room being mic’d far away.”

The first song, Blues Before Sunrise, is not the Albert King tune, but an obscure Elmore James song. 

“That caught me off guard! I was looking for an Elmore song that I hadn’t done before. When you’re dealing with Elmore, it’s really about the lyric because the songs are so similar to each other, but this also had a strange feel in the way the vocal melody fits in with the chord progression. It sounds like it has an extra bar.” 

And the sound is so authentic. What are you playing?

“A Danelectro Pro 1 through a Supro, and maybe one or two other amps. The vocal is coming through an amp as well. I had two vocals set up: a bullet mic going through a Fender Champ, and a regular microphone going through an amp that wasn’t quite as dirty. We could also blend the clean sound in or not. It was all about capturing an inspirational vibe.” 

Love Is a Mean Old World and Hole in My Soul are both originals based around cool riffs. Did they start there, or did you add them at the end to complete the song?

“The horn riff that opens Hole in My Soul was something that was in my head, and I just sang it into my phone to capture it. The song was separate, and at some point I realized they go together. I wrote Love Is a Mean Old World with Ray Sisk and Rick Huckabee about two years ago, and it just has a vibe about it... it’s kind of traditional blues – and kind of not.”

It’s nice to hear you bring back If Heartaches Were Nickels, which you wrote a long time ago when you were making publishing tapes to sell to others, and 

“Joe Bonamassa ended up recording it on an early album [2000’s A New Day Yesterday]. I wrote that in ’86 or ’87. I recorded some blues demos, which is where Tom Dowd heard it and played it for Joe Bonamassa. And then Joe wound up recording it. There was a demo of Before the Bullets Fly from that same session, and Gregg [Allman] ended up recording that.”

You’ve played Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home a lot, but this is your first recording of it.

“Yeah, that’s the only one that we wanted to include that we played live in the past, and mostly because we’ve kind of come up with our own arrangement that’s really cool. And we thought it would be good to at least give it a try and see what happens and if it turned out good, we would keep it, because we didn’t dwell on the blues stuff.       

“I had a big list of songs, which I tried to prioritize, but it changed all the time. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be half and half: seven covers and seven original songs.”

I love that you included Tom Waits’ Make It Rain. 

“Me too. I just love it. It was always kind of a priority because I love that tune and thought it would stand out and occupy its own unique space on the record, which it does.

“We had this kind of wild thing happen with the reverb tank while recording it. I have two Fender spring reverb tanks; one’s old and one’s new. Billy Gibbons gave me the new one when we toured together because the old ones are so problematic. 

“I was having an issue with the old one when we were on tour, and he was like, ‘Oh man, they made a really great reissue of that’ and he ordered one for himself and one for me and they shipped them out on the road. We utilized both of them throughout the project. 

“The old one was stable, but when we were recording Make It Rain all of a sudden, we get these noises, which I think were radio frequencies, that would set off the reverb, and it literally sounded like rain. 

“One of the first times it happened was the first time I say ‘make it rain’ – all of a sudden it cackles like a rainstorm. We’re all looking at each other and laughing; during the keeper take, it happened over and over, to the extent that we didn’t think we were going to be able to use the recording. We listened back and it just sounded like we were playing in a rainstorm. I was glad that we kept going!”

Did you also record the other album all live?

“Mostly. The biggest difference aside from the size of the rooms – the blues room has a much lower ceiling, and we were much closer together – and the gear itself is that I was using a monitor for vocals and also running it through an amp, so no headphones on the blues album. None of us wore headphones, which we did on the other album, which meant separation – and keeping a small amp near me and another one in a different room.” 

On a completely pragmatic level, what is the impact of wearing headphones?

“Whether you can overdub. If we were isolated and wearing headphones, if somebody played something they want to fix, they can. But on the blues stuff, you couldn’t punch it in because everything was in every mic. For example, because I was standing four feet from the drums, my voice was in all the drum mics. My voice is bleeding from the monitor into every track, so you either keep the track or redo it, but you’re not punching in a fix.”

Knowing you can’t fix something could make you more conservative. Is there any part of your brain that wants to go that way?

“No. I think it was more liberating than anything. It’s so much more fun to play without ’phones. It always takes me a couple of days to get used to wearing ’phones on any project, and I never like the way my guitar sounds in the headphones, so hearing it in the room like you’re used to hearing it live really is much more inspiring for me.”

If you don’t like the sound of your guitar in the headphones, then are you basically just relying on…

“Instinct. In the long run, if you’re not happy you can redo it, but in my recordings most of the solos are recorded live on the track. I go into a project hoping to do no overdubs. It rarely works out exactly like that, but I feel like all my best parts are when I’m playing live with the band.”

It’s interesting that the title track of the album is acoustic. What did you play on that?

“A Gibson L-1 ‘Robert Johnson guitar’. I think it’s 1929, and it’s not really loud – though it has a beautiful, authentic sound. Your instinct is to play it hard, but it doesn’t sound as good. That was the last thing we recorded, just me and Danny [Louis], who was playing a ’60s Gibson Hummingbird. I was playing and singing at the same time, so we were married to whatever happened.”

But you could always do another take! What’s the maximum number of takes you did on this?

“It was almost all three takes or less. None of it was laborious and a bunch of them were first takes, including Heavy Load. The vocal felt really good and natural and we did a couple more, but that was the best. I really liked the comfortability of the vocal, and since we’re keeping the live vocals, it’s just part of it.”

Elmore James probably didn’t have a choice but to do just a take or two, but you do. Is it hard to get yourself in that frame of mind?

“No. My experience has always been once you go past three takes, you’re trying to recreate what you’ve already done. If you don’t have it, it’s probably best to step away, take a break and come back to it. If we play a song at soundcheck and it sounds good, then we don’t play it that night because we feel like we just played it. 

“The blues record was kind of that way; let’s make sure and capture the early takes because they just wind up being better. And going back to what you said about the Elmore recordings, all those records had mistakes on them – or what somebody would consider a mistake. But if you removed those mistakes, would it be better or would it be worse?

“Howlin’ Wolf’s original I Asked Her for Water is such a strange recording. It’s got that weird atonal riff going on and it takes a minute or so before the band can agree on what the riff actually is. They’re all playing it differently, and for some people that might be off-putting, but I find it beautiful and perfect.”

Tell me about the National steel you played on Black Horizon. 

“I just got that from Derek [Trucks]. I called him because I was looking to buy an old National and I thought he might know of one for sale. He has an incredible one that was owned by Bukka White [acoustic blues great and B.B. King’s cousin and inspiration]. 

“And he said, ‘I’ve got two 1939’s that are kind of sister instruments. It would be cool if we both had one, so why don’t I just sell you mine?’ I was so moved by him parting with it, and it’s become a real prized possession. We’re looking forward to getting these two guitars back together! Every time we play together is a beautiful experience.”

What other guitars did you play on this album? 

“It was almost a different guitar for every song. I think I played 12 guitars on 14 tracks. They’re all mine, except I borrowed Allen Woody’s three-pickup SG Custom, which is late ’60s or early ’70s and is exactly like the one I had when I was a kid, to play on Snatch It Back and Hold It. And I borrowed a 1963 ES-345 from my friend Paul Zagler for Hole in My Soul.

“Wake Up Dead is a Custom Shop SG. Love Is a Mean Old World is a Plummer electric resonator guitar in open G. Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City is my Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul that was my Allman Brothers guitar. It was a factory second from Gibson. It was hanging on the wall because they couldn’t sell it because it had two extra screw holes that somebody put in the wrong place.

“I went to Gibson and played every tobacco sunburst guitar they had but none of them were speaking to me, and Rick Gembar said, ‘What about that one hanging on my wall that we can’t sell?’ It was just wood: no tuners, pickups, knobs, anything. They said, ‘Give us about 15 minutes and we’ll put it together.’ And it felt great!

“If Heartaches Were Nickels was my ’61 ES-335. Make It Rain is a ’50s or ’60s Danelectro parts guitar that almost looks like a non-reverse Firebird with lipstick pickups and a flame back. It’s a very strange one.

“Blues Before Sunrise is my other Danelectro, a ’60 Pro One. Asked Her for Water and Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home are both my ’59 Les Paul. (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt was the ’61 ES-335. The Savoy Brown tune, Street Corner Talking, is the Flying V that Grace Potter gave me. And You Know My Love is a sunburst Epiphone Riviera.”

What guitar amps did you run them all through?

“Mostly cool little vintage amps, including a tweed Gibson Vanguard, which is a ’59 or ’60; a tweed Gibson Skylark, which is the same vintage; an old Supro; a tweed Fender Pro and a little Alessandro recording amp that I use quite a bit. And then on a couple of things I used a ’90s Gibson Goldtone, which is really cool. That’s what I used with Dave Matthews at Central Park.”

• Heavy Load Blues is out now via Fantasy.

Ann Wilson, lead singer of Heart, has announced a new solo album, Fierce Bliss.

For Fierce Bliss, Wilson recruited a couple of killer guest electric guitar players, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Warren Haynes. Session guitar heavyweight Tom Bukovac, meanwhile, is featured throughout the album, which is set for an April 29 release via Silver Lining Music.

You can check out the music video for the record's first single and opening track, Greed, below.

With a springy, hugely satisfying riff, pillowy keyboard work, and a typically phenomenal vocal performance from Wilson, Greed's bound to please Heart fans of all eras.  

“Greed is that thing in our animal nature that makes us want more,” Wilson said of the tune in a press release. “Whether it be money, sex, power or ecstasy, it fires our craving. It happens with all of us. When you turn around and catch yourself making decisions because you want the money, or because you’re caught in the headlights of glory, well, those are greedy moments.

“I think people who claim to have made every decision from a root of pure idealism, and never done anything dark or greedy, [are] lying," she continued. "I think everybody who ventures into especially the music industry hoping for a career with big success, ends up making these Faustian bargains at some point even if only briefly. It’s an aggressive song and I think I write best when I’m angry.”

Fierce Bliss was produced by Wilson and Bukovac, and features Haynes on the songs Gladiator and Angel’s Blues, and Shepherd on Bridge of Sighs (a cover of the classic Robin Trower tune) and Missionary Man. Vince Gill, meanwhile, lends some vocals to a version of Queen's Love of My Life. 

Gladiator and Angel’s Blues – which were co-produced by Haynes – also feature Gov't Mule bass guitar man Jorgen Carlsson and drummer Matt Abts.  

You can check out Fierce Bliss's cover art and track list below, and preorder the album at Wilson's website.

Ann Wilson – Fierce Bliss:

1. Greed
2. Black Wing
3. Bridge of Sighs
4. Fighten for Life
5. Love of My Life (feat. Vince Gill)
6. Missionary Man
7. Gladiator
8. Forget Her
9. A Moment in Heaven
10. Angel’s Blues
11. As the World Turns

Johnny Winter, one of the all-time giants of blues guitar, passed away back in 2014.

Now, his brother, Edgar Winter, has assembled a jaw-dropping all-star cast to pay tribute to his brother's musical legacy in the form of a tribute album, Brother Johnny.

Featuring 17 tracks hand-picked by Edgar and producer Ross Hogarth – including two new Edgar Winter originals – the album is set for an April 15 release via Quarto Valley Records. 

About that all-star cast, though. For Brother Johnny, Edgar Winter recruited a simply astonishing guest list that includes Joe Bonamassa, Doyle Bramhall II, Ringo Starr, Derek Trucks, Robben Ford, Billy Gibbons, David Grissom, Joe Walsh, Phil X, Taylor Hawkins, Warren Haynes, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Keb' Mo', John McFee, Doug Rappoport, Bobby Rush, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Waddy Wachtel.

The album's first single – a cover of Chuck Berry's rock 'n' roll standard, Johnny B. Goode, featuring some red-hot electric guitar work from David Grissom and vocals from Winter and Joe Walsh – can be heard below. 

Edgar chose Johnny B. Goode due to its significance in his and Johnny's story. As children (Johnny was 14 or 15, according to Edgar) the Winters won their first talent contest in Beaumont, Texas with a cover of the Berry classic. The prize? A chance to make their own record, an opportunity that led to the recording of the duo's first single, the Johnny-penned School Day Blues.

Edgar was first approached about making a tribute album for his brother almost immediately following Johnny's passing on July 16, 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.

“Many people immediately started trying to convince me to do a Johnny Winter tribute album," he said. "But I was totally devastated, and the timing just didn't feel right to me. It wasn’t until after I completed the Rock ‘N’ Blues Fest, a tour we were meant to do together with our respective bands, that the idea of a tribute record started to take form.”

“I had naturally expected the whole thing to be cancelled," Edgar continued. "But much to my surprise, the promoters begged me to go on with the tour as planned, asking me to headline. The first night, after playing Frankenstein, I closed the show with Johnny B. Goode, Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo, and Jumpin' Jack Flash, dedicating the end of the set to Johnny.

“I had anticipated the tour to be very emotional, perhaps sad, and possibly difficult, but playing those songs turned out to be a great source of strength and comfort to me. Everyone on the tour was so kind and supportive, getting up to jam, and it became a kind of tradition. 

"There was such an overwhelming outpouring of love and respect for Johnny, I began to realize it was not just business people sensing an opportunity here; it was Johnny's true, loyal, and devoted fans and our fellow musicians, many of whom are on this record, who wanted to see this happen as well.

“After the tour, and over the following years as talk of a tribute album continued, my wife Monique, whose intuition I trust more than my own, said, 'I think you have to make this album, both for Johnny, for yourself, and for the world. You owe that acknowledgement to your older brother. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be where you are today. There’s no need to worry about it. If it’s meant to happen, it will.'" 

For more info on the album, head on over to Edgar Winter's website.

Gov't Mule are currently prepping the release of Heavy Load Blues, their first album dedicated solely to the blues.

Thus far we've been treated to two tastes from the album in the form of the bare-bones acoustic Heavy Load, and the band's scintillating extended cover of Junior Wells’ Snatch It Back And Hold It.

Now, the Mule have premiered a third single from the album, a soulful take on Tom Waits' Make It Rain. 

You can check out the cover – which is given an ethereal atmosphere from both Haynes' wailing leads and, strangely, a Fender spring reverb with a mind of its own – below.

“When recording the album, I had brought in this old Fender spring reverb unit that I wanted to use on my guitar sound,” Haynes said in a press release. “They can be pretty finicky. If the stage isn’t solid, or somebody’s jumping up and down, it reacts by making this crazy reverb vibration that comes through the amp. 

"I had intentionally set it up on the studio floor to make it kind of shockproof, but what we didn't allow for was some radio frequencies that randomly interfered and set it off. So, it started making these weird sounds that sounded like thunder. We were in the middle of what turned out to be the best take of Make It Rain and it began doing that throughout the whole thing. 

"As it turned out," Haynes continued, "it happened in these key spots in the song. When we were finished and listened to it with engineer and co-producer John Paterno, we decided to use it. It actually sounded like we planned it that way!”

Recorded live at The Power Station New England on analog tape, Heavy Load Blues is set for a November 12 release via Fantasy Records.

You can check out its cover art and track list below, and preorder the album via Gov't Mule's website.

Gov't Mule – Heavy Load Blues:

1. Blues Before Sunrise 
2. Hole In My Soul 
3. Wake Up Dead 
4. Love Is A Mean Old World 
5. Snatch It Back and Hold It – Hold It Back – Snatch It Back and Hold It 
6. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
7. (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt  
8. Make It Rain 
9. Heavy Load 
10. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (short version)
11. If Heartaches Were Nickels 
12. I Asked Her For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
13. Black Horizon 
14. Hiding Place* 
15. You Know My Love* 
16. Street Corner Talking* 
17. Have Mercy On The Criminal* 
18. Long Distance Call*
19. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home* 
20. Need Your Love So Bad*
21. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl*

* = Deluxe Version bonus track.

Gov’t Mule have announced their upcoming album, Heavy Load Blues – a 13-track blues-based album that they’ve ushered in via an acoustic guitar-driven lead single, Heavy Load.

As an added bonus, the band have also granted us a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the album, thanks to an accompanying five-minute video that sees Gov't Mule members Warren Haynes, Matt Abts, Danny Louis and Jorgen Carlsson discuss the new offering.

As a taster of things to come, Heavy Load sees Haynes’s flowing vocals and nonchalant-yet-pinpoint acoustic explorations take center stage, both of which effortlessly swagger along with the aid of sporadic slide guitar passages and snappy lead licks.

Heavy Load will be joined by a handful of originals and covers, with artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Tom Waits and the Animals and many more being represented.

A version of Ann Peebles’ I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home is also set to feature on the album, as is a rendition of Junior Wells’ classic standard Snatch It Back and Hold It, which features an improvised jam.

When released, Heavy Load Blues will mark the first time the band have dedicated an entire LP to the blues, with Haynes saying an extended exploration of the genre has “been on my list of things to do for years”.

“I didn't know if it was gonna be a solo album or a Gov’t Mule record,” Haynes said in a statement. “We play some traditional blues on stage from time to time and although it’s usually never more than a few songs per show, our approach to the blues is unique and based on our collective chemistry as a band.

“This album gave us a mission,” he continued. “Although in some way it was, ‘Anything goes,’ we wanted to stay true to the spirit of the blues in a traditional sense. It’s not a blues/rock record – it's a blues record. We wanted it sonically to sound different from a normal Gov’t Mule record.”

More detail was given in the behind-the-scenes video, with Haynes recalling, "For years, I've been jotting down ideas about blues songs I always wanted to cover and thinking about ways of twisting and turning them into different directions."

Added Abts, "We come from a blues background to begin with and we've done a lot of older blues material. We all instinctively know that music."

Despite being labelled as a studio album, Heavy Load Blues was in fact recorded live at The Power Station New England on analogue tape with the help of numerous vintage guitars and amps to capture a genuine blues tone.

13 tracks will be included as part of the album's standard release, with eight more featuring on a souped-up Deluxe Version of Heavy Load Blues.

The tracklist for Heavy Load Blues – as well as the Deluxe Version bonus tracks – can be found below. 

1. Blues Before Sunrise 
2. Hole In My Soul 
3. Wake Up Dead 
4. Love Is A Mean Old World 
5. Snatch It Back and Hold It – Hold It Back – Snatch It Back and Hold It 
6. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
7. (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt  
8. Make It Rain 
9. Heavy Load 
10. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (short version)
11. If Heartaches Were Nickels 
12. I Asked Her For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
13. Black Horizon 
14. Hiding Place* 
15. You Know My Love* 
16. Street Corner Talking* 
17. Have Mercy On The Criminal* 
18. Long Distance Call*
19. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home* 
20. Need Your Love So Bad*
21. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl*

* = Deluxe Version bonus track.

• Heavy Load Blues will be released November 12, and is available to preorder now via Fantasy Records.

Warren Haynes is perhaps best known as the longtime guitarist with Southern rock greats the Allman Brothers Band. 

He has also enjoyed a long solo career as a singer-songwriter, with a string of great live and studio recordings released with his own Warren Haynes Band and also with Gov’t Mule – essentially a Haynes-fronted Allman Brothers side project.

Over the years, Warren has been closely associated with Gibson guitars, often being seen sporting a Les Paul 58 reissue or playing his signature Les Paul models. ES-335s and Firebirds also feature in his arsenal, alongside a couple of Fenders and PRSs. 

You don’t necessarily need a Gibson, but a humbucker-equipped guitar is near essential to recreate the majority of Warren’s thick, overdriven tones.

This month’s tab examples demonstrate a few of the key techniques and stylings Warren employs when soloing. Our backing track features a Warren Haynes band style chord progression that is great fun to solo over. 

All the licks in the lesson use the B minor pentatonic scale as their foundation – with other flavour tones added in to taste. Check out the 1993 album Warren Haynes Band Live at the Sting to hear more of his explosive style.

Example 1. String Bends & Pentatonics

Our first example exploits trusty fingering for the best known shape of the minor pentatonic scale (usually known as ‘shape 1’), with a few extra notes from outside the scale. 

The two fret-bending points exist on the 9th fret of the third string and the 10th fret of the second string.

Example 2. Clashing String Bends

This lick opens with a string-bend technique known as an ‘oblique bend’. Hold the first string steady on the 17th fret then bend the second string. 

For a Hendrix-inspired clashing bend in Bar 3, grab the third string and pre-bend it as you bend the second string. When you strike the pre-bent string, release the bend for a clash.

Example 3. Repeatable Phrases

Example 4. Screaming Bends

It’s possible to bend and play two strings at the same time – and it’s a great blues hack, too. If there’s a ‘trick’ to this, it’s not to play too tidily. 

These bends really scream when the notes aren’t too accurate. So, just let rip with your fieriest bends – and remember, it’s not an exact science!

Example 5. Pedal Tone Lick

Notice the repeating 16th fret note on the third string in the opening two bars. Known as a ‘pedal tone’, a repeating note like this provides a solid base to play around and focuses your lick around a continuous, unchanging root. 

If you tend to widdle across the length of the fretboard, this is a cool way to add a bit of focus.

How do you keep a band together for 25 years? According to Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, it ain’t easy.

“We’re very lucky to have the musical and personal chemistry we’ve got,” he says. “We still enjoy hanging out and traveling with each other, which I can’t say is the case for a lot of bands who’ve been together a long time. If you can keep a band together that long, the chemistry and communication becomes telepathic. There’s a lot of stuff we do on stage that people would think was rehearsed, but it’s all off-the-cuff because we’re in the same headspace.”

Gov’t Mule are celebrating their 25th anniversary with Bring on the Music: Live at the Capitol Theatre, a multiple-format release of live performances, each featuring a different set list. “Typical Gov’t Mule fashion - we like to release as much as possible,” Haynes says. “Our fans really like that kind of thing. It went from one DVD to ending up as two DVDs and two CDs, all featuring different music.”

Remarkably, Mule appear to have found a way to make money from recording in an ever-shrinking market via their Mule Tracks live-show downloads. As Haynes explains: “We also encourage people to record the songs themselves and trade the shows, so it’s not so much about the money as people having access to the music. With Mule Tracks we offer what we consider to be a higher-quality version, but some people prefer their own recordings, and that’s cool too.”

Haynes has an interesting take on the regime of self-improvement as a guitarist. “I’m mostly just looking for inspiration all the time, coming from who knows where. How to approach the guitar differently from an unspoken mindset, thinking about which parts of my vocabulary I want to discard and which I want to utilize more.”

Haynes, a longtime Gibson devotee, takes an arsenal of signature models and Custom Shop axes on the road with him, while the vintage guitars rarely leave home.

“I’ve got a ’59 Les Paul, a ’61 dot-neck ES-335 and a mid-Sixties ES-355 that was given to me by Gregg Allman that are particular favorites. I leave them all at home; I’ll use them in the studio, but I don’t really trust fate as far as taking old guitars on tour. My signature guitars are my favorites from a playability standpoint, but when I switch to my ’59 Les Paul, there’s something magical there that you just can’t replicate.”

Gov’t Mule have shared a live clip of “The Man I Want To Be," from their upcoming concert album and film package, Bring On the Music—Live at the Capitol Theatre.

The new release gathers material from two shows at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on April 27 and 28 of 2018, as well as interviews with the band members and backstage footage.

In a statement, Mule leader Warren Haynes said:

“25 years. By the time you see and hear the performances from these two shows, Gov’t Mule will have celebrated 25 years as a band — something we never could have imagined. It’s no easy task keeping a band together for 25 years. You don’t get to do that without having built, nurtured, depended on, tested, damaged and rebuilt important relationships. In fact, with any band that’s stayed around that long, it’s all about relationships. When we made the decision to document where the band is currently (musically speaking), it immediately occurred to us that this would be, among other things, a celebration of a lot of those relationships — starting with the one between the four of us.”

Bring On the Music will be available in a variety of configurations, including a 2 CD/2 DVD deluxe package, two separate double-vinyl packages, digital, Blu-ray and a 2-CD package featuring audio from the film. 

The new package will be released June 28 via the Mascot Label Group. You can check out a trailer for the film, directed by Danny Clinch, below.

To pre-order, head here.

Gov’t Mule have announced a new live album and concert film, Bring On the Music—Live at the Capitol Theatre. The package will be released June 28 via Mascot Label Group. You can check out a trailer for film, directed by Danny Clinch, above.

The new release gathers material from two shows at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on April 27 and 28 of 2018, as well as interviews with the band members and backstage footage.

In a statement, Mule leader Warren Haynes said:

“25 years. By the time you see and hear the performances from these two shows, Gov’t Mule will have celebrated 25 years as a band — something we never could have imagined. It’s no easy task keeping a band together for 25 years. You don’t get to do that without having built, nurtured, depended on, tested, damaged and rebuilt important relationships. In fact, with any band that’s stayed around that long, it’s all about relationships. When we made the decision to document where the band is currently (musically speaking), it immediately occurred to us that this would be, among other things, a celebration of a lot of those relationships — starting with the one between the four of us.”

Bring On the Music will be available in a variety of configurations, including a 2 CD/2 DVD deluxe package, two separate double-vinyl packages, digital, Blu-ray and a 2-CD package featuring audio from the film. 

To pre-order, head here.

Gov't Mule have announced a spring U.S. tour, kicking off on April 12 in Vail, Colorado. The upcoming run features back-to-back nights at the Belly Up in Aspen, Colorado and the Georgia Theatre in Athens. Pre-sale tickets are available February 27 and general on-sale begins Friday, March 1. Head over to Mule.net for all ticketing details.

The spring tour announcement comes on the heels of the news that Gov't Mule will perform on Saturday, April 27th and Saturday, May 4th at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans, taking place during New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. This year, the band is planning two shows, doubling up on this always-anticipated annual Jazz Fest tradition. Special guests will be announced soon.

Gov't Mule will also headline Mountain Jam, taking place June 13-16, 2019, at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and Mule frontman Warren Haynes will return as co-presenter of the festival for its 15th year.

You can check out the full Gov’t Mule itinerary below, featuring the new U.S. shows as well as previous announced European and U.S. dates, below.

Gov't Mule tour dates:

April 12 - Vail, CO @ Spring Back to Vail 
April 13 - Aspen, CO @ Belly Up 
April 14 - Aspen, CO @ Belly Up 
April 16 - Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre 
Apr 18 - Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater 
April 19 - Peoria, IL @ Monarch Music Hall 
April 20 - Springfield, MO @ Gillioz Theatre
April 21 - Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
April 22 - Fort Smith, AR @ TempleLive 
April 24 - Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre 
April 25 - Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre 
April 26 - Macon, GA @ Macon City Auditorium 
Apr 27 - New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
April 29 - Wilmington, NC @ Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre 
May 1 - Saint Petersburg, FL @ Jannus LIve 
May 3 - Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre
May 4 - New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater 
May 27 - Glasgow, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy Glasgow
May 28 - Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom @ Boiler Shop
May 29 - Leeds, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy Leeds
May 31 - Birmingham, United Kingdom @ Birmingham Town Hall
June 1 - London, United Kingdom @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
June 2 - Manchester, United Kingdom @ Manchester Academy 2 
June 4 - Paris, France @ La Cigale
June 5 - Bruxelles, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
June 6 - Frankfurt Am Main, Germany @ Batschkapp
June 8 - Raalte, Netherlands @ Ribs & Blues Raalte
June 9 - Alkmaar, Netherlands @ Podium Victorie
June 13-16 - Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (Mountain Jam)
June 28 - Butler, OH @ Clearfork Adventure Resort (Smoky Run Music Festival)
July 13 - Canandaigua, NY @ CMAC Performing Arts Center
July 19 - Welch, MN @ Treasure Island Resort & Casino
July 20 - Walker, MN @ Moondance Jam

The night after wrapping the second of two shows for Warren Haynes’ 30th annual Christmas Jam, Haynes was back onstage at Asheville, North Carolina club the Orange Peel club, once again with Dave Grohl in tow. 

The impromptu show saw Grohl, Haynes and a slew of other musicians, including Haynes’ band, Gov’t Mule, former Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed and former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artumis Pyle, take the stage in various configurations to perform covers of songs by Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Skynyrd and others.

Among the highlights of the evening was Grohl jumping behind the kit for a version of Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” with Haynes on vocals and guitar, including adding his own solo licks to the classic In Utero tune.

“When [Warren] mentioned that song, my initial reaction was, ‘I can’t do that. I shouldn’t do that,’ ” Grohl told Rolling Stone. “But then I think about the people that the song means so much to and has been a part of their lives—that joy and love should be shared. And then, as we were playing it, the audience starts to sing along, and I’m crying my eyes out onstage trying to keep it together—what a beautiful moment. And who am I to keep people from that beautiful moment?”

You can check out the clip above.

Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam took place on December 7 and 8 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina. In addition to Haynes, the 30th anniversary iteration of the all-star concert featured, among others, his band Gov’t Mule, as well as Joe Bonamassa, Eric Church, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Phish Mike Gordon and Dave Grohl.

The Foo Fighters frontman made several appearance across the event, including performing an expanded version of his 23-minute epic, “Play,” with a cast that included members of Queens of the Stone Age and Jane’s Addiction, and a version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Gov’t Mule.

Grohl also performed a short set on a side stage, which kicked off with a duo version of the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These,” with Haynes, before he launched into an unexpected solo acoustic take on his band’s biggest song, “Everlong.”

“He asked me to come up and do one song and I was like, ‘Fuck that shit,’” Grohl joked.

Check out Grohl’s unplugged “Everlong” above.

The 2018 lineup for Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam has been announced, and includes Gov’t Mule, Joe Bonamassa, Dave Grohl, Haynes’ Dark Side of the Mule and more. The event, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, has been expanded to a two-night extravaganza, taking place Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina. The Christmas Jam will benefit the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity.

Said Haynes: “I can't believe that it has been 30 years since myself and a few friends held a small event in a local club so we could all play together around the holidays and donate a small amount of money to charity. Never in our wildest dreams did I, or anyone in attendance that night, expect that our little show would evolve into the event that it has, taking place over 2 nights at the arena where I saw so many great shows as a teenager. It's gone from being a local event to an international one and we couldn't have done it without the help of all the great artists, bands, and musicians that have donated their time through the years. I am thrilled and humbled that so many incredible musicians are going to help celebrate this milestone. This is truly going to be the biggest and best Christmas Jam yet.”

Pre-sale tickets, including a limited number of discounted two-day passes and VIP/Travel packages, will be available Friday, October 19 here, with tickets going on sale Friday, October 26.

For more information on Warren Haynes’ Annual Christmas Jam, head over to XmasJam.com.

Check out the full lineup below.

Text and Photos by Ken Spielman.

The hills of Montage Mountain were very much alive with the sound of music this past July 19 through July 22. For the last seven years, The Peach Festival has attracted thousands of music lovers from near and far to Scranton, Pennsylvania to witness an assorted line-up of seasoned veterans and up and comers.

While there's no denying that the nucleus of the Peach is jam-based, there was plenty of musical diversity to be found all around. The festival grounds were set up perfectly, with three stages all within walking distance of one another. With over 60 performances over the four day period, fans would bounce from stage to stage taking in the fascinating song structures of The Revitalists to the legendary riffs of the Ramblin' Man himself—Dickey Betts—to the rock-infused bluegrass funk of Twiddle and the contemporary pop sounds of Z.Z. Ward.  

Tye dye fans let their hippie flags fly with favorites from Phil Lesh and the Terrapin  Family Band, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, while things got super funky with Turkuaz (whose horn section made other special appearances), Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Dumpstaphunk.

While the weather for the first two days was as good as any festival goer could have asked for, things took a pretty dramatic turn by late Saturday afternoon as the skies opened up for the rest of evening. The rain didn't dampen the mood though, as the crowd remained “peachy." 

Gear-wise, an hour didn’t go by that a Fender Stratocaster wasn’t on stage.  Honorable mentions include a great showing from Mesa/Boogie, Roland and Yamaha. Check out the Peach Festival for yourself next summer, and some terrific photos from this year's event below. 

Gov't Mule have announced a summer tour. The tour will feature a number of dates with The Magpie Salute, in addition to a handful of dates with The Avett Brothers.

During their six dates with The Avett Brothers, Gov't Mule will perform Dark Side of the Mule, a set of their re-interpretations of some of the most beloved tracks in the Pink Floyd catalog. The band has only played their Dark Side of the Mule set twice, Halloween 2008 at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, MA and at the Mountain Jam Festival in 2015.

The band is touring behind their most recent album, 2017's Revolution Come...Revolution Go. You can check out their full itinerary below.

"You never know where an album is going to head until you get into it,” Haynes told Guitar World about Revolution Come... Revolution Go last August. “I just found myself writing in a lot of different directions and all of them seemed to work together especially when interpreted by the band and our collective personality."

"You have to work up the songs and see which ones feel like they want to go together because the album concept is still very important to me and I don’t think I’ll ever change my view on that no matter how popular single tracks become. I’ll keep assuming or hoping that most people will agree with that approach.”

For more on Gov't Mule, follow along on Facebook.

Gov't Mule 2018 Tour Dates:

June 2—Atlanta, GA @ Candler Park Fest

June 29—Torgau, DE @ Kulturbastion

June 30—Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg

• July 1—Maidstone, UK @ Ramblin' Man Fair

July 12—Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater*

July 13—Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center*

July 14—Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center*

July 21 - 22—Scranton, PA @ Peach Music Festival

July 24—Lewiston, NY @ Artpark

July 25—Selbyville, DE @ The Freeman Stage at Bayside

July 26 - 27—Floyd, VA @ Floyd Fest

July 28—Jay, VT @ Jay Peak

August 4—Notodden, NO @ Notodden Blues Festival

August 17—Charlotte, NC @ CMCU Amphitheater**

August 18—Charleston, SC @ Volvo Car Stadium**

August 19—Whites Creek, TN @ The Woods Amphitheater**

August 21—Huber Heights, OH @ Rose Music Center**

August 23—Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center*

August 24—Tinley Park, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*

August 25—Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre*

August 26—Des Moines, IA @ Brenton Plaza**

August 28—Mankata, MN @ Vetter Stone Amphitheater**

August 29—Papillion, NE @ SumTur**

August 31—Park City, UT @ Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater**

September 2—Sun Valley, ID @ Sun Valley Pavilion^

September 14 - 16—Sun Valley, ID @ Sun Valley Pavilion

September 23—Louisville, KY @ Bourbon & Beyond

*Dark Side of the Mule w/ The Avett Brothers & The Magpie Salute

** with Magpie Salute

^ with Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Gov't Mule—a staple of the jam band circuit—have announced an American tour. The 13-date trek will begin April 18 with a show at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, PA and run through early May.

For the majority of the tour's shows, the band will be joined by Black Stone Cherry, with scattered appearances on the bill by the Tangiers Blues Band and the Marcus King Band. The band is supporting their most recent album, 2017's Revolution Come... Revolution Go.

“You never know where an album is going to head until you get into it,” Haynes told Guitar World about Revolution Come... Revolution Go last August. “I just found myself writing in a lot of different directions and all of them seemed to work together especially when interpreted by the band and our collective personality."

"You have to work up the songs and see which ones feel like they want to go together because the album concept is still very important to me and I don’t think I’ll ever change my view on that no matter how popular single tracks become. I’ll keep assuming or hoping that most people will agree with that approach.”

You can check out the band's full upcoming itinerary below.

For tickets and more, stop by mule.net.

Gov't Mule: 2018 American Tour Dates

• April 18 – Bethlehem, PA @ Sands Bethlehem Event Center (with Black Stone Cherry)
• April 19 – Erie, PA @ Warner Theater (with Black Stone Cherry)
• April 20 – Syracuse, NY @ Landmark Theatre (with Black Stone Cherry)
• April 21 – Baltimore, MD @ Hippodrome (with Black Stone Cherry)
• April 22 – Charleston, WV @ Clay Center For the Arts & Sciences, Maier Foundation Performance Hall (with Black
• Stone Cherry)
• April 25 – Westbury, NY @ NYCB Theatre at Westbury
• April 26 – Albany, NY @ The Palace Theatre (with Black Stone Cherry)
• April 27 – Port Chester, NY @ Capitol Theatre
• April 28 – Port Chester, NY @ Capitol Theatre
• April 29 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Park Music & Film Festival (with The Tangiers Blues Band)
• May 2 – Huntsville, AL @ Von Braun (with Black Stone Cherry)
• May 3 – Mobile, AL @ Saenger Theatre (with Black Stone Cherry)
• May 4 – New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre (with The Marcus King Band)

On June 9, 2015—in celebration of what would've been Les Paul's 100th birthday—a truly impressive cast of six-string personalities gathered in New York City to pay tribute to the late guitarist, songwriter and inventor.

In fact, the guitar community threw one hell of a party right in Times Square, not far from the Iridium, the club where Les Paul regularly performed during the last years of his life.

The full day of star-studded events and programs kicked off what was billed as a year-long celebration of the guitarist's life and music.

Among the events was an all-star show featuring Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Neal Schon, Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, Steve Miller, G.E. Smith, Johnny A, Lou Pallo, the Les Paul Trio and many more.

You can check out a performance of Freddie King's "I'm Tore Down"—by pretty much the whole gang—below, complete with Miller on vocals. The song, which was written by Sonny Thompson, got a huge boost in the mid-Nineties when Eric Clapton covered it on his From the Cradle album.