BROTHER IN ARMS
“I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED OPENING MY SELF UP TO A LOT OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC,” WARREN HAYNES SAYS. “I DON’T THINK I COULD EVER BE HAPPY DOING JUST ONE THING.”
Indeed, one look at the man’s long and remarkably varied career bears out this fact over and over. It’s evident in the path he followed, from his early days with David Allen Coe to his quarter-century with the Allman Brothers Band to his tenure with Grateful Dead offshoots like the Dead and Phil Lesh and Friends to his own solo outings. He’s worked with the Dave Matthews Band and the Dickey Betts Band and taken guest spots with everyone from Blues Traveler to Peter Frampton to Corrosion of Conformity.
As a result, Haynes has remained a busy and in-demand player for well over three decades. And this doesn’t even include his work with his other outfit, Gov’t Mule, who are currently celebrating their own 25-year anniversary, a swath of time that has seen them explore muscular hard rock, swampy blues and sprawling, highly improvisatory jam music, as well as R&B, soul, instrumental jazz, and dub and reggae styles.
For an overview of just what the Mule is capable of (though in some respects it’s also just the tip of the iceberg), look no further than the new Bring on the Music—Live at the Capitol Theatre (Provogue), a two-disc concert document that presents Haynes and the band — bassist Jorgen Carlsson, drummer Matt Abts and keyboardist Danny Louis — onstage at the titular New York venue in 2018. The supersized package is accompanied by a video documentary shot and directed by photographer and filmmaker Danny Clinch, who captures the Mule onstage, in interviews and behind the scenes.
“Knowing that the 25th anniversary of the band was approaching, it seemed like the timing was right to do this sort of thing,” Haynes explains.
The format is right as well, given that Haynes’
