Warren Haynes has the day off. Weird. It seems as though Haynes is always busy. He is, after all, the guitarist and singer of his Warren Haynes Band and Gov’t Mule, plus a member of The Allman Brothers Band, and a guitarist who has played with The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends and made numerous other guest appearances. He even released a solo album last year. And he’s undeniably a genuine guitar god. A blues rock master.
But on a Thursday last week, Haynes is off. It’s just for one day though. Gov’t Mule is busy recording its ninth studio album, an untitled album that will serve as a follow-up to Mule’s 2009 release By a Thread. The band — after taking most of 2011 off — regrouped earlier this year for some studio time in California. And the band was recording at the Carriage House in Stamford, Conn., last week.
Gov’t Mule is a project Haynes started with the late Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts in 1994, a blues-powered, Southern-fueled rock monster and a must-see band live. Oh, there’s Haynes’ masterful guitar playing and soulful singing, and Abts' precise yet passionate drumming, but joining Haynes and Abts are two other talented musicians — Danny Louis on keyboards and Jorgen Carlsson on bass — who help guide the music, throwing in a little funk, roots and even jazz into the band’s musical brew.
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A Friday night set at Riverfest kicks off two months of shows, including a July tour of Europe. Gov’t Mule closes a European tour in Germany, and then two days later Haynes joins The Allman Brothers Band for a string of East Coast dates in July.
Before getting really busy though, Haynes talked about the new album and touring:
On the progress of the new album
“Counting the songs that we’ve recorded prior to now and the songs that we’ve recorded in the past week, we have 13 songs recorded. We’d like to record a lot more and narrow it down from as many as we can get. But we’re not in a rush to consider the record finished. We’re going to go back into the studio later in the year and record some more. We’re trying to figure out if we’ll put it out later this year or early next year. It depends because we are touring a lot this year and sometimes songs have a way of surfacing on the road. I feel like there will be a lot of creative moments happening on the road.”
On road testing the new songs
“With MuleTracks, people can download every show and so in the past few years we got away from road testing the stuff because he didn’t want the audience to have heard all the songs before the record came out. But I don’t like to stick to any certain mindset for too long, and I have a feeling that we’re going to pull some of these out and start playing them.”
On preparing for a summer of touring
“We’ll rehearse a little more this time around because it has been a while since we played, but usually it has not been so long between tours. We do a lot of rehearsing at sound check. We’ll do a little more this time around, but it won’t be a massive amount. This whole process of recording in the studio has been a real good initiation because we are all starting to explore some different grooves and jams. We also have the benefit of playing together without always playing the same songs we’ve always played. I feel like there will be a lot of twists and turns, and fresh energy on this upcoming tour.”
On what started his love affair with the guitar
“I started singing first. The first thing that hit me was the black gospel music on the radio when I was about 6 years old, and it made the hair on my arms stand up. I didn’t know why, but I knew something had changed, and I needed to investigate. A little later, hearing James Brown, I got the same feeling. And Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, the Four Tops, The Temptations, Sam & Dave. But I always loved B.B. King’s voice, too, before I got enamored with the guitar. A couple of years later, my brother brought home a Sly and the Family Stone album and that kind of opened the door to Jimi Hendrix. Cream, Johnny Winter and all the stuff that would make me want to play the guitar.”