Gov’t Mule also has a new live release entitled Mulennium, with the group’s late founding bassist Allen Woody, which dates back to New Year’s Eve 1999 and features some great tracks guest-starring Little Milton (before he died in 2005). Haynes said they originally planned to release it on the heels of the previous year’s live recording, but thought better of “following a live record with a live record from the same venue” (1999’s Live…With a Little Help from Our Friends, also recorded at the Roxy in Atlanta, GA). I’d say they needn’t have worried. Both releases are outstanding. I did notice something different about the way Woody played “Blind Man in the Dark” back in 1999, having heard many different bassists play on it since. His style, his timing, I dunno, just seemed to fit the song better. I asked Haynes what it was like teaching other bass players to play Allen Woody’s parts in the ensuing years. Haynes was quick to shower praise on the myriad bassists who filled in (“helped Gov’t Mule get through our crisis” were his exact words) until the permanent addition of newcomer Jorgen Carlsson in 2008, but was also quick to point out that Carlsson “plays more like Allen Woody than anybody I’ve ever met. It’s uncanny. Now, I don’t know that I would’ve been ready for that 7 or 8 years ago, but now it’s really great because he’s not someone who studied Allen Woody, he just instinctually has a similar approach and style and sound. Now here’s the weird part: Allen Woody was born October 3rd, Jorgen was born October 2nd. That’s pretty bizarre.” I’m looking forward to comparing the two on that song particularly.
Part of the luxury of having your own record label (Evil Teen, launched by Haynes’ wife Stefani Scarmado, of Sirius/XM’s JamOn fame) is being able to put out what you want, when you want. The third Haynes-oriented release to come out in the last 12 months is one of the Christmas Jams for which Haynes gathers colleagues and friends to do a charity benefit every year in Asheville. On Warren Haynes Presents the Benefit Concert, Vol. 3, which dates from 2001 (yes, they seem to be releasing this series out of sequence), you’ll hear yet another side of Haynes as he rubs elbows with the likes of Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimmy Herring, Dave Schools, Phil Lesh & Friends, Blues Traveler, and Robert Randolph. As with any live show, it’s not all earth-shatteringly fantastic, but it is interesting to hear Haynes bury himself into a deeper, varied mix of players, and tracks like Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman,” Traveler’s “Mountains Win Again,” and CSNY’s “Almost Cut My Hair” absolutely shine. “Night of a Thousand Stars,” co-written by Robert Hunter and recorded here with Phil Lesh & Friends is another standout. It appeared later, in studio form, on the 2002 album “There and Back Again,” and despite its biblical, almost mournful lyrics, is certainly one of Haynes’ happiest-sounding musical compositions. Maybe it’s just played in a “happy” key. At any rate, Haynes said to expect more of these releases in the future: “Everything since ‘99 we’ve been recording and everything since 2002 we’ve been filming so eventually they’ll all come out on CD or DVD or both.” As for slowly commandeering Evil Teen for all their releases, Haynes said, “Eventually we just thought, ‘the way the music business is going we’re getting closer and closer to [turning] Evil Teen into our main label,’ and that’s pretty much what’s happening now.” Then, perhaps presaging the demise of the bloated record industry elite, or perhaps merely encouraging bands to do-it-themselves, he added, “It’s definitely proving to be the way of the future.”
Haynes’ creative, business, and personal lives have been seriously co-mingling for some time now. His wife, Stefani, happens to be his manager. “We were content for a long time to not work together [because] some couples have found that that’s not the greatest thing for your marriage.” In the late 90’s, apparently unhappy with their current management, band-mates Allen Woody and Matt Abts told him, “We want to make a change,” then asked, “What do you think about Stefani being our manager?” As he recalls, his reply was, “If you’re asking me if I think she would do a great job the answer is ‘yes,’ but it also puts me in the position of not being able to fire my manager.” But, luckily, they seem to work together well after all.
He’d been so forthcoming up to this point, I mustered the courage to ask if he was free to speak about the future of The Allman Brothers Band. With all the recent cancellations and reports of Gregg Allman’s waning health, I was almost afraid to hear his response, whether it was, “I can’t discuss that,” or, more horribly, “There will be no more Allman Brothers Band (complete with booming, Zeus-on-high echo effects and thunder)!” Thankfully, his response was much more positive. “Gregg just went in for his liver transplant, which was very successful and is very excited about getting back on the road, not only with The Allman Brothers Band, but with his band as well. The Allman Brothers had already decided to slow down the schedule before that whole situation existed. There’s going to be a handful of Allman Brothers shows coming up, but not a lot. I think everybody’s looking forward to doing the Beacon Theater run that we always do in New York City every March. The Beacon’s our home. We’ve been there since 1989. Gregg Allman always says the Beacon reminds him of the Fillmore East,” which Haynes admits he never saw, but he does have an actual brick from its demolition, signed by all the members of the band. It would surely fetch a princely sum on eBay were it ever to find its way there.
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