Warren Haynes and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, photo by David Simchock
Throughout his four decades at the forefront of Southern rock, Warren Haynes has inexhaustibly innovated on time-honored musical traditions. In a career full of bold moves, largely harmonizing the gritty traditionalism of blues and roots with the improvisatory fluency of jazz and jam, one of his most striking projects has been an embrace of orchestral performance. The singer, songwriter and guitarist’s rare symphonic shows situate his music in arrangements that work productive tensions to reach new heights of grandeur. Today, he shared the second single from his highly anticipated first symphonic live album: a rootsy and grandiose take on the Grateful Dead’s classic “Shakedown Street.”
“‘Shakedown Street’ is a really powerful orchestrated arrangement that enhances the power of the original, which I played and sang a ton of times with those guys through the years, especially with Phil Lesh and Friends, but with The Dead as well,” Haynes said. “It’s a very danceable song. A lot of people just focus on the groove and get lost in the rhythmic quality of it. The orchestra forces you to pay attention to it in a different way. It’s very dark and powerful and, I think, very effective. This song goes back to the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration, which was my first experience with an orchestra. That’s kind of what started this whole journey for me, which is still going on.”
Haynes forthcoming album, Dreams & Songs, captures the hometown kickoff of his 2019 live series of the same name. At Asheville, N.C.’s Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, the rock pioneer debuted an ambitious reimagining of his repertoire alongside the 64-piece Asheville Symphony Orchestra and a stacked band of reliable collaborators, with Oteil Burbridge on bass, John Medeski on keys, Jeff Sipe on drums and Greg Osby on saxophone. He originally announced the project back in May with a take on the staple “Banks of the Deep End” that he said “somehow takes on its own personality just based on the song itself and the lyric and uniqueness of the chord structure and the melody.”
Haynes will return to the road next month, setting off an exhaustive summer tour from South Deerfield, Mass.’s Summer Stage at Tree House Brewing Company on July 22. Find tickets and more information on his complete live itinerary – including a few symphonic engagements in 2027 – at mule.net.
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