On his new album Live from Bonnaroo, Govt. Mule’s Warren Haynes opens his live set with Radiohead’s ‘Lucky’. The track is available as a single as well. Click here to listen to a 30-second sample at the iTunes Music Store (iTunes required, naturally).
Here’s an excerpt from an article in the New York Times about the live album-
“Live at Bonnaroo” is Mr. Haynes’s second solo album; the first, “Tales of Ordinary Madness,” appeared in 1993, when he was still relatively obscure. If to this point Mr. Haynes has been primarily known as a prodigious guitar-slinger (last year Rolling Stone ranked him among the 25 “Greatest Guitarists of All Time”), “Bonnaroo” showcases him as a singer and songwriter. The album’s 16 songs alternate his own haunting ballads (“Beautifully Broken,” “Tastes Like Wine” and “Patchwork Quilt,” a requiem for Jerry Garcia) with versions of songs by Radiohead (“Lucky”), U2 (“One”), Otis Redding (“I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”) and the Eagles (“Wasted Time”). His voice, a husky, blues-boy croon rippling with conviction, weaves together the varied material. As far as his guitar playing on the album, however, Mr. Haynes wryly described himself as a “paid accompanist.”
“I’m not a great acoustic player,” he acknowledged. “I enjoy it, and I’m getting better, but there’s nothing virtuoso about it. And I like that. It allows me to sing and interpret the songs differently. That’s part of what makes it special for me.”
On the day the album was recorded, Mr. Haynes took the stage at around noon, a time at which he would more typically be sleeping. (Characteristically, he had played late the previous night with the Allman Brothers.) The thousands of stalwart revelers staggering into the site surely were not in much better shape. Consequently, the set has an almost dreamlike feel, as if Mr. Haynes were simply playing some of his favorite songs as they came to mind.
That’s pretty much how it was. As Mr. Haynes, who had done about a dozen solo performances in his life to that point, was sketching out his set list that morning, his wife, Stefani Scamardo, who manages him and other performers, noted the brooding Radiohead song at the top. In a perfect spousal question that is really a comment, she asked, “You’re not really going to open up with `Lucky,’ are you?” Mr. Haynes, a North Carolina native who speaks in a cheerful “hey, buddy” drawl, chuckled at the recollection. “Well, yeah,” he replied, “I think I am.”
You can read the complete article here.
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