Music: New Year’s Eve with Warren Haynes

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Michael Buffalo Smith

Buffalo hails from Spartanburg, SC. Officially the "Ambassador of Southern Rock," he has written for many publications including Rolling Stone, Relix, Goldmine and his own Kudzoo Magazine. He is also a recording artist and author of six books, the latest being "Rebel Yell: An Oral History of Southern Rock."

Latest posts by Michael Buffalo Smith (see all)

• Stones Alone: Keith Richards – Crosseyed Heart - March 10, 2016
• Music: The MGM Years – Roy Orbison - January 24, 2016
• Music: New Year’s Eve with Warren Haynes - December 31, 2015

Warren Haynes sure has come a long way since the first time I saw him. It was sometime during the ‘80’s on a New Years Eve when I flipped the channel from Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve to find a country music New Year’s Eve special. David Alan Coe was performing, and he had this hot shot guitarist with him that captivated my attention from the time I heard his first noted. Some 30 years later, that guitarist, Warren Haynes, remains one of my favorite entertainers as well as humans.

Whether he’s fronting Gov’t Mule, playing with the Allman Brothers or the Dead, or sitting in with one of the many bands he has collaborated live with over the years, Haynes always lets his soul shine.

Warren Haynes

The songs he assembled for his latest recording, Ashes and Dust, fall into the “singer/songwriter” category. There’s no screaming Les Paul, but a lot of smooth, laid back music, backed by the great Railroad Earth, a band every bit as talented on their respective instruments as Haynes is on the guitar. The results of the collaboration are something quite special, with songs like “Coal Tattoo” and its flowing melody, banjo, fiddle and Haynes’ signature guitar. “Glory Road” is another outstanding track as is “Hallelujah Boulevard,” and what I consider one of the saddest songs of all time (and my favorite on the album) “New Years Eve.” The acoustic version on Disc Two is even better, in my opinion. Just Warren and his guitar, talking about a man who is spending New Years Eve alone and thinking about all of his old friends who have moved into the next realm.

Ashes and Dust is one of Warren’s best albums. The songs are beautiful, short stories set to music, and the playing is as top drawer as we have come to expect. There’s no doubt that this album will be in my Top Ten of 2015. It will be in yours too if you give it a chance.