Review: Warren Haynes ‘Million Voices Whisper’

Review: Warren Haynes ‘Million Voices Whisper’

By Hal Horowitz

He’s been called the hardest working roots rock musician for so long it has become a cliché. Regardless, not a year goes by without Warren Haynes either releasing new music with his longtime Gov’t Mule project, or touring with them or another artistic endeavor such as this year’s Last Waltz tribute.

Still, it has been nearly a decade since Haynes delivered an album under his own name (the last was 2015s mostly acoustic collaboration with bluegrass rockers Railroad Earth), so the November 1st appearance of ‘Million Voices Whisper’ is long awaited.

Haynes’ remarkable and extensive career needs no introduction. His long stint with The Allman Brothers Band alone sets him up as a future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. And Gov’t Mule, intermittently active since 1994, has been an outlet for the guitarist/vocalist’s diverse musical tastes which run from metal, to reggae, space rock, jam band expressions, acoustic folk and blues.

On this eleven track (four additional tunes enhance a deluxe version) set, Haynes dials down some of the Mules’ volume and edge to focus on his more soulful side. Fellow Brother Derek Trucks accompanies him on three co-written and produced tracks cementing an Allman-styled connection that weaves through the program.

That link is further emphasized by the inclusion of “Real, Real, Love,” a gorgeous “Melissa”-inflected ballad initiated by Gregg Allman and finished after his passing by Haynes. His voice yearns and sighs like Allman singing “Oh, somebody help me now/Won’t you tell me please/Where I can find a real love/Don’t I have it coming to me?” as Trucks injects his distinctive raw, slashing slide guitar. It’s powerful and as close as we’re likely to get to a posthumous Allman Brothers track.

The vibe goes funky for “Lies, Lies, Lies>Monkey Dance>Lies, Lies, Lies” where the approach is stripped down to a quartet featuring veteran keyboardist John Medeski and drummer Terence Higgins. Its eight minutes gallop by as the tune twists and twirls through blues, R&B, a psychedelic mid-section spotlighting Haynes’ terse wah-wah lead, and back to where it started for one of this disc’s many highlights.

Haynes and Trucks engage in two stunning guitar exchanges which start and end the proceedings. Opening with “These Changes,” Haynes sings “All these changes-pushing us apart/All these changes-leave us stranded in the dark,” in a mournful tone reflecting lyrics aimed at a romance going through a rough patch. Funeral horns from a three-piece (appearing intermittently throughout) enhance the melancholy feel which morphs into a scintillating, rough-edged call and response guitar duel with Trucks. It also recalls their work in the Allmans.

The closing “Hall of Future Saints” reignites that guitar matchup. It finds Haynes meeting his musical heroes, perhaps in heaven, as Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Freddie and Albert King, Coltrane and Miles are name-checked. The extended nine-minute plus jam starts out scorching and ends with both guitarists exchanging furious blasts on a sonic shootout alone worth the price of admission.

Elsewhere, Haynes simmers in a slow, emotional boil on the lovely “Till the Sun Comes Shining Through,” a gripping, possibly personal admission to a lover that he’s there through the rain until the titular time. It’s up there with Hayne’s finest and most poignant vocals. The closing slide solo, reminiscent of Duane Allman, is just the cherry topping a moody yet moving moment. On “This Life as We Know It,” the first single, Haynes is more upbeat, singing “It’s good to be alive/And to know that we survived” on another melodic mid-tempo gem.

His R&B influences rise in the soulful “Terrified,” another quartet performance that chugs along on a thumping beat which stays on low heat even as Haynes whips off more sizzling licks urged on by Medeski’s tensile organ work.

Of the four extra tracks, a stirring reading of Stephen Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom” notably finds Haynes going political for a lengthened take on this CSNY classic, penned in the 60s but just as pertinent today.

Where Haynes found time to craft this 80 minute collection between his other commitments is unclear. But it’s as powerful and often intense as anything in his bulging catalog. ‘Million Voices Whisper’ is another example of his multiple talents as singer, songwriter, outstanding guitarist and perhaps most crucially, a frontman of exceptional class and conviction.

“This Life As We Know It”