Warren Haynes Band

Million Voices Whisper

Fantasy Records

This world of hurried, deep-seated transformation obviously affords a songwriter as prolific as Warren Haynes endless inspiration. On Million Voices Whisper, the onetime Allman Brothers guitarist and longtime Gov’t Mule leader offers eleven songs of positivity, possibility, and of course, plenty of push back. Haynes projects his passion about it all through rough-hewn, honey-burnished singing, his guitar playing the electrifying emphasis. Joining him on his first solo album in ten years is a new, formidable Warren Haynes Band comprised of Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott, famed New Orleans drummer Terrence Higgins, and keyboardist John Medeski of the jazz-fusion trio, Medeski Martin & Wood. Several guests appear such as fellow guitar king and former Allman Brothers bandmate Derek Trucks, and the striking, complimentary singers Lukas Nelson, Shaundra Williams, and Jamey Johnson. A small horn section wraps a handful of the eleven songs in warm, often bristly embraces.

As much as Haynes looks forward, reflection plays a role here too. The three songs that feature Derek Trucks (plus one more on the Deluxe Edition EP) rouse the sounds of the grand partnership they share. Their guitars ring out in stunning conversations during the album-opening “These Changes,” a song revolving around a romantic couple, but serving well as a metaphor for life’s constant adjustment. At the album’s conclusion, Haynes and Trucks blister the funky walls of “Hall of Future Saints,” an homage to some of Haynes’ departed musical heroes (Haynes and Trucks will certainly join the likes of B.B. King in that hall someday). In “Real, Real Love,” Haynes, Trucks, and the band deliver exceptional, aching emotion in the style of the late Gregg Allman. Allman began writing the song years ago but never finished it. Haynes recently completed it in just in time for it to become the glowing centerpiece of Million Voices Whisper.

Haynes justifies his celebrity on guitar all the way through this album. Whether playing straight lead or shimmering slide, his notes range in emotion from creamy and robust to cutting, as they are in “Lies, Lies, Lies / Monkey Dance.” That rant and jam that presumably mocks a certain someone who generates fear and then dances, hands in the air, stands out as something that Gov’t Mule could ramp up further down the road.

In “Go Down Swinging” Haynes plays straight and true guitar, elevating a sense of “Never give up” along with the determined walk in the park beat. Jenny Hill’s sax, Pam Fleming’s trumpet, and Buford O’Sullivan’s trombone provide the ideal rhythm and blues accompaniment. In the rocking “This Life as We Know it,” Haynes pulls off delightfully happy notes and exclaims “Ain’t it good to be alive!” That one phrase illuminates the entire album. But the biggest lyrical impression may be the one made amid the hard R&B of “Day of Reckoning,” a song co-written with Lukas Nelson that considers the Black experience in America. An extended version appears on the EP featuring Haynes, Nelson, and Johnson singing at its outset the refrain of Stephen Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom.”

Haynes clearly distinguishes his solo albums from those with Gov’t Mule, and on each has presented a different style of music. Million Voices Whisper distills flavors from throughout his career and could be his most accessible album to date. Whether blues-rock intense or plush with sensitive nuance, the songs on Million Voices Whisper collectively lift clouds of blues, wipe away rains, and reveal bursts of rainbow beauty.

Tom Clarke for MAS