In the words of Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, and Zooey Deschanel among many others – what are you doing New Year’s Eve?  And while we’re at it, how about tomorrow night (the video will show on TV tomorrow so ‘tonight’ refers to the 30th) straight through to Saturday, January 2nd.  If your plans aren’t set, here’s New Year’s Music in New York City to kiss off a mean ’15 and bring on a sweet ’16.

We’ve got hip hop with Future.  The Atlanta MC will perform downtown on the East side at Pier 36 that juts out from Clinton Street.  We’ve got jazz with Macy Gray in Times Square and Chris Botti in the village, and rock (or jam bands if you like) from both Phish at the Garden and Gov’t Mule at the Beacon… all on New Year’s Eve.  All but Future are doing multi-night engagements.  They Might Be Giants, who I did not mention in the vid, are also doing a year end run of shows in Billyburg.

We are lucky to have Warren Haynes as local talent.  The Asheville, NC bred artist moved to the East Village decades ago and is now ‘burbing it up in Westchester.  He tapped New Jersey’s Railroad Earth to flesh out a group of songs that he had written over many years including one penned with Phil Lesh.  The fiddle and mandolin of Railroad Earth make for an unprecedented kind of Warren Haynes project – as does his slide playing and use of a hollow body guitar.  Ashes and Dust is just his third ever solo album apart from The Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule.

It’s been brilliant to get to know Warren a little bit over the course of four interviews over three years.  He’s always generous with his time and he’s got an amazing memory.  I brought up the first time I ever met him which was at a show in New York in the early 1990’s when he jammed with The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies and he was able to offer some details about it that not only confirmed my memory (which I’m always a little suspicious of) but which were striking in their specificity.  That’s the kind of recall he has.

The first time we spoke with a camera or tape rolling was at The Beacon Theater just prior to a special New Year’s Eve Gov’t Mule show that honored Albert King, Freddie King, and BB King at the end of 2012.  That was also the time when the Georgia Bootleg Box had just come out.  You have your choice of the produced 2 minute version that aired on NY1 or the unedited Warren Haynes Interview (8 minute version) remarkable for his comments about Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, and power trios.

Our second powwow was when Shout by Gov’t Mule came out in 2013.  Listen to our conversation in the video at the top of this post.  This interview is more in-depth and free-flowing than the television interviews with time for fascinating asides about playing with Dicky Betts before he joined the Allmans and his affection for Creedence Clearwater Revival and Deep Purple.

Earlier this summer I met Warren at the Capitol Theater.  That meeting produced the 2 minute piece –  New Album: Ashes & Dust.  There’s some great stuff from that interview that couldn’t fit into the NY1 piece which I’ll unleash one of these days.  In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy all this other Haynesy goodness.

Long time Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes has released an album unlike any in his tremendous career.  Ashes & Dust was made with Railroad Earth at The Barber Shop Studios in Hopatcong, New Jersey.  Haynesy explained that he’d been collecting songs for years that were the kind of thing that suited his solo acoustic shows but not so much for The Allman Brothers or – the band he founded in the mid 90’s – Gov’t Mule.  When he met Railroad Earth, he knew the chemistry was right to get those songs recorded.

Performance video courtesy of the artist.

I posted my usual two minute piece a couple of weeks ago but wanted to share more substantial conversation here with Warren…

Warren Haynes is part of two great traditions at The Beacon.  In addition to the annual spring run with The Allman Brothers, Haynesy likes to celebrate new years in the city with Gov’t Mule.