Yes, the B-side of "Ohio".<\/p>\n
Warren Haynes’s only flaw is he’s not beautiful.\u00c2\u00a0 Because not only can this guy play, he can SING!\u00c2\u00a0 If this were 1971 instead of 2011 Warren would be a household name, someone all over the radio, who fans would flock to see in concert.<\/p>\n
I got an e-mail imploring me to check out Grace Potter’s rendition of "Gold Dust Woman".\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say the hype on Ms. Potter has become deafening, but I’ve been e-mailed that television performance for months.\u00c2\u00a0 If she only had a hit song.\u00c2\u00a0 If she was doing something new, if it wasn’t that hard to find great singers.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not putting her down, she can sing, but she doesn’t make my blood boil.<\/p>\n
Warren Haynes does.<\/p>\n
No, I’m not turning gay, not even turning Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 But listening to Warren Haynes pick out "Gold Dust Woman" did make me hot.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he got inside the notes, he got it right.\u00c2\u00a0 He inhabited the original in a way today’s Fleetwood Mac usually can’t.<\/p>\n
It’s not about flash, it’s about feel.\u00c2\u00a0 Not about a ton of notes, but the right notes.\u00c2\u00a0 And more important than notes is tone.\u00c2\u00a0 And Warren Haynes is a master.\u00c2\u00a0 I could recite everybody he plays\/played with, but either you know him or you don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Derek Trucks may be the star of the latest edition of the Allman Brothers, but Warren Haynes is the utility player.\u00c2\u00a0 And without the utility player, without the lineman doing the dirty work, you’ve got no team.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what Eric Clapton tried to do when he picked up with Delaney & Bonnie, be part of the game instead of the game itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Eric wailed, but it’s Dave Mason wrote the ever-lasting number.<\/p>\n
You see it comes down to the material.\u00c2\u00a0 And whatever you think of Stevie Nicks’ voice or appearance or beliefs, she wrote "Gold Dust Woman" and you didn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 And neither did Warren Haynes.\u00c2\u00a0 But the reason we love "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" so much, why it eclipses everything else Clapton has ever done, is Duane Allman.\u00c2\u00a0 Who performed righteously with his own band, but as the utility man in Derek & the Dominos ushered the act into the stratosphere.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, it’s Duane who brought the incendiary riff to "Layla".\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Clapton still can’t play it live.\u00c2\u00a0 His strengths lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Not that I don’t love Clapton.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only from the Bluesbreakers and Cream, but that very first solo album, with "Easy Now" and "Let It Rain".\u00c2\u00a0 But Clapton’s the star, Allman was the ensemble player.\u00c2\u00a0 And so is Warren Haynes.<\/p>\n
But Warren steps out with his own act, Gov’t Mule.\u00c2\u00a0 And he gets very close.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s only one hit away from ubiquity.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, he isn’t trying for that hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, if the Black Keys can make it, so can Warren Haynes.\u00c2\u00a0 But does he want it, is he trying?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say he’s burned out from the near-misses, but nobody that burned out can play so much with so many acts and shine so brightly.<\/p>\n
First fire up this clip:<\/p>\n
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