Cover Story: Warren Haynes Just Likes To Make Music, Part 2

Don’t pass up Part One!

FIVE ALBUMS IN FIVE YEARS

For someone whose daily life for the past 35 years had been very active and revolved around playing music with others, the March 2020 Covid lockdown forced an abrupt change. No touring, no sessions, no fun—but there was a silver lining.

“I found myself writing more music than I’ve written in ages,” Haynes recalls. “I think that my way of coping with the lockdown was to just focus on songwriting. We couldn’t tour, we couldn’t perform live, and you gotta do something to keep from going nuts. Luckily, songwriting was the answer for me.”

Coming out of the lockdown, he needed to get those songs down on tape (he still likes to record to tape when possible), and in 2021, he found a new favorite place to record—Power Station New England studios—run by engineer Evan Bakke.

“I first met Warren when he and his wife were driving back from a ski trip in Vermont,” Bakke recalls. “They wanted to stop by and see the studio because he was getting ready to do two Gov’t Mule records, and he wanted a studio where he could do a rock record and a blues record at the same time—full band, two completely different setups. in the studio. The idea was they would do a big rock song during the day, and then eat dinner, which for him, by the way, is usually sometime around midnight. Then after midnight, they would switch over and go to the blues setup, where there’s no headphones and they would just play it live.”

The band spent about three months at the studio, recording to analog tape and filling up 23 of the 24 tracks, then transferring them to Pro Tools. Engineer John Paterno tracked, mixed and co-produced what would become Peace…Like a River and Heavy Load Blues while Bakke assisted. In 2023, Haynes called again and said he was getting ready to do a solo record, and asked if Bakke would like to record it. The main tracking sessions took place over three weeks in the fall, this time recorded to Pro Tools, and later sent to Paterno for the mix. There were no real rehearsals. The band first heard the songs then and there.

“Warren would sit in the control room and play a sort-of demo from his laptop—not fleshed out, no drum parts, no key parts, just him sitting in his living room,” Bakke recalls. “Sometimes he would pick up an acoustic guitar and play the song for them in the control room, just to give them the idea. Then he’d be like, ‘You want to go do it?’ and the guys would say, ‘Yep.’ Then they’d all head out into the room.

“They all set up in a circle, essentially,” he continues. “All of his guitar amps on this album were 5-watters, if I remember right—there was an Alessandro, a Gibson, which is a new one, and then a Homestead. He would use different mics on his vocal, but when he wanted a ‘big’ sound, it was a Large Badge Neumann U47, into a Neve 31102 on the 8068, into a Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor.

“We had a B3 out in the big room, with the Leslie in Iso A. Then John Medeski had a Wurlitzer, a Clav and one other keyboard; those were all going through his pedal board and then to a Twin Reverb and a Tweed Deluxe. Derek Trucks had a Super Verb. Kevin Scott’s bass (Andy Hess played bass on three songs) was DI, along with a vintage B-15. Terrence’s drums only had a few mics—kick, snare, toms, overheads, hi-hat, ride, and a stereo pair for the room. That’s it.”

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Because he was recording to Pro Tools, he just let it run from the minute they started to pick up the song; his shortest Pro Tools session was between three and four hours long. Three takes for each song, no more, and they would pick the best. Once in a while, he would comp a chorus, but there was no real editing. While Haynes would sing live in the main room, they ended up overdubbing his vocal on about half the songs.

“Sonically, you just know that he’s not going to be replacing drums or tuning his vocal or using any modern tricks,” Bakke says. “He’s an amazing writer, he’s an amazing singer, and he’s an amazing guitar player. He’s like an actual treasure, and he’s one of one.”