GRAMMY® Award-winning vocalist, songwriter, guitar legend, producer, and Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes has revealed “Raven Back Night,” the latest song from his breathtaking new album, Dreams & Songs: A Symphonic Journey. The 16-track collection explores all aspects of his incredible catalogue and career, including music from Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers Band, The Dead, his solo albums, and more.The album will be released on 18 September and available in Europe via Provogue/Artone Label Group and in the U.S. via Evil Teen Records. You can pre-order/pre-save the album HERE.
The album was recorded in 2019 at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Haynes’ hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Watching the interplay between Haynes and his band of seasoned rock ‘n’ roll improvisers including Oteil Burbridge on bass, John Medeski on organ and keys, Jeff Sipe on drums, and Greg Osby on saxophone as well as Edwin McCain and Jasmine Muhammad on background vocals along with the 64-piece Asheville Symphony Orchestra is a hypnotic sight to witness.
“Raven Black Night” was originally released on the 1998 Gov’t Mule album, Dose. Talking about taking a new approach to the song, Haynes says. “I had come up with this arrangement that went from Raven Black Night into Silent Scream Pt.2, back into Raven Black Night. The way those two things married together is really cool, and the way the orchestra kind of accepted that challenge was really amazing. I think those two songs, the way they work together, kind of lend themselves to orchestration, in some ways, more than anything else on this recording.”
He continues, “They sound like the orchestration completes the thought. Y’know, the orchestration kind of sounds like part of the composition, which is a tall order and very high praise indeed. I love the arrangement for that piece, and I really enjoyed singing Raven Black Night in that light. Because, y’know, the original recording had no drums and was very stripped-down. It had a little percussion thing in the middle and no bass. Whereas this arrangement is just full-bodied, full orchestration, the opposite of the original recording, and it really takes it to a place that completes it and turns it into another thing.”
This follows the previously released songs, the Grateful Dead classic “Shakedown Street” and Gov’t Mule hit “Banks of the Deep End.”
Talking about the idea behind the concert, he says, “Growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, every creative artist walked in the comfortable shadow of author Thomas Wolfe, Asheville’s most famous native son. I was no exception. Although I was familiar with some of his work—mostly Look Homeward, Angel, like everyone else—I was 38 years old when I finally read his masterpiece You Can’t Go Home Again.”
He adds, “As an Ashevillian who had found himself living in New York, I was obviously balancing the same two worlds—albeit many decades later. And although You Can’t Go Home Again was published the year my dad was born, it connected with me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. I was traveling to a lot of the same places he references, both at home and abroad, and running in similarly dissimilar circles, all the while second-guessing some of the choices made along the way, as any 38-year-old would. More than a decade later, when I wrote the song “Dreams & Songs,” from which this project takes its title, it would in some ways pay tribute to this experience and connection.”
Haynes will bring his acclaimed Dreams & Songs Symphonic Experience show to Nashville next year for two nights at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center with the Nashville Symphony on Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12, 2027, presented by Lightning 100. He will be joined by musicians John Medeski, Kevin Scott, Terence Higgins and Greg Osby, along with vocalists Saundra Williams and Mayteana Morales, all led by conductor Rich Daniels from the Chicago City Lights Orchestra.
Until then, Warren Haynes will be busy on the road with his bandmates in Gov’t Mule. The revered GRAMMY-nominated quintet is touring this summer including a co-headlining trek with longtime friend and blues-rock titan Joe Bonamassa, travelling all over the U.S. from July 22nd through August 23rd. Afterwards, Gov’t Mule will head out on the newly announced Dreaming The Same Dream Tour with Ziggy Marley in the fall. The 16-date co-headlining outing, also featuring a guest DJ set from YOLA, kicks off September 23rd in New York City and wraps October 17th in Dallas.
