Warren Haynes Brings Ashes & Dust Tour To New York

Words by: Chad Berndtson

Images by: Adam McCullough

:: Warren Haynes and Ashes & Dust Band :: 10.07.15 :: The Space :: Westbury, NY

Read Chad’s review of Westbury below Adam’s gallery from Thursday in Port Chester.

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It’s twice in the last few years that Warren Haynes has gone afield from his “regular” bands to pursue solo projects with distinct flavors: soul/R&B and now folk/Americana. And yet, none of these asides sound like much of a departure from the core of what makes Gov’t Mule so potent. Warren’s a protean musician; all of these sounds, flavors, feels and moods are part of the makeup already, so the idea that any of this is a departure is a sort of quaint one.

That works to Warren’s advantage, though – he can move and shake in these other modes without having to convince his core fans he has business playing this music. And that’s why the Ashes & Dust tour, which combines Warren with old friend Jeff Sipe and the flinty Nashville combo ChessBoxer, has been justly lauded: it sounds like a full fleshing-out of Warren’s “Ashes & Dust” material that goes deeper than merely sticking Warren on top of a twangy string band, stirring in some covers, and hoping it sounds “rootsy” enough.

By the time the band pulled into Westbury’s The Space Wednesday, it was clear they still haven’t quite cohered enough to sound like a permanent ensemble, but there was more than enough beauty, action and drama to suggest this shouldn’t be a one-and-done on Warren’s part.

The ChessBoxer team brings earnest service to this material. Sometimes you wonder if they’re having enough fun or just trying to deliver, and then they bust into wide grins in the middle of a jam and push harder, seeing their temporary leader nodding back at them with that big, leonine smile. They don’t play this material as aggressively as Railroad Earth did, but they also let it breathe a bit more, with improvisational segments that feel less fiery, but more economical. Key to the whole thing, of course, is the mighty Jeff Sipe, who gets to cover his full dynamic range and then some as the band veers all over the place. He and Warren have been playing together for a long time and in a bunch of different contexts, and it shows.

Covers and nods to Warren’s time with much more famous bands were what got the crowd whooping – and boy those jams in “Blue Sky,” “Jessica” and “Skin It Back” were fun, same with the closing Billy Joe Shaver romp with opener Justin Townes Earle sitting in. But some of the best moments of the show came in quieter or less obvious segments, where the Warren-ness of this music yielded to the underlying roots vibe rather than take over.

“Lay of the Sunflower,” a chestnut from Warren’s days with Phil Lesh & Friends, is in its best-ever expression in a band like this – almost a country-waltz and comfortably unsure of whether it’s an optimistic or melancholy song. “Blue Maiden’s Tale,” mid- set, found Warren on an acoustic guitar, and even as his always-commanding vocals told the titular tale, he seemed more a member of the band than its frontman. And “Revolution Blues” was a glove-fit choice – enough angst and sneer that the rock was there, but featuring pronounced banjo and a deftly driven move into “Jerusalem Ridge” that convinced you the Neil Young song and the bluegrass traditional come from the same place. That the band also messed with the setlist – the gorgeous, invigorating “Spots of Time,” which has been the nightly closer on the tour, moved, for example, to the opening slot – means they’re starting to feel themselves a bit more and want to take some chances.

It would be worth it to take more of them before the tour is over, and look ahead to what more might be done in the future. Ashes & Dust may be a temporary state for the ever-more-eclectic Mr. Haynes at age 55 (!), but it feels like more than a lark.

Setlist

Set: Spots of Time, Revolution Blues > Jerusalem Ridge outtro, Patchwork Quilt, Blue Sky, Instrumental Illness, Lay of the Sunflower, Blue Maiden’s Tale, Company Man, Dusk Till Dawn, Hattiesburg Hustle > drums, Stranded in Self Pity, Is It Me Or You, Skin It Back > Jessica

Encore: Georgia On a Fast Train (w/Justin Townes Earle)

JamBase | Ashes & Dust
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