Warren Haynes On Letting His Songs Grow With ‘Dreams & Songs: A Symphonic Journey’

Before Dreams & Songs: A Symphonic Journey became a live album, it was supposed to be a studio record. That changed when Warren Haynes confronted a problem fundamental to the entire project: separating his band from the orchestra would also separate the musicians from the interaction he wanted the music to capture.

“We started figuring out that we weren’t gonna be able to have the band and the orchestra play together,” Haynes told JamBase in a recent interview. “We were gonna have to record the band and then add the orchestra separately, and I didn’t wanna do that.”

Haynes brought the concern to Don Was, his longtime friend and collaborator who co-produced the project. Was offered a simple solution.

“He was like, ‘Yeah, no, I agree. Why don’t we make it a live record?’” Haynes recalled. “And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea.’ Once that happened, the whole thing changed.”

Released on September 18, Dreams & Songs: A Symphonic Journey documents the 2019 debut of Haynes’ symphonic concept at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Haynes was backed by a band featuring bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Jeff Sipe and saxophonist Greg Osby, along with vocalists Edwin McCain and Jasmine Muhammad and the 64-piece Asheville Symphony Orchestra.

The 16-track collection pulls from across Haynes’ career, moving between Gov’t Mule material, songs associated with The Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead, solo work and covers including The Band’s “It Makes No Difference.” Rather than arranging the material chronologically, Haynes approached the program as a single musical journey.

“The sequencing was a very important aspect of this whole thing,” Haynes explained. “I wanted it to flow like a show, a setlist, but also like a symphonic production. I wanted there to be this thread running throughout that connected the dots.”

Finding that thread became easier once Haynes decided to bookend the program with “Dreams & Songs,” a song from his 2015 album Ashes & Dust. The opening passage gives way immediately to The Allman Brothers Band staple “Dreams,” while the second half eventually builds toward “Shakedown Street” and “Whipping Post” before returning to “Dreams & Songs” for the reprise.

“I really liked the kind of curveball of going instantly from ‘Dreams & Songs’ into ‘Dreams,’ ‘Banks Of The Deep End’ being early in the set,” Haynes said. “This was all in a way of establishing what the criteria was for this whole project, because people didn’t know what to expect.”

Was’ involvement went beyond the decision to capture the music live. Haynes credited him with helping select songs and arrangers for the project. Was also recommended veteran mixer Bob Clearmountain for the project.

“He had a lot to do with just the way this thing took shape,” Haynes said of Was. “And it was his idea to have Bob Clearmountain mix it. Clearmountain did an amazing job. I’m really happy with the results.”

The Asheville performance turned out to be a starting point rather than a self-contained experiment. Haynes has subsequently brought the Dreams & Songs concept to other cities and continued expanding the repertoire well beyond the 16 selections heard on the album.

“We keep adding songs,” Haynes told JamBase. “We’ve probably done an additional eight or 10 songs that aren’t on the Dreams & Songs release. And there’s another probably six or eight that we have arrangements for but haven’t done live yet.”

Haynes said he intends for that process to continue.

“We wanna keep adding to the setlist as it goes along,” he explained. “I think the setlist for this release is really a good place to start, but then it’s nice to keep building on that.”

The next announced Dreams & Songs Symphonic Experience performances are March 11 and 12, 2027 at Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center with the Nashville Symphony. Haynes confirmed those will not be the only installments if plans come together.

“It’s a big ship to steer,” Haynes said. “It takes a lot to coordinate. But yeah, the plan is to keep adding more shows next year, and I love that. It’s really exciting for me.”

Reworking material with an orchestra has also changed how Haynes thinks about songs that originated in significantly different phases of his career. Pieces written for Gov’t Mule or his solo albums now sit alongside songs he performed with The Allman Brothers Band and the Dead, creating connections that were not necessarily apparent when the material was first written or recorded.

“I think now all the songs that we’ve done for Dreams & Songs, and that we’ll do in the future, are part of their own group now,” Haynes said. “I’ve always kind of kept separate the Gov’t Mule catalog and the catalog of songs from my solo records. There is an overlap, obviously.”

That overlap now extends to Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead material, as well as songs Haynes did not write himself.

“I think they were chosen to be part of a family, chosen to be part of a concept,” he explained. “Not every song from each of those threads would work together, but those do.”

More importantly to Haynes, the process has made the songs themselves less fixed.

“It also forces me to look at songs differently in the future and think, ‘Oh, how would I wanna reinterpret this and not do it the way I’ve always done it in the past?’” Haynes said. “For myself, that’s really important to me, for the songs to have the opportunity to grow and expand and change the way the musicians do.”

Haynes’ own connection to Asheville provides another thread running through Dreams & Songs. The project debuted there, and his relationship with his hometown has remained central to his career through the long-running Christmas Jam and the charitable work surrounding it.

That connection came up when Haynes was asked about Dolly Parton and the way the late singer-songwriter maintained strong ties to her East Tennessee roots while using her success to benefit the community around her.

“I’ve always been a fan,” Haynes said. “Asheville, where I’m from, is only about 75 minutes away from where she’s from. And it’s the same part of the world. I think growing up we probably had similar experiences.”

Haynes said Parton’s example extended beyond music.

“I’ve always taken a cue from her from the humanitarian side,” he continued. “It just seemed like she always kept in her mind how important it was to be a real human being and not get lost in the madness of the entertainment world.”

Haynes also praised Parton’s ability to use her public platform while maintaining connections with people who did not necessarily share her views.

“As artists we do have a platform, and I think it’s important to use that platform, but it’s also important to respect other people’s opinions and not alienate someone over that one thing that seems to be so divisive right now,” Haynes said. “We’re meant to get along on this planet, and the more we can do to make that happen I think the better the world’s gonna be. And she was just a great example of that.”

Haynes will return to Asheville later this year for another expression of that hometown connection. He confirmed the 2026 edition of Warren Haynes Presents: The Christmas Jam will be held Saturday, December 12 at ExploreAsheville.com Arena. The lineup and additional details have yet to be announced.

The December event will follow a busy fall for Haynes. Gov’t Mule begins its Dreaming The Same Dream Tour with Ziggy Marley on Wednesday, September 23 at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City. Haynes also recently spoke with JamBase about Matt Abts’ absence and the band’s plans for its next studio album.

For now, Dreams & Songs offers Haynes another way to keep moving forward by continually reconsidering what came before. Seven years after the Asheville performance that produced the album, he does not appear interested in treating the recorded version as the final word.

The songs, like the players interpreting them, still have somewhere else to go.