Warren Haynes Shreds ‘Whipping Post’ With Friends Of The Brothers At Harvest Music Festival

Longtime The Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes joined Friends of The Brothers for “Whipping Post” on Saturday. The 19-minute collaboration on the ABB classic occurred at Canada’s Harvest Music Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Friends Of The Brothers features extended members of the ABB family including author/journalist/guitarist Alan Paul, guitarist Andy Aledort (Dickey Betts and Great Southern) and guitarist Junior Mack (Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band). Haynes was on hand for a performance at the festival with his Warren Haynes Band project.

Alan Paul, who wrote two best-selling books about The Allman Brothers Band, delicately put the collaboration together. Paul detailed the process to JamBase, explaining:

As soon as we accepted the booking to play a midnight show on September 14, we knew that the new Warren Haynes Band would be playing just before us and I hoped that he might sit in with us. I’ve been writing about music and interviewing musicians for 35 years and have surely spoken to Warren more than anyone, and he is one of the very few subjects who have crossed the plane into being an actual friend. I value our relationship, both personal and professional, too much to do anything to compromise it.

I interviewed Warren for a Guitar World feature on his excellent upcoming album Million Voices Whisper the week before and mentioned it to him and he seemed intrigued. I wasn’t going to push it in a way that could compromise our relationship, but I wanted to make him aware. Most of us ended up flying from Montreal to Fredricton with Warren and his band on Friday evening and spending some time hanging out with him backstage Friday evening before he sat in with his friends in Big Sugar.

The next day he texted me, “What do you want me to play?”

It was an amazing message to receive. We had some back and forth here, because we all knew it would be fantastic to play “Whipping Post” with him, but Warren understandably preferred to play in the first half of the set, which would run from 12-1:30 am. “Whipping Post” is almost always the last song of the night, but he and I discussed it and decided it was doable, and would be cool.

During dinner in the catering tent, Warren huddled with Friends of the Brothers guitarists Andy Aledort and Junior Mack, both of whom have sat in with him in Gov’t Mule and the Allman Brothers Band, to discuss who would play what parts, and they came up with a unique arrangement that included a key change and “meltdown” in between Aledort’s and Haynes’ solos. We went over it with the band, and it worked out great.

Watch a collage of audio, video and photos featuring Warren and Friends Of The Brothers’ “Whipping Post” below:

As Alan Paul mentioned, “Whipping Post” was played in the middle of the set as opposed to its usual position as closer. Friends Of The Brothers had another treat in store for festivalgoers following Haynes’ appearance.

“When he walked off, we were faced with the conundrum we anticipated: how the heck do we top that?” Paul said. “We brought Kevin Scott, the genius bassist in Gov’t Mule and the Haynes band, out as a guest for ‘Blue Sky,’ which began with the ‘Franklin’s Tower’ tease that the ABB introduced at Jones Beach on August 9, 1995, the night Jerry Garcia died, and which Betts made a part of the song until his final performance. It worked!”

Friends Of The Brothers punctuated the night with “Stormy Monday” and “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed.” The band walked off the stage at 1:45 a.m.

Setlist

Set: Statesboro Blues, Black Hearted Woman, Done Somebody Wrong, Whipping Post*, Blue Sky**, Stormy Monday, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

• * – with Warren Haynes
• * – with Kevin Scott + “Franklin’s Tower” intro