By Steve Newton
The spirit of southern rock was alive and well when I was a music-crazed teenager in the seventies. Skynyrd, Hatchet, Blackfoot, Outlaws, Allmans: I ate it up. Then the eighties came along and the sound of the south took a nosedive, popularity-wise.
But back in the early ’90s the Allman Brothers did their part to resurrect the down-home, nuthin-fancy approach, with three studio albums that benefited greatly from the addition of primo guitarist Warren Haynes to the lineup.
When I interviewed Haynes in 1994, as the band was touring behind its Where it All Begins album, I asked him if the spirit of southern rock was alive and well in ’94. His reply included some thoughtful commentary on the pitfalls of “machine-made music” and the blessings of what he called “real music”.
“Technology is a wonderful outlet,” he told me, “but at the same time, some of the best music ever made was made on a forty-dollar guitar with a human voice.”
Warren Haynes is freakin’ awesome.
Have a listen:
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