Warren Haynes (born April 6, 1960) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as longtime guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov’t Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey Betts Band. Haynes also is known for his associations with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, including touring with Phil Lesh and Friends and The Dead. In addition, Haynes founded and manages Evil Teen Records.
Warren Haynes joined David Allan Coe’s touring and recording band in 1980 when he was 20 years old. He remained with Coe’s band for four years. Around 1987, Haynes got a call to perform backup vocals on a studio album by Dickey Betts. Betts, who had concentrated on his solo career following the break-up of The Allman Brothers Band, decided to add Haynes to his band as his guitarist after the session. With Matt Abts on drums and Johnny Neel on keyboards, the now formed Dickey Betts Band released the 1988 album Pattern Disruptive. In the same year, Haynes also co-wrote the title track for Gregg Allman’s solo album Just Before the Bullets Fly.
In 1989, The Allman Brothers Band decided to reunite, and Betts recruited Haynes to join the band. Also joining were Neel on keyboards and Allen Woody on bass guitar. Haynes has since played on four well-received studio albums, including the gold certified Where It All Begins (1994). It was that same year when Warren played to his biggest audience ever with the Allman Brothers at Woodstock ’94. Haynes and Woody left the group in March 1997 to focus solely on their side project Gov’t Mule. Shortly after Woody’s untimely death on August 26, 2000, Haynes began appearing with The Allman Brothers Band again in 2000 alongside young guitar prodigy Derek Trucks. He returned to the band as a full-time member a few months later and has remained active every year with the Allman Brothers since. He also has played on four official live releases from the band, including the 2003 DVD Live at the Beacon Theatre. On January 8, 2014, Haynes and Trucks jointly announced their respective plans to leave the ABB by the end of 2014, following the conclusion of the band’s celebration of its 45th anniversary.
Since the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Haynes has performed and toured with many of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. For 20 years Haynes has presented his hugely successful “Christmas Jam,” in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, raising money for Habitat For Humanity.
Ashes & Dust, released in mid- 2015 is Haynes third studio album. His singing has never used such a range of dynamics before; for once he lets the song dictate his expression. Tight songwriting and arranging craft—especially when fleshed out by the almost limitless creativity of Railroad Earth. Jonathan Frahm of PopMatters said, “Someone most widely known by a wide margin for his work as a rocker, Haynes shows off his Americana side in just as seamlessly great a manner as he had any other performance in the past. In doing so, he simultaneously proves his prowess as a competent musician given any platform to toy with, and that labels in the first place might just be rather confounded.”
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Haynes