Rolling Stone

Sunday Music Interlude — Warren Haynes with Railroad Earth performing “Coal Tattoo” and “Blue Maiden’s Tale”

Warren Haynes hails from Asheville, North Carolina and is one of the most sought after–and accomplished–guitarists and songwriters in the world.  Rolling Stone has listed him as one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”  His resume’ is simply phenomenal.  He started out at the age of 20 in David Allan Coe’s band in 1980.  After four years with Coe he played with The Nighthawks and penned, along with Dennis Robbins and Bobby Boyd, the Garth Brooks hit “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House”, which appeared on the album No Fences.  In 1987 he then worked on the Dickey Betts band as backup vocal and guitarist.  He also continued to write, contributing the title song to Gregg Allman‘s Just Before the Bullets Fly.  In 1989, when the Allman Brothers Band decided to get back together, he was picked up there and continued to play with the band until 1997, when he formed Gov’t Mule along with drummer Matt Abts and the late bass guitarist Allen Woody.  After a short hiatus from the Allman Band he has continued to perform with the band, among other projects.  These projects have included performing as guitarist for the Grateful Dead after the death of Jerry Garcia, as well as releasing solo albums and performing with groups as diverse as the Dave Matthews Band to Railroad Earth, heard on these songs.  This last week the XM Satellite station “The Loft” interviewed Haynes, where he talked about his storied career and upcoming album Ashes and Dust, due out on 24 July.

Unfortunately I haven’t found a live version of “Coal Tattoo” but here is the official audio from the album.

Here he is with the band on the PBS program Front & Center performing “Blue Maiden’s Tale”.  You can find additional songs on the site.

 

 

Saturday Music Interlude — Anoushka Shankar featuring Norah Jones performing “The Sun Won’t Set” and “Traces of You”

The beautiful song “The Sun Won’t Set” has come back to me from time-to-time during both happy and challenging moments.  Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones are half-sisters, having in common their father, the legendary sitarist Ravi Shankar.  Shankar died at the age of 92 during the making of the album that comprise these songs.  The album, Traces of You, is up for the Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category.  Traces of You is a song cycle that reprises the cycle of life.  Jones collaborates with Shankar on three songs, providing an occasional narrative voice between ten emotive instrumental songs.  Given that it was given birth during a very difficult and painful time in the life of Ms. Shankar, Traces of You, as with most artistic work, moves into the category of being a merely good to a great album, reflecting the turmoil, pain, love, and hope that she apparently experienced at the time–transcending pedestrian concerns into ones that are insightful and empathic.

Rolling Stone has an interesting interview with Jones regarding the album and the experience of performing with her sister.  Sadly, there are no video recordings of “The Sun Won’t Set.”  The audio recording, however, is all you need.  “Traces of You”, which follows, shows the comfortable interplay between Shankar and Jones.