Going Through the Motions
Haynes walks PG through each
track on Man in Motion
“Man in Motion”
That is one of a couple of songs where we actually used a grand
piano—most of the other songs use a Wurlitzer. I had come up with
the horn arrangement in my head just walking around, and Gordie
helped me change it a little bit. That song is hard to describe in
terms of influences. It was a combination of a lot of different things.
Guitar: 1959 Gibson ES-345
“River’s Gonna Rise”
It definitely has the Albert King sound and approach. At the end of
the song, we’re just jamming in the studio thinking we could always go
back and either fade earlier or put an ending on it. We wound up using
the longer version because we thought all the guitar freaks would like it.
Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Inspired by Warren Haynes
"Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday"
That was the only non-original song on the record. It had been stuck
in my head for years and I always wanted to record it. The Mule actually
played it once or twice, but when I started thinking about this
record it seemed like a good candidate. I really love the combination
of my voice along with Ruthie Foster and Ivan Neville, and all the
interplay between Ivan and Ian. Just everything about that track is
really special. I don’t remember the first time I heard that song, but
I’m guessing that it was William Bell’s original version. I could never
pinpoint exactly what recording it was. When I went back years later
to revisit the song, I couldn’t find a version that sounded like what
I remembered, so I just listened to a few different ones. William has
been a friend for over 20 years, so it was a nice coincidence that he
wrote the only outside song on the record.
Guitar: 1959 Gibson ES-345
"Sick of My Shadow"
I think the D’Angelico provided a nice contrast to the saxophone,
especially since Ron is playing through a wah. It has a very early-to-mid-’70s vibe. People like Eddie Harris and Miles Davis’ album,
On the Corner has stuff like that—a unique sound.
Guitar: D’Angelico New Yorker
"Your Wildest Dreams"
I use flatwound strings on the New Yorker, so it has that real
earthy, warm sound. I have had that guitar about 10 years now.
They sound amazing. I was able to do all the cool rhythm stuff, but
with a sound that wasn’t as predictable.
Guitar: D’Angelico New Yorker
"On a Real Lonely Night"
Again, I wanted to contrast with the sax, which on this song didn’t
have the wah. I thought all the cool question-and-answer stuff
between the sax and the guitar works well. It is a little different sound
from “Your Wildest Dreams,” even though it is the same guitar.
Guitar: D’Angelico New Yorker
"Hattiesburg Hustle"
We went for a little heavier sound on this song than the rest of the
record—just because of the nature of the song. It could easily have
been a Gov’t Mule song. I would say it’s the only one on the record
that could have gone either way.
Guitar: Gordie Johnson’s Gibson ES-345
"A Friend to You"
This time—in addition to the amps—I ran it through a Leslie set
on slow speed. That kind of cool Hendrix-y flange you hear is a
real Leslie.
Guitar: D’Angelico New Yorker
"Take a Bullet"
David Grissom came by the studio the day we recorded that track—he
lives near there and I told him just to drop by any day. I asked him if
he wanted to play, so David played the rhythm guitar part, and I just
sang on the basic track and played lead. Since the song is in E%, he
tuned an ES-345 down to an open-Eb tuning. He was playing through
the brown Fender Vibrolux that was from the late ’50s or early ’60s.
Guitar: 1969 Gibson ES-335
"Save Me"
We recorded that with just the piano, vocal, organ, and a small
amount of guitar. We set up a really big old-school mic in the
middle of the room and I sang about six feet away from it. I played
through a Fender Super Reverb with some tremolo. We had originally
thought it would be cool to record that song in a church—to
capture that gospel essence of the tune. Willie has a really old
church on his property and so we were actually going to try to
record it in there. But they didn’t have a piano and we couldn’t
move our piano, so we decided to just recreate the sound in the
studio. We recorded it completely live and it was the last thing we
did for the album.
Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Inspired by Warren Haynes