Warren Haynes has unveiled the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour in support of his new solo album.
The 9-date run will launch February 7th in Knoxville, and the Warren Haynes Band will travel throughout the Midwest and Northeast, stopping in such cities as Huntsville, Toledo, Des Moines, and Burlington before wrapping February 22nd in Buffalo. See below for all dates and details.
Fan Club presale tickets will be available starting Wednesday, November 20th at 10am local time with local presales beginning Thursday, November 21st at 10am local time and the general on sale commencing Friday, November 22nd at 10am local time. $1 from every ticket sold for the winter tour will be donated to assist with hurricane relief.
A limited number of specially curated fan packages will also be available for the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour. Packages include one Ultimate Guitar Player Package per show, featuring a Les Paul Standard 60s Plain Top guitar in Sparkling Burgundy to be played and signed by Warren, meet & greet with a photo with Warren, soundcheck access, premium reserved seats, and more, and the Guitar Player Package, which includes an autographed Gibson Les Paul Standard Pickguard, a set of custom Warren Haynes guitar picks in collector box, a Dunlop guitar slide, and set of GHS strings (items as used by Warren), plus soundcheck, priority access, and more.
Visit www.warrenhaynes.net for all ticketing and VIP information and to purchase.
Performing alongside Haynes (vocals, guitar) will be the current, all-star lineup of the Warren Haynes Band: longtime drummer Terence Higgins (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band), Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott, Matt Slocum on keys, and Greg Osby on sax.
Just released November 1stvia Fantasy Records, Million Voices Whisper – Warren’s first solo album in almost a decade and fourth solo collection in his esteemed career catalog – debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums Chart and also entered the Americana/Folk Albums chart at #3, Current Rock Albums chart at #5, and Top Current Albums Sales chart at #29. Already hailed as his best album yet, the 11-song collection of soulful blues-rock, produced by Haynes and recorded at Power Station New England, includes the singles “This Life As We Know It” and “Day of Reckoning” featuring Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson as well as guest appearances from Warren’s Allman Brothers Band bandmate and longtime friend Derek Trucks on multiple tracks including “Real Real Love,” a song whose lyrics were initially started by Gregg Allman that Haynes finished to honor his friend. Million Voices Whisper is available digitally and on CD, 2-LP vinyl set, and a deluxe CD version with four bonus songs.
This Sunday, November 24th, Haynes, a native of Asheville, and Dave Matthews Band will host “SOULSHINE,” a benefit concert to aid relief and recovery efforts in Western North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, at Madison Square Garden. The sold-0ut, all-star event – featuring performances from DMB, Warren Haynes Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Goose along with very special guests Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Robert Randolph, Joe Russo, Trombone Shorty, Susan Tedeschi,and Derek Trucks – will now be available worldwide via a free live stream hosted on YouTube. Produced by Volta Media and sponsored by Cisco Systems, the concert will be streamed live on Sunday from 7:00-11:00 pm ET on the official event website SOULSHINEMSG.COM. Net proceeds will go to the SOULSHINE Concert Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which will benefit Habitat for Humanity’s 2024 Hurricane Recovery fund and will also support a variety of non-profits on the ground in North Carolina and Florida. Visit SOULSHINEMSG.COM to learn more or make a donation.
Following “SOULSHINE,” Haynes will wrap the year with Gov’t Mule’s annual New Year’s Run – December 28th at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut, and December 30th and 31st at The Beacon Theatre in New York City – and then launch 2025 with his annual concert-cation experience Island Exodus 15 in Jamaica from January 19-23 before heading out on the road for the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour.
For more information, please visit warrenhaynes.net.
WARREN HAYNES TOUR DATES
Gov’t Mule – New Year’s Run
December 28 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
December 30 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
December 31 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
Island Exodus 15
Featuring Gov’t Mule, Warren Haynes, Drive-By Truckers, Karina Rykman & Big Sugar
January 19-23, 2025 – Runaway Bay, Jamaica @ Jewel Paradise Cove Resort
Million Voices Whisper Tour 2025
February 7 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
February 8 – Huntsville, AL @ Mars Music Hall
February 11 – Toledo, OH @ Stranahan Theater
February 13 – Northfield, OH @ MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage
February 14 – Carmel, IN @ The Palladium
February 15 – West Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom
February 20 – Burlington, VT @ The Flynn
February 21 – Concord, NH @ Chubb Theatre
February 22 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
April 5 – Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium (rescheduled from 9/28)
Gov’t Mule – Festival Appearances
March 6-8 – Live Oak, FL @ Suwannee Amp Jam #1 (on sale 11/21)
July 23-27 – Floyd County, VA @ FloydFest 25~Aurora
Warren Haynes Band – European Festival Appearance
July 6 – Sperken, Austria @ Castle Clam
- Warren Haynes: Capture the Chemistry ›
- Rig Rundown: Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes [2023] ›
- Beyond Blues: Warren Haynes’ Southern-Fried Blues-Rock ›
An overdrive and mangled fuzz that’s a wolf in a maniacal, rabid wolf’s clothing.
Invites new compositional approaches to riffs and solos. Gray Channel distortion is versatile and satisfying. Unpredictable.
Unpredictable. Footswitches for distortion and fuzz are quite close.
$199
Fuzz can be savored in so many ways. It can be smooth. It can be an agent of chaos. But it can also be a trap. In service of mayhem, it can be a mere noise crutch. Smooth, classy, “tasty” fuzz, meanwhile, can lead to dull solos crafted as Olympian demonstrations of sustain. To touch the soulful, rowdy essence of fuzz, it’s good to find one that never lets you get quite comfortable. The EarthQuaker Devices Gary, a two-headed distortion/overdrive and rabid, envelope-controlled square-wave fuzz designed with IDLES’ Lee Kiernan, is a gain device in this vein.
Gary is not exclusively a destruction machine. Its distortion/overdrive section is a very streamlined take on EarthQuaker’s Gray Channel, a versatile DOD 250-derived double distortion. Like any good circuit of the 250 ilk, Gary’s hard clipping OD/distortion section bites viciously in the high- and high-mid frequencies, supported by a tight, punchy low-mid output. You can play anything from balanced M.O.R. studio crunch to unhinged feedback leads with this side of Gary. But it’s the envelope-triggered pulse-width fuzz—which most of us will hear as a gated fuzz, in many instances—that gives the Gary its werewolf duality. Though practice yields performance patterns that change depending on the instrument and effects you use around the Gary, its fuzz ultimately sputters and collapses into nothingness—especially when you throw a few pitch bends its way. The cut to silence can be jarring, but also compels a player to explore more rhythmic leads and choppy riffs that would sound like sludge with a Big Muff. The Gary’s unpredictable side means it won’t be for everybody, but its ability to span delicioso distortion and riotous splatter fuzz in a single unit is impressive.
EarthQuaker Devices Gary Automatic Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz/Overdrive Pedal
Guest columnist Dave Pomeroy, who is also president of Nashville’s musicians union, with some of his friends.
Dave Pomeroy, who’s played on over 500 albums with artists including Emmylou Harris, Elton John, Trisha Yearwood, Earl Scruggs, and Alison Krauss, shares his thoughts on bass playing—and a vision of the future.
From a very young age, I was captivated by music. Our military family was stationed in England from 1961 to 1964, so I got a two-year head start on the Beatles starting at age 6. When Cream came along, for the first time I was able to separate what the different players were doing, and my focus immediately landed on Jack Bruce. He wrote most of the songs, sang wonderfully, and drove the band with his bass. Playing along with Cream’s live recordings was a huge part of my initial self-training, and I never looked back.
The electric bass has a much shorter history than most instruments. I believe that this is a big reason why the evolution of bass playing continues in ways that were literally unimaginable when it began to replace the acoustic bass on pop and R&B recordings. Players like James Jamerson, Joe Osborn, Carol Kaye, Chuck Rainey, and David Hood made great songs even better with their bass lines, pocket, and tone. Playing in bands throughout my teenage years, I took every opportunity I could to learn from musicians who were more experienced than I was. Slowly, I began to understand the power of the bass to make everyone else sound better—or lead the way to a train wreck! That sense of responsibility was not lost on me. As I continued to play, listen, and learn, a gradual awareness of other elements came to the surface, including the three Ts: tone, timing, and taste.
I was ready to rock the world with busy lines and bass solos when I moved to Nashville in the late ’70s, and I was suddenly transported into the land of singer-songwriters. It was a huge awakening when I heard the lyrics of artists like Guy Clark, whose spare yet powerful stories and simple guitar changes opened up a whole new universe in reverse for me. It was a reset for sure, but gradually I found ways to combine my earlier energetic approach in different ways. Playing what’s right for a song is a very subjective thing.
“If the song calls for you to ramp up the energy and lead the way like Chris Squire, Bootsy Collins, Geddy Lee, Sting, Flea, Justin Chancellor, or so many others, trust yourself and go for it.”
Don Williams, whom I worked with for many years, was known as a man of few words, but he gave me some of the best musical advice I ever received. I had been with him for just a few months when he pulled me aside one night after a show, and quietly said, “Dave, you don’t have to play what’s on the records, just don’t throw me off when I’m singing.” In other words: It’s okay to be creative, but listen to what’s going on around you. I never forgot that lesson.
As I gradually got into recording work, in an environment where creativity is combined with efficiency and experimentation is sometimes, but not always, welcome, I focused on tone as a form of expression, trying to make every note count. As drum sounds got much bigger during the ’80s, string bass was pretty much off the table as an option in most situations. Inspired by German bassist Eberhard Weber, I bought an electric upright 5-string built by Harry Fleishman a few years earlier. That theoretically self-indulgent purchase gave me an opportunity to carve out a tone that would work with both big drums and acoustic instruments. It gave me an identifiable sound and led to me playing that bass on records with artists like Keith Whitley, Trisha Yearwood, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and the Chieftains.
In a world of constantly evolving and merging musical styles, the options can be almost overwhelming, so it’s important to trust yourself. Ultimately, you are making a series of choices every time you pick up the instrument. Whether it’s pick versus fingers versus thumb, or clean versus overdrive versus distortion, and so on … you are the boss of your role in the song you are playing. When the sonic surroundings you find yourself in change, so can you. It’s all about listening to what is going on around you and finding that sweet spot where you can bring the whole thing together while not attracting too much attention.
On the other hand, if the song calls for you to ramp up the energy and lead the way like Chris Squire, Bootsy Collins, Geddy Lee, Sting, Flea, Justin Chancellor, or so many others, trust yourself and go for it. Newer role models like Tal Wilkenfeld, Thundercat, and MonoNeon have raised the bar yet again. The beauty of it all is that the bass and its role keep evolving.
Right now, I guarantee there are young bassists of all descriptions we have not yet heard who are reinventing the bass and its role in new ways. That’s what bass players do—we are the glue that ties music together. Find your power and use it!
A satin finish with serious style. Join PG contributor Tom Butwin as he dives into the PRS Standard 24 Satin—a guitar that blends classic PRS craftsmanship with modern versatility. From its D-MO pickups to its fast-playing neck, this one’s a must-see.
PRS Standard 24 Satin Electric Guitar - Satin Red Apple Metallic
A reverb-based pedal for exploring the far reaches of sound.
Easy to use control set. Wide range of sounds. Crush control is fun to explore. Filter is versatile.
Works best as a stereo effect, which may limit some players.
$299
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo
oldbloodnoise.com
The Old Blood Dark Star Stereo (DSS) is one of those pedals that lives beyond simple effect categorization. Yes, it’s a digital reverb. But like other Old Blood designs, it’s such a feature-rich, creative take on that effect that to think of it as a reverb feels not only imprecise but unfair.
The Old Blood Dark Star Stereo (DSS) is one of those pedals that lives beyond simple effect categorization. Yes, it’s a digital reverb. But like other Old Blood designs, it’s such a feature-rich, creative take on that effect that to think of it as a reverb feels not only imprecise but unfair.
In this case, reverb describes how the DSS works more than how it sounds. I’ve come to think of this pedal as a reverb-based synthesizer, where reverb is the jumping-off point for sonic creation. As such, the sounds coming out of the Dark Star can be used as subtle sweetener or sound design textures, opening up worlds that might otherwise be unreachable.
Reverb and Beyond
Functionally speaking, the DSS starts with reverb and applies a high-/low-pass filter, two pitch shifters, each with a two-octave range in each direction, plus bit-crushing and distortion. Controls for lag (pre-delay), multiply (feedback), and decay follow, with mini knobs for volume, mix, and spread. Additional control features include presets, MIDI functionality, plus expression and aux control.
The DSS can be routed in mono, stereo, or mono-in/stereo-out. Both jacks are single TRS, and it’s easy to switch between settings by holding down the bypass switch and selecting via the preset button.
Although it sounds great in mono, stereo is where this iteration of the Dark Star—which follows the mono Dark Star and Dark Star V2—really comes alive. Starting with the filter, both pitch shifters, and crush knobs at noon—all have center detents—affords the most neutral settings. The result is a pad reverb, as synthetic as but less sparkly than a shimmer. The filter control is a fine way to distinguish clean and effect signals. In low-pass mode, the effect signal can easily get dark and spooky while maintaining fidelity and without getting murky. On the other end, high-pass settings are handy for refining those reverb pads and keeping them from washing out the clarity of the clean signal.
Lower fidelity is close at hand when you want it. The crush control, when turned counterclockwise, reduces the bit rate of the effect signal, evoking all kinds of digitally compromised sounds, from early samplers to cell phones, depending on how you flavor it. Counterclockwise applies distortion to the reverb signal. There’s a lot to explore within the wide ranges of the two pitch controls, too. With a four-octave range, quantized in half steps, the combinations can be extreme, and Dark Star takes on a life of its own.
Formless Reflections of Matter
The DSS is easy to get acquainted with, especially for a pedal with so many features, 10 knobs, and two footswitches. I quickly got a feel for the reverb itself at the most neutral filter and pitch settings, where I enjoyed the weight a responsive, textural pad lent to everything I played.
With just the filter and crush controls, there’s plenty to explore. Sitting in the sweet spot between a pair of vintage Fenders, I conjured a Twin Peaks-inspired hazy fog to accompany honeyed diatonic arpeggios, slowly filtering and crushing that sound into a dark, evil low-end whir as chords leaned toward dissonance. Eventually, I cranked the high-pass filter, producing an early MP3-in-a-good-way “shhh” that was fine accompaniment to sparser voicings along my fretboard. It was a true sonic journeyThe pitch controls increase possibilities for both ambience and dissonance. Simple tweaks push the boundaries of possibility in exponentially deeper directions. For more subtle thickening and accompaniment sounds, adding octaves, which are easy to tune by ear, offers precise tone sculpting, dimension, and a wider frequency range. Hearing simple harmonic ideas plucked against celeste- and organ-like reverberations kept me in the Harold Budd and Brian Eno space for long enough to consider new recording projects.
There is as much fun to be had at the highest feedback settings on the DSS. Be forewarned: Spend too much time there and you might need a name for your new ambient band. Cranking the multiply and decay knobs, I’d drop in a few notes, or maybe just a chord, and get to work scanning the pitch knobs and sculpting with the filter. Soon, I conjured bold Ligeti-inspired orchestral sounds fit for a guitar remix of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Verdict
The Dark Star Stereo strikes a nice balance between deep control, a wide range of sonic rewards, playability, and an always-sounds-great vibe. The controls are easy to use, so it doesn’t take long to get in the zone, and once you do, there’s plenty to explore. Throughout my time with the DSS, I was impressed with its high-fidelity clarity. I attribute that to the filter, which allows clean and reverb signals to perform dry/wet balance and EQ functions. That alone encouraged more adventurous and creative exploration. Though not every player needs this kind of tone tool, the DSS is a must-check-out effect for anyone serious about wild reverb adventures, and it’s simple and intuitive enough to be a good fit for anyone just starting exploration of those zones. However you come to the Dark Star, it’s a unique-sounding pedal that deserves attention. PG
