AMG Review of Lone

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Warren Haynes is known for his electric guitar heroics, in the Allman Brothers Band and his own Gov't Mule, but on the Lone EP he provides a series of live acoustic guitar performances ranging from 1997 to 2002. The songs are familiar ones from his repertoire or otherwise. "End of the Line" appeared on the Allman Brothers album Shades of Two Worlds; "Fallen Down" was on Gov't Mule's Life Before Insanity; "I'll Be the One" was on Haynes' debut solo album, Tales of Ordinary Madness; the Jerry Garcia tribute "Patchwork Quilt" appeared on the Phil Lesh & Friends album There and Back Again (Haynes was one of the Friends); and "Indian Sunset" is the Elton John song introduced on John's Madman Across the Water LP. Though he is playing acoustic, Haynes doesn't pull punches, singing as usual in his gruff, soulful tenor, so that, though the format tends to strip the songs of musical variety, they nevertheless carry considerable emotional force. This is a musician who plays and sings like he means it, even when he doesn't have a loud electric rock band to back him.