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Warren Haynes Presents:
The Benefit Concert, Volume 2
(Evil Teen)
First Appeared in The Music Box, April 2007, Volume 14, #4
Written by John Metzger
Each year since 1989, during the Christmas holiday season, Warren Haynes has
been holding court in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina in order to
raise money for charity. Beginning in 1999, however, his forays grew
considerably more ambitious. Selecting Habitat for Humanity as his sole
beneficiary, Haynes turned his Christmas Jam concert from a low-key acoustic
affair into a major event by cajoling what has become a rotating group of
headlining acts as well as a small army of special guests to participate. As
evidenced by the two-disc, 150-minute running-time of Warren Haynes Presents:
The Benefit Concert, Volume 2, the artists involved have been
extraordinarily generous with their time, and stunningly, the set contains only
a portion of the music that was performed at the 12th annual
gathering, which was held on December 21, 2000 at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
Even in its edited format, however, Warren Haynes Presents: The Benefit
Concert, Volume 2 contains more material than most fans will care to hear.
It rambles and meanders, sometimes quite aimlessly. In addition, the
constricting nature of the abbreviated time slots — a problem that is inherent
to all multi-act benefit shows — meant that most of the outfits were forced to
leave the stage just as their music was beginning to congeal. For all of the
angst that it brought to a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Who Knows, Chris
Duarte Group’s repetitive undercurrent and churning guitar never succeeded in
achieving transcendence, and John Popper’s fumbled guitar solos did more to
undermine Alone than they did to elevate it. In a similar fashion,
Aquarium Rescue Unit puzzlingly is represented by four tunes — Elevator to
the Moon, a cover of Bukka White’s Fixin’ to Die, and a meshing of
David Earle Johnson’s Time Is Free with its original composition Jack
the Rabbit — and none of the selections obtain any semblance of traction.
Nevertheless, there are some stellar moments to be found within the 22 songs
that are featured on the set. With Dave Schools on bass, Gov’t Mule transformed
Tom Waits’ Goin’ Out West into a southern-fried stampede, while Popper’s
mournful harmonica accompaniment spun off Haynes’ stinging guitar solos to put
the tormented anguish into Mountains Win Again, which had been dedicated
to Allen Woody and Bobby Sheehan, the duo’s recently departed comrades. The real
fireworks, however, came during the Allman Brothers Band’s performance. With
most of its members having appeared throughout the evening, the ensemble was
sufficiently warmed up and ready to go. Both Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
and Statesboro Blues were galvanizing and forceful, and with the help of
Floyd Miles and Paul Riddle, the collective tore into Born under a Bad Sign
with a vengeance, making it the highlight of the concert as well as the
endeavor. For the record, there’s nothing egregiously deficient about any of the
material on Warren Haynes Presents: The Benefit Concert, Volume 2. Fans
just have to work a bit to find its stronger passages. At the very least, they
can take comfort in knowing that the money raised from the sale of the album
will go to a good cause. 
The Benefit Concert, Volume 2 is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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