Kevn Kinney‘s music has always been lurking in the cobwebbed corners of your mind, even if you weren’t aware of it. After making the big move from Milwaukee to Atlanta back in the ’80s, he happened to be close to Athens, Ga., the birthplace of R.E.M., when that band was really catching fire. He caught the always-open ear of Peter Buck, who produced some material by Kinney’s band, Drivin N Cryin, which would latch onto a support slot for an R.E.M. tour. Fast forward to the new millennium, and Kinney has moved to Brooklyn, where he’s cut a fine solo record, A Good Country Mile, with Anton Fier and the Golden Palominos. The new disc somehow manages to fit Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Van Morrison under the same tiny leopard-skin pill-box hat. Kinney will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Kinney: I think Warren Haynes is not only one of the best guitarists I have ever heard, but one of the greatest singers as well …
One of the kindest souls I have ever known, singin’ the devil’s blues …
I shudder ever time I see a copy of a magazine with the hundred best
guitarists and he’s not in it!
His Warren Hayne’s Christmas Jam, held every year in an arena in Ashville, N.C., is an amazing flashback to a bygone era …
No reserved tickets, just general admission jamming, sometimes til three in the morning!!
The Allman Brothers with John Paul Jones doing Zeppelin! Are you freaking kidding me!?
Not a lot of arena shows do that anymore … and with that, they have raised more than a million dollars over the past 20-plus years to benefit Habitat For Humanity …
Warren also produced and played on a record of mine in the late ’90s … The Flower And The Knife. A beautiful album if I do say so myself … Recorded in three days at Water Studios in Hoboken …
Watch out though … He can make you cry with that damn thing …
His journey through music and his stories of his years in Nashville or on
the road with the Allman Brothers or Govt’ Mule are always hilarious and
inspiring …
He has never had anything but a kind word for me …
If you ever wondered if there is such a thing as a gift from God …
Go see Warren Haynes and stand in the front row …
Gotta go home now, and practice!
Love on top of the world
