On July 24th, Warren Haynes will release his new solo album, Ashes & Dust, with Railroad Earth providing some down-home bluegrass instrumentation. The collaboration has been a long time coming, according to Haynes, and with the dissolution of the Allman Brothers Band, Haynes was able to work on some of his folkier tunes.

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Haynes has released a new single from Ashes & Dust, a tune entitled “Company Man.” Written about Haynes’ father, the track focuses on a man who works his whole life just to stay true to his roots. Stream it below:

In an interview with Billboard, Haynes said “My dad grew up working in a grocery store for 23 years and then the company was gonna close down in the southeast… They said they could relocate him to the West Coast or Northeast or Midwest or something, but he wasn’t into it. That’s not where his roots were. He didn’t want to move his whole family. So he said no and started over and got a job in a factory where kids had more seniority than him. To me it’s just a true Southern tale of someone who lived their life by his own standards. He has a lot of conviction, and I’ve always admired him for it.”

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Haynes also shared some insight into the creation of Ashes, as it was initially intended to be recorded with Levon Helm, T Bone Wolk and Leon Russell some years ago. With the unfortunate passing of Helm and Wolk, Haynes worked on a different project, and only revived his curiosity for folk music when Railroad opened for the Allmans a few years ago.

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“It just utilized the chemistry that they have together and that we have together and was a really cool process for me. I felt like it needed to be different than stuff I’d done before. There were no rehearsals; I would show the guys a song they had never heard, we would talk about what instruments might be cool, come up with arrangements, record it and when we were satisfied move on to another song they’d never heard. It was a great way to work.”

Based on the music, we’re certainly excited for this album to be released.

[Via Billboard]