GOV'T MULE BRAVES THE DEEP END

Fall is here and with it comes a fresh concert season for us to spend our hard earned money. I don't know if the first musicians who fell into the seasonal concert pattern did it consciously but I think it's wonderful that something as organic as music follows the same patterns as Mother Nature. Unfortunately I'm not here to discuss the organic nature of music; I'm here to talk about the man Phil Lesh, this summer, dubbed the second hardest working man in show business. Of course first is the self-proclaimed "hardest working man in show business" James Brown, but if you don't know the man who places a close second, please allow me the delightful pleasure of introducing you to Warren Haynes and his band Gov't Mule.

Haynes is a member of the Allman Brothers Band and is also a member of Phil Lesh & Friends. In the times that he is not touring or recording with those bands he performs solo acoustic and has his own band, Gov't Mule, co-founded with drummer Matt Abts and the late Allen Woody on bass guitar. The operative word in the preceding sentence is late, in that the passing of Woody has inspired his former band mates to pay tribute to the man and his instrument. To this end Haynes and Abts have assembled 25 of the finest bass players in the music industry and a slew of other musicians to help pay tribute through the recording of two volumes of music.

The recordings are of themselves touching and sometimes profound but the beauty of musicians coming together to form a cohesive unit has spawned something even better: chances to see the music live. Once musicians play together for an extensive period of time they learn each other's nuances and leave a part of themselves with their partners and, lucky for us, this has caused many of the artists to want to come together to recreate the magic they felt in the studio.

This all leads us down the primrose path to a tour that has many drooling over the possibilities. David Schools of Widespread Panic, George Rzab a mainstay in the band of legendary blues man Buddy Guy, funk-bass master George Porter Jr. of The Meters and Echobrain's Jason Newsted, formerly of Metallica, will be filling the open bass slot for various shows of the tour. For every show of the tour at least two of them will be lending their talents and if you're lucky you live in one of the cities where all four will be playing together. Joining this diverse group of musicians will be keyboarding extraordinaire Danny Louis, who has been touring with Gov't Mule all year. So now that you know the deal you have no excuse to miss out on your chance to pay tribute to a fallen brother and see some amazing live music.

Gov't Mule Upcoming Tour Dates:

Peace,
Mir Ali
JamBase | Midwest
Go See Live Mule!