The band was formed in the late 1980s by Warren Haynes and Allen Woody. They released their first album, Gov’t Mule, in 1991. In 1995, they released a self-titled album which was followed by a compilation of previously released material called Gumbo in 1997.
The gov’t mule mule is a band that was formed in the late 1980s. They are known for their blues-rock style and have released nine albums since then.
Since its inception in the 1990s, Gov’t Mule has been associated with the jam band scene. Their music is a mix of bluesy, hard-rock riffs and songwriting, as well as virtuoso improvisation and loudness. More than half of their album history comprises of live recordings, including guitarist Warren Haynes, bassist Allen Woody (both members of the Allman Brothers Band), and drummer Matt Abts. Jimmy Herring, Ivan Neville, Fred Wesley, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band are among the frequent guests during live concerts of Gov’t Mule, nicknamed “the Mule” to fans. They’ve also collaborated with jazz-funk guitarist John Scofield (Sco-Mule, number two, Jazz Albums) and reggae icon Toots Hibbert on chart-topping albums (Dub Side of the Mule, number one, Reggae Albums). Five of their own albums have charted in the Top 200, including Revolution Come… Revolution Go from 2017.
Warren Haynes and Allen Woody, the founding members of Gov’t Mule, were well-known to Allman Brothers fans for their time with the most renowned native sons of Southern rock. Haynes took over as Duane Allman’s second replacement in 1989, providing a solid counterpoint for Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts on guitar and vocals, while Woody completed the Allman sound on bass. The pair joined drummer Matt Abts in the side project Gov’t Mule five years after their debut, a band in which the Allman Brothers’ influence was obvious but compounded by Cream’s psychedelic, bluesy power trio vibe.
Gov’t Mule made their debut in 1995 with the release of their self-titled album on Capricorn Records, which was followed by the sold-out performance Live at Roseland Ballroom. Dose, a studio follow-up, was released in early 1998, and Live…With a Little Help from Our Friends, a concert set, was released a year later, with the entire performance being released as a four-disc limited-edition set. Life Before Insanity, a new studio endeavor, was released in early 2000. However, on August 26, 2000, the band lost a key member when Woody was discovered dead in a hotel room in New York City. Gov’t Mule had been planning to record their next album for some time, and after some deliberation, the band decided to go through with it, this time with guest bassists ranging from Flea to Bootsy Collins. The outcome was the two-volume Deep End series for ATO Records. Mike Gordon, the bassist for Phish, became engaged in the endeavor as well, documenting the albums’ production for a documentary. The band embarked on a six-week tour in support of Deep End, Vol. 1 in mid-September 2001, with Oteil Burbridge filling in on bass for the majority of the gigs.
The Deepest End: Live in Concert CD and DVD was published in 2003, while the second volume of Live…With a Little Help from Our Friends was released in 2002. Déjà Voodoo, Gov’t Mule’s first studio album after Woody’s death, was released a year later. It included Andy Hess, his formal successor, as well as new keyboardist Danny Louis. In 2006, the same lineup released High & Mighty. In 2007, the two-volume Benefit Concert series was released. By a Thread, Gov’t Mule’s first studio album in three years, was released in 2009. Hess was replaced by bassist Jorgen Carlsson, while ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons made a cameo appearance on the record. Mulennium, a three-disc set commemorating Gov’t Mule’s full 1999 New Year’s Eve performance at Atlanta’s historic Roxy Theater with the band’s original lineup, was released in 2010 by the Evil Teen label. The Black Crowes, Little Milton, and Audley Freed all made appearances during the event.
Gov’t Mule returned to the studio after a long hiatus during which Haynes produced his first solo album. In September of 2013, Shout was released. It included 11 new songs as well as a bonus CD with a variety of guest singers (including Toots Hibbert, Jim James, Dr. John, Steve Winwood, and Elvis Costello) fronting the band on various renditions of the same songs. Haynes and Abts started a series of archive recordings in 2014 to celebrate the band’s 20th anniversary. The first, Dark Side of the Mule, included 90 minutes of Pink Floyd songs and three hours of music and film captured at Boston’s Orpheum Theater on Halloween 2008. Sco-Mule, a set constructed from two in-the-vault recordings of a 1999 live performance with guest jazz guitarist John Scofield, followed in late 2014. Dub Side of the Mule, a documentary documenting the band’s legendary New Year’s Eve 2006 concert at the Beacon Theater in New York, was published in the spring of 2015. Toots Hibbert performed an hour-long reggae performance on the multi-disc collection, which also included guest appearances from Gregg Allman and John Popper. The Tel-Star Sessions, an archive release, was announced by Evil Teen in the spring of 2016. It included freshly mixed and mastered recordings of the original trio’s first — and never-before-released — 1994 demos, recorded at Tel-Star Studios in Florida. The first single, a version of ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid,” was published online shortly after the announcement, and the ten-track album was released in September.
Gov’t Mule started production on a new album in New York City on November 8, 2016, Election Day, with the working title Revolution Come…Revolution Go. According to Haynes, the band joked about what might happen if Donald Trump were elected president during the first day. They realized the following day that their title had been prophetic. Haynes produced the album with Gordie Johnson and Don Was, and it was recorded in both Austin and New York (guitarist Jimmie Vaughan contributed to the tune “Burning Point”). “Stone Cold Rage,” the album’s first hit, conjured up images of societal upheaval from coast to coast. Topical songs, personal ruminations (Haynes had just become a parent and had lost some close friends), and a version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” made up the rest of the double-14 album’s tracks. The album was released in June 2017, nearly seven months and one day after the recordings for Revolution Come…Revolution Go began.
In the summer of 2019, the band commemorated its 25th anniversary by releasing Bring on the Music: Live at the Capitol Theatre, a concert video and album produced in collaboration with the Provogue label and legendary music director and photographer Danny Clinch. Songs from two concerts played at the venue in Port Chester, New York in the spring of the previous year were included in the compilation. Interviews with band members, family, and friends were featured in the video, in addition to performance footage.
The lead singer government mule is a Southern rock band from Macon, Georgia. They were formed in 1987 and have released six albums to date.
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