While WidespreadPanic packs the Riverside Theater for three-night residencies, and the BlackCrowes maintain name recognition and album sales, those in the know give Gov’tMule the nod as titleholder of all things crunchy, power blues-rockat least ifyou consider those in the know to be the beer drinkers and hell raisers of ZZTop’s world, not the tie-dyed masses oft-associated with guitarist/singerWarren Haynes’ side project.
From the incessant,thumping bass drive, to the greasy Southern riffage, to the random, strangelyspecific title and lyrics of opener “Broke Down on the Brazos,” the Mule seemsan obvious bastard child of Billy Gibbonslikely resultant of a particularlydepraved bender. The snaking guitar hook of “Steppin’ Lightly” sounds like acousin of “Just Got Paid,” and “Any Open Window” feels like an amped-up rehashof “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide.” But Haynes also leans heavily on his morelucrative gig with the Allman Brothers Band: His throaty growl borrows someleftover gristle off of Gregg Allman’s voice, and he offers the sameadventurous sense of arrangement that separates the Brothers from the rest oftheir jammy lot.
So, sure, it’scomplex. But at heart, that marriage between classic rock and Southern-friedwhite-boy blues is basically one of good-timey, back-porch soul. So maybe whenit’s done as well as this, analysis should go on hold while we sit back andcrack open another.
