Gritty, soulful vocals; heavy blues thump; loose, lanky funk; swirling psychedlia thats Govt Mule. Never a band taken with boxes, the Mule has made a career out of doing things just a little bit differently. When Warren Haynes and Allen Woody (then the rhythm section for penultimate southern rockers the Allman Brothers) joined up with drummer Matt Abts, they married the genre-bending roots rock of their former project with a bluesier, psychedelic feel reminiscent of 60s rockers like Hendrix and Clapton. This move enabled the band to add new layers of subtlety to the muscular platform theyd been practicing. The new bands sound ran the gamut from dirt-floor boogie to mind-bending sonic freakouts, often in the span of a single song. Since Woodys death in 2000, the band has soldiered on, proving themselves as stubborn as their namesake. Fortunately, a host of talented guest bassists from Bootsy Collins to Victor Wooten have helped that stubbornness to pay off. The regular stream of new musical minds being brought into the mix has pushed the Mule in some surprising new directions, bending their sound to encompass everything from reggae to African inflected world-beat. With Carney. NICHOLAS HALL
Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m., 2009
