Details:
GOV’T MULE – Peace…Like a River
When Gov’t Mule’s GRAMMY-nominated Heavy Load Blues was released in late 2021, few who
heard the album could have sensed that it was merely one part of a two-album project from
guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes and his band mates, drummer Matt Abts & keyboardist Danny
Louis. While Heavy Load Blues was designed as a live-in-the-studio project exploring the blues
idiom, in the midst of that creative rush, Haynes found himself with a bumper crop of new
material that ventured outside of the blues genre. The result is Mule’s 12th studio album, the
sparkling Peace…Like a River (Fantasy), out now.
Co-produced by Warren Haynes and John Paterno, Peace…Like A River deftly combines structure
and spontaneity. Concise songcraft coexists seamlessly with the band’s trademark instrumental
journeys, and Haynes’ lyrical themes serves as the glue that fuses the new LP’s extraordinary
sonic variety. Ever the consummate collaborators, Peace…Like A River also features crucial
contributions from friends of the band, including Billy F. Gibbons, Billy Bob Thornton, Ruthie
Foster, Ivan Neville and acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Celisse;
extraordinary artistic talents who deepen the listening experience even further.
“Most of these songs were written during lockdown,” Haynes says. “But I made a conscious
decision: I didn’t want to write a bunch of Covid-centric songs.” Rather, Haynes set out to explore
the changes that he, and everyone else, was going through. “I wanted to focus on the positive
aspects: what we’re learning, and especially what we learned to appreciate that we took for
granted before.”
“Our mission has always been to try to create music that can stand up next to the amazing artists
who influenced us,” Haynes revealed. Few things would make him happier than to know that
someone listened to Peace…Like a River and wondered “Am I listening to a record made in the
‘70s? Because I don’t know how I missed it back then!”
The Shed bar & restaurant opens @ 11 AM, Ticket Booth @ 5 PM and support artist tentatively @ 7:30 PM. Get here early and enjoy a cold beverage and some delicious BBQ before the show.
