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Gov’t Mule
DEJA VOODOO
(ATO)
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It’s good to have Gov’t Mule back pulling the plow after an extended period grazing on cover tunes and collaborations triggered by the death of original bassist Allen Woody. Numbers like "Bad Man Walking" and "Lola Leave Your Light On" recapture the band’s original thunderous spirit, stoking fires with frontman and jam-world MVP Warren Haynes’s guitar and heavy vocal howl. This is the group’s first studio album since Andy Hess replaced Woody and keyboardist Danny Louis — who can be a distraction in concert — joined. Here their interplay is tight and dynamic, whether they’re bringing down the proverbial hammer of the gods or honeying things up for a ballad like "Wine & Blood," a complex story about a woman driven to alcoholism by her abusive husband, where Haynes softens his voice and lets his glass slide gently glide over his guitar’s strings in imitation of a lap steel. The single, "Slackjaw Jezebel," may be one of the disc’s least distinctive cuts: it’s propelled by a perky bass line that sacrifices the Mule’s dark and heavy sound, their often-mesmeric calling card. But there’s plenty of rip and snarl elsewhere, and "New World Blues," with its sweet and sour dynamics, Haynes’s soulful singing, and the brawny edges of his guitar, has the potential to become an epic on stage. (Gov’t Mule appear next Friday, October 15, at the Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place in Boston; call 617-482-0651.)
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