Gov’t Mule Resuscitate a Blues Standard in Nashville

April 9, 2026

On Wednesday night, Gov’t Mule returned to the stage for the third performance in their Spring Tour. At Nashville’s Brown County Music Center, the Southern rock and electric blues powerhouse blazed through two sets of staples, most of which appeared for the first time in 2026 as the band continues to iron out its live repertoire for another year on the road. Among the tried and true tracks, the quartet of frontman Warren Haynes, keyboardist Danny Louis, bassist Kevin Scott and drummer Terence Higgins (filling in temporarily for co-founder Matt Abts) added two noteworthy surprises.

Gov’t Mule launched their show last night with “Stone Cold Rage,” drawn from 2017’s Revolution Come…Revolution Go and representing the first of 11 songs out of 17 that hadn’t yet made it to the stage during the band’s kickoff from Denver and Tuesday’s follow-up from Shipshewana, Ind. Further fan favorites that returned in the first frame included “Wake Up Dead,” “Shake Our Way Out,” and the Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See.” To cap off the set, the band reached back a year further and unearthed “Funny Little Tragedy,” released on 2017’s Shout! and played last in December 2024.

For their second set in Music City, Gov’t Mule came out swinging with “Revolution Come, Revolution Go,” then quickly dipped into the evening’s biggest surprise with Leroy Carr’s “Blues Before Sunrise,” A standard that they hadn’t performed since October 2022. This change-up gave the band a shot in the arm for other covers like Tower of Power’s “What Is Hip?,” Jeff Bek’s “Freeway Jam,” a medley of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Effigy” and an instrumental take on Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” and finally an encore of Tom Waits’ “Get Behind the Mule.”

Gov’t Mule’s Spring Tour will proceed on Friday, April 10, with a performance at Charleston, S.C.’s The Refinery Charleston rescheduled from last year, followed by 14 further shows through May 1. Find tickets and more information at mule.net/tour.