Gov’t Mule Welcome Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson for Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck and Al Green Covers in Buffalo
Gov’t Mule, photo by Emily Butler
Yesterday, Sept. 1, Gov’t Mule shuffled off to Buffalo, N.Y. for a special Memorial Day performance at Terminal B at the Outer Harbor. As just the fifth performance in their fall Back in the Saddle Tour, which will cross the country with a total of 25 dates through Oct. 28, the venerable blues-rock quartet’s latest engagement forecasted thrills to come; beyond a jam-packed setlist heavy on their classic originals, attendees in Buffalo caught the tour’s first special guest with a surprise sit-in from Gordie Johnson.
Gov’t Mule tore into Monday’s single-set staging with the essential “Bad Little Doggie,” drawn from their celebrated third studio album Life Before Insanity. After burning through their three-decade staple “Blind Man in the Dark,” the ensemble of frontman and guitarist Warren Haynes led his faithful collaborators–keyboardist Danny Louis, bassist Kevin Scott and substitute drummer Terence Higgins–into “World Boss” and “Game Face.” The Allman Brothers’ trademark “Mountain Jam” recalled Haynes’ two-decade tenure with the band and arrived as the first of very few covers in the show, in stark contrast to the litany of tributes the group rolled out at their Milwaukee tour opener.
After burning through hits including “Mule,” “Captured,” “Banks of the Deep End” and “Time to Confess,” the group welcomed Canadian hard rock powerhouse Johnson, whose guest spot continued a long history of collaboration with Gov’t Mule. As a storied session musician and mixer, the guitarist has lent his talents to Mule recordings from 2006’s Mule on Easy Street up through 2023’s Dark Side of the Mule, and regular crossings with his band Big Sugar include performances at Island Exodus 15 earlier this year. Reunited again, the band and their special guest moved through treatments of “Hattiesburg Hastle,” the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street,” Jeff Beck’s “Freeway Jam” and Al Green’s “I’m a Ram,” which they previously collaborated on as part of 2007’s Mighty High.
Gov’t Mule concluded the main portion of their show with “Thorazine Shiuffle,” then brought on a grand finale with the tried and true show closer of “Soulshine.” They’ll return to the spotlight tomorrow, Sept. 3, at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage. Find tickets and more information on the group’s full tour at mule.net.
Read the full setlist from Wednesday night below.
