Gov’t Mule and Ziggy Marley are currently moving through Texas on their Dreaming The Same Dream Tour. Yola has offered a DJ set each night and the shows have featured a number of interesting cross-bill collaborations along the way. On Wednesday at Sugar Land, TX’s Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land, Marley, his background vocalist Tracey Hazzard and B3 player George Hughes all emerged during Gov’t Mule’s show-closing set for his father’s “Lively Up Yourself.” A few songs later, Marley guitarist Takeshi Akimoto and B3 player Jerry Borgé took the stage for Ann Peebles’ “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” and Yola provided vocals on Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.”
Then, last night, the musicians appeared at San Antonio, TX’s The Majestic Theatre. Midway into their set, Gov’t Mule brought Yola back for another Peebles tune, “I Can’t Stand The Rain.” Soon after, Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson—who resides in Texas and produced Gov’t Mule albums like High & Mighty and By a Thread as well as Warren Haynes’ Man in Motion—appeared on a stretch of songs. That included a segue between two ZZ Top tracks, “Waitin’ For The Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago” as well as Al Green’s “I’m A Ram.” Later on, Johnson filtered back on during the night’s encore for a reggae version of “Soulshine.”
“Waitin’ For The Bus” turned out to be one of the biggest bust outs in Gov’t Mule’s history. They last played the song on August 8, 2000, at Towson. MD’s Recher Theatre, though members of Gov’t Mule did run through the number with Billy Gibbons during a special set at Asheville, NC’s Christmas Jam in 2023.
The tour will move on to Austin’s Moody Amphitheater this evening. As previously reported, earlier today Gov’t Mule were announced as one of the marquee performers at Christmas Jam this December.
