My review of Gov't Mule's Dub Side of the Mule, today at All About Jazz.

If there are any groups out there who have, for their 20th anniversary, celebrated with a year-long series of as many live releases as Gov't Mule (and the year is still young), they'd be a challenge to find. It's only April 2015 and, so far, the group--beginning as a side project for then-Allman Brothers Band guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes and (now-sadly deceased) bassist Allen Woody, and which has since taken on a serious life all its own--has released two multi-disc sets, each demonstrating a different side of a group long associated with the Southern roots rock jam band scene but which is clearly far, far broader.

First, in December 2014, there was Dark Side of the Mule-- either a single-disc or three-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition set paying tribute to progressive rock's mega-sellers Pink Floyd, in addition to plenty of material from Mule's own back catalog of nine studio albums and five live albums. Then, in January 2015, came Sco-Mule--a two-CD set documenting a 1999 two-night first encounter with jazz-cum-jam band-capable guitarist John Scofield that proved how Woody-era Mule was more than ready to meet Sco head-on in a middle ground filled with its own rock-inflected jazz chops.

Now, comes Dub Side of the Mule, taken from one of the group's legendary New Year's Eve shows--also available in a single-disc and 3-CD/1- DVD Deluxe Edition--that brings Mule together with Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals fame for a reggae-heavy set that, in the Deluxe Edition also comes with a healthy set of Mule material augmented with music from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Procol Harum and others, in addition to a four- song collaboration with Gregg Allman and Friends. All told, the December 31, 2006 show from New York City's Beacon Theater--longtime annual Allman Brothers Band home, with whom Haynes continued to play until the end of 2014 when, after 45 years, the ABB decided to call it quits and go out on a supremely high note--runs nearly four hours, but doesn't lag for a second.

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