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Classic Album Review: Gov’t Mule | Live … With a Little Help From Our Friends Vol. 2

This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


You just can’t rush the Mule.

Vol. 1 of this live CD, recorded in Atlanta in 1998, came out three years ago. (The entire show was also released in a four-CD box.) Finally, Vol. 2 has arrived. This 50-minute disc finds Gov’t Mule — sometime Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes, bassist Allen Woody (who died in 2000) and drummer Matt Abts — tearing through smoking, syncopated, slide-guitar-and-Southern-boogie versions of Wandering Child and No Need to Suffer, along with covers of Albert King’s The Hunter, Little Feat’s Spanish Moon and (as a studio bonus) Frank Zappa’s Pygmy Twylyte. That “Help” comes mainly from guitarist Marc Ford, sax man Randall Bramblett and keyboardists Chuck Leavell and Bernie Worrell, who join in here and there. Really, though, the Mule help themselves just fine, thanks. Now how about helping us by putting out Vol. 3 before 2005?

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