The first tinge of color is touching the trees and the nights are getting cooler. Summer is giving way to fall, and music fans are packing venues to celebrate the last warm nights before concerts move indoors. A special treat awaits fans at Warner Vineyards tonight as Grammy Award–winning Warren Haynes performs with his jammy creation Gov’t Mule.
The band walks onto the stage and the crowd erupts. They know what to expect—pure blues magic. The set begins with “Mule.” Terence Higgins, in his signature fedora, is sitting in for Matt Abts tonight, driving the drums like a Formula One racer. Warren strums the opening riff and the band locks into the groove, anchored by Kevin Scott’s bass while Danny Louis fills the air with harmonies on the Hammond B3. It’s the quintessential opener and always a crowd-pleaser.
Warren then delivers a vintage cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,” foreshadowing the walk down memory lane to come. Mule favorites “Tear Me Down,” “Painted Silver Light,” and “Birth of the Mule” pull the audience back to the band’s origins, each gem a living memory. Most of the time Warren plays with eyes closed, in a trance with his muse. He lingers on an especially pleasing chord, then opens his eyes and flashes that amazing smile. When they stretch into “Monkey Hill,” the fans break into frenzied movement, letting the slow smoky blues take over.
The Mule offers up one of its newer tunes with “Dreaming Out Loud,” a soulful, uplifting number reminiscent of the great music of the 1970s. Terence Higgins’s hands blur with energy, yet his torso remains upright and still. His eyes are only slits; he doesn’t look at the kit because he doesn’t need to—like a Zen master, he knows exactly where every drum and cymbal is. The band then slows it down with “I Shall Return,” an R&B masterpiece, before closing the set with “Sco-Mule,” taking us back to the band’s beginnings once again.
The sun has set, and the lights dance upon the river. As the band returns to the stage, Warren pauses to greet fans with his trademark smile. He is a consummate professional who knows how to spread the joy of performance. The band channels that joy into a lavish cover of “Soulshine.” The magic takes hold. Danny Louis, still wearing his trademark Ray-Bans, reflects the crowd in his dark lenses. His fingers fly across the keys as music erupts from his instrument in another world of its own.
Mule fires off “Wake Up Dead,” a gritty, hard-hitting blues track from Heavy Load Blues—my favorite album. Old-school blues with Haynes’s magic sprinkled on top. They follow it with another cut from that release, the spirited medley “Snatch It Back and Hold It / Hold It Back / Snatch It Back and Hold It,” dripping with energy and grace.
Fans then get another treat—an older song that still feels ever relevant: “Larger than Life.” Into every life the specter of mortality enters to shake us up and remind us of our path. Everybody knows death is larger than life. Warren delivers words of a sage to the masses: we are all mortal; only our memory remains.
The mood lightens as the band unleashes James Brown’s “Doing It to Death.” Kevin Scott shines here, his deep bass riffs hitting with precision. The gentle giant makes the full-size bass look like a toy. Though his presence could be intimidating, his perpetual smile and warm demeanor radiate joy. His massive hands barely seem to move, yet he conjures pizzicato darts and thunderous booms at will—all while clearly being the happiest person at the gig. He’s a joy to watch and hear.
The band slows again, offering space to breathe, with “Endless Parade.” Nearly gospel in its depth and power, the song is spiritual in nature and mesmerizing live. From High and Mighty, now over fifteen years old, it still feels fresh. They follow with the gritty “Brand New Angel” from the same release, hard-hitting and edgy—classic Mule.
The night cools, the moon hangs over the stage, and all good things must come to an end. The band closes with “Mr. Man,” a full-spectrum Mule standard that gets the fans moving one last time.
It has been a night of incredible jams from four of the finest musicians touring today. The “Back in the Saddle” tour continues through mid-October, promising to be one for the record books, as the band is in high spirits and peak form.
