In the eighties and early nineties, post one Daley and pre another one, one of the safer areas of Chicago to go see live blues was a short stretch on North Halsted Avenue. There were half a dozen blues clubs in a stretch of just a few blocks, where the headliner rarely went on before midnight and music went sometimes until 3 am. The latest record from Gov’t Mule, Heavy Load Blues, could easily have been a set at any one of those clubs on any Saturday night. The album was recorded live, with analog equipment, in a studio set up like a club stage. The result is a sonic signature that’s as close to being in a bar as you can get without someone sloshing a beer on you.
The record leaps out of the gate with a rollicking version of Elmore James’ Blues Before Sunrise. That same uptempo style supports an extended version of Chicagoan Junior Wells’ Snatch It Back And Hold It. There’s a palatable level of grit and dirt in the Leiber/Stoller number, (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt. Haynes further ups the texture when he growls “I know the name of the motherfucker who did my brother in.” At the other end of the aural spectrum is the title track, with just vocals and acoustic guitar.
Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home has a solid R&B tinge to it, as does a Haynes original, Wake Up Dead. They take that Memphis sound to another level with the addition of horns on another original, Hole In My Soul. The meanest track on the project has to be I Ask Her For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) a Howlin’ Wolf classic with Haynes channeling Jimi Hendrix on a fuzzy, noisy guitar.
Gov’t Mule fans know that Haynes and his band aren’t easily pigeon-holed into one style of music: they can jam to just about anything. Nonetheless, when I got the record, before I listened to it, I assumed it was going to be blues *influenced*. Wipe that thought from your mind. Heavy Load Blues will whisk you to a place you’ve maybe never been, but will want to return to again and again.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.