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Gov’t Mule: Mulennium

Evil Teen

Gov’t Mule was on top of its game at the dawn of the new millennium. Guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody had left The Allman Brothers Band two years earlier to focus on Mule, and along with drummer Matt Abts, spent 1998 and 1999 touring relentlessly. All of that time on the road paid major dividends as displayed on the group’s first archival release, Mulennium, which was recorded at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta on December 31, 1999.

Year in and year out, Mule delivers a lengthy show filled with special guests and covers on New Year’s Eve and 1999-2000 was no exception. Whether tackling classic Mule originals (“Blind Man in the Dark,” “Life Before Insanity”), creative cover selections (“Sometimes Salvation,” “21st Century Schizoid Man”) or welcoming special guests to the stage ( Little Milton, Audley Freed, Robert Kearns, Johnny Mosier and Mark Van Allen ), each tune the band absolutely crushed each tune that night.

Sadly, Woody passed away a little less than nine months later, changing the band’s sound forever. The impeccably recorded and mixed Mulennium shows the raw power of the trio version of Gov’t Mule and serves as a fine document of a special night in the group’s history.