One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band (56 page)

Long Walk on a Short Pier
(1979, ***) was appropriately titled; it was released just before Capricorn Records went bankrupt and promptly vanished for almost twenty years. That’s too bad, because it was an improvement from its predecessor. Still uneven and sometimes too slick, this album has more high points, and unleashes Leavell’s rollicking piano a bit more.

Gov’t Mule

Gov’t Mule
(1995, ***
) announced the debut of a dynamic, heavy group. From the opening a capella “Grinning in Your Face” to the last ringing notes of “World of Difference,” this self-titled debut grabbed listeners by the face and didn’t let go.

Live at Roseland Ballroom
(1996, ****) captures the original band in their full sonic glory. Delivers what the debut hinted was coming.

Dose
(1998, ****) is the Mule’s finest recording, as the band fully finds its sound. Recorded live in the studio,
Dose
debuted Mule classics like “Birth of the Mule,” “Thelonious Beck,” and “Thorazine Shuffle” and introduced more dynamics, including the power ballad “I Shall Return” and acoustic instrumentation on “John the Revelator” and “Raven Black Night.” It’s a powerful work that has stood the test of time.

Life Before Insanity
(2001, ***
) fails to match the brilliance of its predecessor, but not by much. Another great album, as the Mule moves away from its trio base, adding some keyboards, harmonica, and overdubbed guitar tracks.

Live … with a Little Help from Our Friends
(2001, ****) is the Mule album I go back to over and over. A two-CD set of the original trio powering through fantastic originals like “Thorazine Shuffle” and covers of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” among others. They are joined by friends like Derek Trucks, Jimmy Herring, and Chuck Leavell for “Cortez the Killer” among many great covers, culminating in a 29-minute “Afro Blue.” Nothing makes me miss Woody quite as much as this album, which sums up everything great about the original Mule.

The Deep End, Vol. 1
(2001, ***
) is Warren’s response to the passing of his partner in crime, Allen Woody. He rounded up every guest bassist he could think of, from Phish’s Mike Gordon to Deep Purple’s Roger Glover and from Cream’s Jack Bruce to the Family Stone’s Larry Graham to pay tribute. The results are predictably inconsistent, but often great. Woody himself makes a cameo on a previously unreleased cover of Grand Funk’s “Sin’s a Good Man’s Brother.”

The Deep End, Vol. 2
(2002, ***) keeps the Woody tribute going, this time with bassists including Phil Lesh, Billy Cox, George Porter Jr., and Jason Newsted. Again, somewhat inconsistent, but often great, and the plethora of guests is a tribute to how highly regarded both Warren and Woody are.

The Deepest End: Live in Concert
(2003, ****) was recorded during the 2003 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and it seems as if everyone from the fairgrounds piled into the theater for a five-hour concert that yielded this sprawling tribute to the late Woody. Jack Casady, Les Claypool, Will Lee, George Porter Jr., Karl Denson, and Sonny Landreth are just the tip of the iceberg. It seemed like Warren needed to produce this blowout before Gov’t Mule could resume normal band life without Woody. Long live Cap’n Al!

On
Deja Voodoo
(2004, ***
), Gov’t Mule returns as a quartet with keyboardist Danny Louis on board, along with bassist Andy Hess.

High and Mighty
(2006, ***
) is good but not essential.

Mighty High
(2007, **) is a cool idea—reggae versions of the Mule’s
High and Mighty
album—that just doesn’t quite work.

By a Thread
(2009, ***) includes a guest appearance by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

Mulennium (Live at the Roxy, Atlanta, GA, December 31, 1999)
(2010, ****) is a three-CD collection that made me miss Woody all over again. More special guests, including the late blues great Little Milton, who leads a six-song blues set.

The Georgia Bootleg Box
(2012, ****) captures three shows from April 1996 as the Mule was just really learning how to kick. Powerful stuff, raw and ready.

Shout!
(2013, ****) is a stirring album, the strongest collection of songs in years. It also includes a fascinating bonus disk of the same songs with guest vocalists (including Steve Winwood, Ben Harper, and Dave Matthews).

Warren Haynes

Tales of Ordinary Madness
(1993, ***
) was Haynes’s solo debut and much of it holds up twenty years later.

Live at Bonnaroo
(2004, ***) is a slightly uneven acoustic collection with some very nice moments, most notably the version of “Soulshine” with South African singer Vusi Mahlasela.

Man in Motion
(2011, ****) is Haynes’s soul album, and it’s a good one. Echoes of Traffic and Joe Cocker along with R&B giants. Dual keyboardists Cyril Neville and Ian McLagan create a beautiful bed, where Haynes makes himself at home.

Live at the Moody Theater
(2012, ***
) is a two-disc, one-DVD live companion to
Man in Motion
, featuring most of the album, as well as several new Haynes tunes and covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Spanish Castle Magic” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Puts an exclamation point on the fact that no one covers as much ground as well as Warren Haynes.

The Derek Trucks Band

The Derek Trucks Band
(1997, ***
) announced loud and clear that Trucks was not your average teenaged guitar whiz. The album starts with the original, 35-second instrumental “Sarod,” played on the traditional Indian instrument, and goes right into John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.”

Out of the Madness
(1998, ***) goes a bit more mainstream than Trucks’s debut, with guest vocals by Haynes and Larry McCray and some hot jamming by Jimmy Herring. This is more of a jam session than a cohesive band album, but it is a lot of fun.

Joyful Noise
(2002, ****) represented a big leap for the Trucks Band, with the addition of keyboardist/flautist Kofi Burbridge. Some find the juxtaposition of guests to be chaotic but it works for me because the band gels with everyone: salsa star Rubén Blades, soul great Solomon Burke, blues singer and wife-to-be Susan Tedeschi, and Sufi singing master Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.