“We’ll play up to 200 songs over the course of a tour… it would drive me crazy to play the same songs every night”: Warren Haynes on what drives Gov’t Mule – and why he’s focusing on writing guitar epics

Warren Haynes
(Image credit: Scott Legato/Getty Images)

Back in late 2021, when Gov’t Mule released the Grammy-nominated Heavy Load Blues, their first proper all-blues album, they actually had another completely different album already gassed up, greased up and ready to hit the streets. Peace… Like a River, the previously under-wraps album, was recorded at the same time as Heavy Load Blues, with the band working on tracks for that album by day, then switching gear to work on the bluesier disc at night.

As Warren Haynes recounts, the band took a novel approach to the already unusual concept of recording two albums at once: “We set up two sets of gear in two studios, keeping everything live for the blues album, which was done in a small studio, adjacent to the main studio where Peace was laid down. Absolutely no gear was shared between the two projects – guitars, amps, you name it – everything was kept separate to maintain the two distinct sounds and feels.”

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