Hear Gov't Mule's bluesy reimagining of Tom Waits' Make It Rain

(left to right) Warren Haynes, Matt Abts and Jorgen Carlsson of Gov't Mule perform on stage at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on May 25, 2015 in London
(Image credit: C Brandon/Redferns/Getty Images)

Gov't Mule are currently prepping the release of Heavy Load Blues, their first album dedicated solely to the blues.

Thus far we've been treated to two tastes from the album in the form of the bare-bones acoustic Heavy Load, and the band's scintillating extended cover of Junior Wells’ Snatch It Back And Hold It.

Now, the Mule have premiered a third single from the album, a soulful take on Tom Waits' Make It Rain

You can check out the cover – which is given an ethereal atmosphere from both Haynes' wailing leads and, strangely, a Fender spring reverb with a mind of its own – below.

“When recording the album, I had brought in this old Fender spring reverb unit that I wanted to use on my guitar sound,” Haynes said in a press release. “They can be pretty finicky. If the stage isn’t solid, or somebody’s jumping up and down, it reacts by making this crazy reverb vibration that comes through the amp. 

"I had intentionally set it up on the studio floor to make it kind of shockproof, but what we didn't allow for was some radio frequencies that randomly interfered and set it off. So, it started making these weird sounds that sounded like thunder. We were in the middle of what turned out to be the best take of Make It Rain and it began doing that throughout the whole thing. 

"As it turned out," Haynes continued, "it happened in these key spots in the song. When we were finished and listened to it with engineer and co-producer John Paterno, we decided to use it. It actually sounded like we planned it that way!”

Recorded live at The Power Station New England on analog tape, Heavy Load Blues is set for a November 12 release via Fantasy Records.

You can check out its cover art and track list below, and preorder the album via Gov't Mule's website.

Gov't Mule Heavy Load Blues album cover

(Image credit: Press)

Gov't Mule – Heavy Load Blues:

  1. Blues Before Sunrise 
  2. Hole In My Soul 
  3. Wake Up Dead 
  4. Love Is A Mean Old World 
  5. Snatch It Back and Hold It – Hold It Back – Snatch It Back and Hold It 
  6. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
  7. (Brother Bill) Last Clean Shirt  
  8. Make It Rain 
  9. Heavy Load 
  10. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (short version)
  11. If Heartaches Were Nickels 
  12. I Asked Her For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
  13. Black Horizon 
  14. Hiding Place* 
  15. You Know My Love* 
  16. Street Corner Talking* 
  17. Have Mercy On The Criminal* 
  18. Long Distance Call*
  19. Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home* 
  20. Need Your Love So Bad*
  21. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl*

* = Deluxe Version bonus track.

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Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.