For three decades, Gov’t Mule has galvanized a global fan base with their honest, organic and daring music and improvisational virtuosity, leading them to be recognized as one of the most timeless, revered and active bands in the world whose spot amongst rock titans remains unshakable. Led by visionary GRAMMY Award-winning artist, guitar legend, songwriter and producer Warren Haynes – a cornerstone of the American music landscape – the enduring, globally revered GRAMMY-nominated group has showcased its intelligence and breadth over the course of 20+ studio and live albums, thousands of memorable performances, and millions of album and track sales. Gov’t Mule’s most recent studio album, 2023’s Peace… Like A River (Fantasy Records) is a timeless rock collection featuring guest appearances from Billy F Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Billy Bob Thornton, Ruthie Foster, and Celisse. Peace… Like A River – hailed as “perfection,” “captivating,” “riveting,” and among the band’s best – marked the follow-up to Mule’s GRAMMY-nominated blues album, Heavy Load Blues, with both albums recorded at The Power Station New England during the same sessions but created in different rooms with no shared gear or instruments. Gov’t Mule – Haynes [guitar, vocals], Matt Abts [drums], Danny Louis [keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals], and Kevin Scott [bass] – has become a human encyclopedia of great American music while adding to that canon with their signature sound. The band’s flexible interplay in the studio and on stage makes them a true living, breathing ensemble and Haynes is lauded as one of the most formidable guitarists and vocalists of the modern era and a prolific songwriter and producer.
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is a renowned American guitarist, singer, and songwriter celebrated for his masterful musicianship and soulful voice. Born on April 6, 1960, in Asheville, North Carolina, Haynes is best known as a longtime member of the legendary rock band The Allman Brothers Band, where his exceptional guitar skills contributed to their iconic sound.
In addition to his work with The Allman Brothers Band, Haynes is the founder and frontman of the Southern rock jam band Gov't Mule, showcasing his versatility and deep roots in blues, rock, and jam band music. His solo career further highlights his prowess, producing critically acclaimed albums that blend rock, blues, and Americana.
Haynes' collaborations span a diverse range of artists and genres, including work with The Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends, and The Dead. His contributions to the music world have earned him a reputation as one of the most influential guitarists of his generation.
With a career spanning over four decades, Warren Haynes continues to captivate audiences with his passionate performances and enduring dedication to his craft. His influence extends beyond his own recordings, inspiring countless musicians and fans worldwide.
Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers
On the title track to Welcome 2 Club XIII, Drive-By Truckers pay homage to the Muscle Shoals honky-tonk where founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start: a concrete-floored dive lit like a disco, with the nightly promise of penny beer and truly dubious cover bands. “There were no cool bars in town and Club XIII was the best we had—but it wasn’t all that good, and our band wasn’t particularly liked there,” says Hood, referring to the vocalist/guitarists’ former band Adam’s House Cat. “From time to time the owner would throw us a Wednesday night or let us open for a hair-metal band we were a terrible fit for, and everyone would hang out outside until we were done playing. It wasn’t very funny at the time, but it’s funny to us now.” The 14th studio album from Drive-By Truckers—whose lineup also includes keyboardist/guitarist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan—Welcome 2 Club XIII looks back on their formative years with both deadpan pragmatism and profound tenderness, instilling each song with the kind of lived-in detail that invites bittersweet reminiscence of your own misspent youth.
Produced by longtime Drive-By Truckers collaborator David Barbe and mainly recorded at his studio in Athens, Georgia, Welcome 2 Club XIII took shape over the course of three frenetic days in summer 2021—a doubly extraordinary feat considering that the band had no prior intentions of making a new album. “We had some shows coming up and decided to get together and practice, since we hadn’t even seen each other in a year and a half because of the pandemic,” Hood recalls. “We started demoing song ideas, and pretty soon we realized we had a whole record. It was all sort of magical.” Featuring background vocals from the likes of Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana, Welcome 2 Club XIII was recorded live with most songs cut in one or two takes, fully harnessing the band’s freewheeling energy. “For us it’s always about just getting together and having fun, but this time there was the added feeling of being set free after a long time of wondering if we’d ever get to do this again,” notes Cooley.
Arriving as the band enters its 26th year, Welcome 2 Club XIII marks a sharp departure from the trenchant commentary of The Unraveling and The New OK (both released in 2020). “All our records are political to some extent, but after making three overtly political records in a row we wanted to do something much more personal,” says Hood. A hypnotic introduction to the album’s sprawling autobiography, “The Driver” kicks off Welcome 2 Club XIII with a seven-minute-long, darkly thrilling epic punctuated with lead-heavy riffs and Llana’s unearthly vocals. “Around the same era of Club XIII, I spent a lot of time driving around late at night when I couldn’t sleep, listening to music loud and often having a beer or two,” says Hood. “Sometimes during those drives I’d have these epiphanies about what to do with my life—like listening to Tim by The Replacements not long after it came out and deciding to drop out of school to try and make this whole band thing work.”
The album’s swinging centerpiece, “Welcome 2 Club XIII” spins a sublimely gritty portrait of the spot Cooley sums up as “part disco, part honky-tonk, part place to score cheap cocaine.” With its litany of inside jokes and references to Foghat and The Jim Carroll Band, the track unfolds as a joyful piece of anti-nostalgia, a sentiment perfectly captured in its sing-along-fueled outro (sample lyric: “Our glory days did kinda suck”). Meanwhile, on “Every Single Storied Flameout,” Cooley shares a far more pensive recollection of his younger years. “I wrote that song when my son was turning 16 and going through a rough patch for a bit,” he says. “Luckily, he’s turned it around and he’s doing great now, but it was a tough time for a while. Part of my way of dealing with it was to take ownership of the example I might’ve set, in the hope of leading him out of it.” Graced with the radiant melodies of a three-piece horn section, the result is a spirited anthem merging Cooley’s unsparing self-reflection with a bit of rambling wisdom (e.g., “That part of you that feels alive is wired and can’t be severed from the damage-seeking part of you that runs it/Just don’t embrace it with a vengeance before you’ve even shaved with a razor that you bought with your own money”).
Although Welcome 2 Club XIII has its moments of real-time observation (including “Maria’s Awful Disclosures,” on which Cooley connects the dots between early-19th-century anti-immigrant agitprop and the noxious paranoia of QAnon), much of the album serves as a free-flowing coming-of-age memoir. “Cooley and I have been playing together for 37 years now,” Hood points out. “That first band might have failed miserably on a commercial level, but I’m really proud of what we did back then. It had a lot to do with who we ended up becoming.” And while Drive-By Truckers never shy away from illuminating the many shades of grief that come with getting older, Welcome 2 Club XIII ultimately embodies a certain world-weary joie de vivre—an element beautifully encapsulated in one of its final lyrics, from the softly stunning “Wilder Days”: “As the sun gets dizzy watching us as we go spinning around/I find it best to laugh at the absurdity of life above the ground/There’s no comfort in survival, but it’s still the best option that I’ve found.”
Karina Rykman
Karina Rykman
Born and raised in New York City, Karina Rykman’s musical path began in her early teens playing in bands whenever she could while attending a veritable ton of live music as a fan. Her remarkable prowess on the bass guitar soon landed her a number of high-profile television gigs spanning America’s Got Talent to backing up pop star Julia Michaels on TODAY. By the end of her senior year at NYU, Rykman’s virtuoso talent and infectious spirit saw her invited to join pianist Marco Benevento’s band (as recommended by Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz), with whom she performed countless shows including dates with Vulfpeck, Dispatch, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Guster, and many more.
Rykman soon formed her own namesake band, accompanied by Adam November (guitar, loopers, effects) and Chris Corsico (drums). She quickly earned a reputation as a mesmerizing, unmissable live act, lighting up an array of international stages with headline sets, show-stealing festival performances (including Bonnaroo, Peach Music Festival, and Sweetwater 420 Fest), shows alongside Khruangbin, Guster, and The Disco Biscuits (among others), and recent appearances sitting in with the 8G Band on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
That same spellbinding power was soon captured on a series of independent singles, including “Elevator” and the million-streaming “Plants,” both of which have now been newly enhanced for Rykman’s debut album, JOYRIDE. Written and recorded with childhood friend, and producer Gabe Monro, the album serves as a vivid canvas for Rykman’s vibrant expression and chameleonic songcraft. JOYRIDE features Trey Anastasio as co-producer and featured musician, contributing guitar on five of the album’s nine tracks.
The collaboration is the outcome of a happenstance encounter when both artists performed at 2021’s Peach Music Festival in Scranton, PA. Anastasio took a profound interest in being a part of Rykman’s debut album, offering the use of Anastasio’s storied Vermont studio The Barn along with the suggestion to work with renowned mixer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Swans, Ramones).
“Trey and I hadn’t seen each other since pre-pandemic,” says Rykman. “But at this music festival, he ran up to me and referred to each of my singles by name. I had no idea he knew what I was up to, musically speaking. I went to middle school with his daughters, and we’ve been ‘family friends’ for a long time, but it wasn’t until that moment in July 2021 that he really became a musical peer. The amount of selflessness and care he has shown in his mentorship toward me is awe-inspiring. I could never thank him enough for all he’s given me.”
"When I first heard the early demos, the first thing I said was more Karina," says Anastasio. "Turn up the bass, sing more, and step out. What makes me most happy about the finished album now is that to my ears, it sounds like Karina unapologetically. It has her nature. It has her incredible joyous outlook that I know is real because I saw it in her when she was a kid."
“You only get to make your first album once,” she says, “and I couldn’t be prouder of what we created with this one. It’s a moment in time – the first of what I hope to be a lifetime of making records and touring behind them. I don’t care about bells and whistles; I’m just addicted to playing.”
2024 Tour Video
Debut Album "Joyride" Out Now!
Big Sugar
Big Sugar
The legendary Big Sugar celebrate their ground-breaking "Five Hundred Pounds" deluxe vinyl release from Third Man Records with a 2 set theatrical presentation that spans their storied career from Hugo Boss suit days to their more recent Roots Rock Reggae vibes. Gordie Johnson's power trio breathe life into their early blues and jazz-tinged songbook that has influenced generations of guitarists. "The theatre setting gives us the opportunity to explore a much wider range of styles while still presenting a Big Sugar rock and roll show!"
Since the 90's Big Sugar have been a staple on the airwaves and highways with a unique combination of Jamaican rhythms, blues tonality and heavy rock aggression. Songs like 'Diggin A Hole', 'If I Had My Way', 'Turn The Lights On' and 'Roads Ahead' with their roots/rock/reggae style featuring Gordie Johnson’s signature guitar playing have built a loyal following, earning Big Sugar a Road Gold Award as they continue to sell out concerts across North America.