Gov’t Mule, photo by Dino Perrucci
Over the weekend, Gov’t Mule’s Spring Tour continued with performances in Charlotte, N.C. and Athens, Ga. For the fourth and fifth shows in a series alongside Americana sister-act Larkin Poe, the Southern rock powerhouse joined forces with their traveling companions for collaborative takes on two standards well-suited for their torchbearing approaches to electric blues.
Gov’t Mule rolled into Charlotte’s TD Amp Ballantyne on Saturday night and built on Larkin Poe’s earlier set with the reliable show-opener “Railroad Boy.” The quartet of guitarist and frontman Warren Haynes, keyboardist Danny Louis, bassist Kevin Scott and drummer Terence Higgins (filling in temporarily for co-founder Matt Abts) wound through other essentials like “Dreaming Out Loud and Beautifully Broken” en route to an early peak of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Mountain Jam,” expertly segued between bits of “Game Face.” At the midpoint in their set, the band tapped Larkin Poe’s Megan Lovell for lap steel and Rebecca Lovell for guitar and vocals on Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” Later, for a hard-hitting take on Billy Cobham’s “Stratus,” the quartet invited guitarist Barnes, a teenage bandmate of Haynes’ who’s always good for a sit-in when his old friend’s in the region.
Last night, for a follow-up to this special show, Gov’t Mule kept trucking down the coast to a booking at Athens’ Classic Center. “Same As It Ever Was” landed as a searing starting point, then the quartet brought on more hits like “Banks of the Deep End” and “Revolution Come, Revolution Go” before Larkin Poe returned to bolster Lead Belly’s blues standard “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?,” which Mule played last in April 2013. For one final surprise in a rewarding weekend on the road, the headliners unearthed Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” which they hadn’t covered since May 2023.
Gov’t Mule and Larkin Poe will reunite at Chesterfield, Mo.’s The Factory tonight, then deliver one last split bill at Nashville’s The Pinnacle on April 22. Find Gov’t Mule’s full 2026 live calendar at mule.net, and find the weekend’s full setlists in the post below.
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