Gov't Mule: The Deep End, Vol. 2 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Gov't Mule guitarist Warren Haynes and drummer Matt Abts gathered some of the best bassists in the world to pay tribute to the band's late bass guitarist Allen Woody, they got more than they bargained for: stars from all over the musical map, from Bootsy Collins to Phish's Mike Gordon to Les Claypool to Phil Lesh to Metallica's Jason Newsted, each tossing out different musical challenges in loose, jam-session-like surroundings. The results were enough to fill two albums -- the freewheeling Deep End, Volume 1, which came out in 2001, and Volume 2, which is hardly sloppy seconds. Ironically, considering its all-star low-end lineup, The Deep End, Volume 2 mostly offers thirteen different ways to appreciate the phenomenally gifted Haynes. He shreds on the aggressive rocker "Trying Not to Fall" (backed by Newsted), nails every funkified switchback of Tower of Power's "What Is Hip?" and sounds right at home in the shape-shifting prog-rock atmospheres laid down by Tony Levin on "World of Confusion." The clincher: a second disc with twenty minutes of remixes and pulverizing live material.

TOM MOON
(From RS 916 – February 20, 2003)