By A Thread (2009)

[Francky]

By A Thread (2009)



1. Broke Down On The Brazos 6:19
2. Steppin’ Lightly 7:10
3. Railroad Boy 5:03
4. Monday Mourning Meltdown 8:08
5. Gordon James 3:48
6. Any Open Window 4:45
7. Frozen Fear 5:48
8. Forever More 4:17
9. Inside Outside Woman Blues #3 9:04
10. Scenes From A Troubled Mind 7:23
11. World Wake Up 5:54

ça vient de sortir !
Quand on se (re-)marie on fait souvent un bébé.

IN THE STUDIO

We are pleased to announce that Gov't Mule is heading back into the studio and we will be featuring blog, photo and video updates in the In The Studio section of mule.net. Updates will begin this weekend, so keep an eye out.

Comme pour High and mighty on sera avisés au jour le jour de l'évolution des sessions.

là : http://www.mule.net/inthestudio/

[Francky]

Gov't Mule went back into the studio this week to record one or two more songs for their impending Eighth Studio Alubm due out later this year. Head to www.mule.net/inthestudio to get a Fly on The Wall update via Blogs, Photos and Video.

[Francky]

Sortie le 28 juillet

PRE-ORDER "BY A THREAD" NOW

We are pleased to announce that Gov't Mule's eighth studio album, and first with new bassist Jorgen Carlsson, is titled "By A Thread" and will be in stores on July 28th, 2009. This album was recorded over the first few months of this year, and the recording process was captured via Blog, Photos and Video at www.mule.net/inthestudio.

Those who pre-order the disc will receive an exclusive digital download of live Gov't Mule recordings. These recordings, Mule Tracks Presents: The Soundchecks, will be made during rehearsals and the first few soundchecks from the Summer Gov't Mule Tour. The band wanted to make the pre-order bonus a little more special this time around, we will have more details on this to follow in the coming weeks. There is also a special "By A Thread" t-shirt that you can buy with the CD for an extra $10

[Ayler]

Le 28 juillet ? Bonne nouvelle !

[wishbone]

http://mule.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=268_16816&pc=GMCD20

Everyone who pre-orders "By A Thread" will receive an exclusive digital download of live Gov't Mule recordings. These recordings, "Mule Tracks Presents: The Soundchecks", will be made during rehearsals and the first few soundchecks from the Summer 2009 Tour. The bonus download will be available on the album's release date, July 28, 2009.

[Francky]

Et donc selon Matt avec qui j'ai discuté hier soir la sortie est reportée à début septembre

[Francky]

Confirmé sur mule merch, en cherchant bien.
Par contre y'a la liste des morceaux

1. Broke Down On The Brazos 6:19
2. Steppin’ Lightly 7:10
3. Railroad Boy 5:03
4. Monday Mourning Meltdown 8:08
5. Gordon James 3:48
6. Any Open Window 4:45
7. Frozen Fear 5:48
8. Forever More 4:17
9. Inside Outside Woman Blues #3 9:04
10. Scenes From A Troubled Mind 7:23
11. World Wake Up 5:54

Everyone who pre-orders "By A Thread" will receive an exclusive digital download of live Gov't Mule recordings. These recordings, "Mule Tracks Presents: The Soundchecks", will be made during rehearsals and the first few soundchecks from the Summer 2009 Tour. The bonus download will be available on the album's release date in September 2009.

[Francky]

Faut encore attendre, sortie le 27 octobre !!!!

Le premier titre est en écoute sur mule.net, avec Billy Gibbons

grosse basse groovie. Gentil duel de guitares avec le barbu. Difficile de prédire ce que le morceau donnera sur scène avec Warren seul au manche.

[Ayler]

La pochette :



Je découvre "Broke Down On The Brazos" en tapant ces lignes.

[Francky]

Pour les curieux Railroad boy a été joué le 5 août à Montclair et est sortie en Mule tracks
(je l'ai pas)

[Ayler]

Quelques nouvelles de Warren

[Ayler]

"Frozen Fear", un autre titre du nouvel album est en ligne sur leur MySpace.

Première écoute : pas du tout mon truc. Reggae rock FM.

[Michel]

Première écoute du nouveau CD (http://zinhof.blog.hr/) plutôt agréable, la guitare de Warren très présente, et il chante remarquablement bien.

[Ayler]

Survolé rapidement hier. @ suivre...

[Electric Thing]

Après quelques écoutes (il tourne en boucle depuis ce matin...)

Le premier titre est avec Billy Gibbons
grosse basse groovie. Gentil duel de guitares avec le barbu.

Gros son... pour un titre sympa qui passe bien et qui garde, malgré son côté "bourrin très classique", des petits arrangements forts sympathiques ! En plus les deux guitares se complètent très bien je trouve ! Une bonne entrée en matière.

"Steppin’ Lightly" a une structure compliquée ! Un début très funky qui petit à petit vire vers le hard rock avec un solo tendu ! Le titre semble s'arrêter à un moment... mais reprend comme il a débuté ! Le solo final est très bon...

"Railroad Boy" : sympa, mais pas inoubliable ! Y'aurait pas un côté irlandais dans cette ballade ?

"Monday Mourning Meltdown" est très décevant !!! Je n'accroche pas du tout à l'ambiance et au chant ! Y'a bien la touche hendrixienne vers la fin... mais l'ensemble est assez chaotique !

"Gordon James" est certainement un beau titre, tout en douceur... mais ça ne me touche pas ! On dirait un peu du Neil Young, en moins bien !

"Any Open Window" : du Gov't Mule sautillant...

"Frozen Fear" : du Gov't Mule chiant ! Pardon... très chiant ! On dirait du Clapton des année 80 !

"Forever More" : une intro acoustique... Gov't Mule va t-il nous faire pleurer ? Malheureusement ce n'est pas de bonheur ! La voix est pourtant très belle, mais la mélodie est bien trop impersonnelle ! Rien de transcendant ni d'inoubliable... même pour la partie électrique qui pue encore la merde FM !

"Inside Outside Woman Blues #3" : le retour à du vrai rock avec un dialogue voix/guitare intéressant et viril ! Bonne reprise... explosive !

"Scenes From A Troubled Mind" : une intro excellente, un chant posé... Ce n'est pas le titre qui fait tout exploser mais quelle classe. J'aime beaucoup.

"World Wake Up"... un titre qui me laisse perplexe ! Le début est très chiant, comme un titre de U2 ! Mais à 3.45 il se passe un truc... musicalement c'est bon, très bon même ! Dommage que tout le titre n'ait pas été dans cette veine ! Un côté expérimental à la Beatles ou je ne sais quoi... mais c'est très touchant !

[Michel]

Enfin, il arrive le nouveau CD du groupe de Warren Haynes, prévu en juillet puis finalement retardé au 27/10/2009 juste avant la tournée européenne de novembre, qui bien sur évite la France.
On se console avec ses onze titres, qui après le controversé Mighty High, renouent avec une musique plus dans l'esprit des premiers albums.
Nouveau bassiste (Jorgen Carlsson), un son de guitare fabuleux et omniprésent, des morceaux souvent assez longs qui permettent aux musiciens de s'exprimer, de changer d'ambiance, et de dérouler.
Mention spéciale au chant de Warren Haynes, qui, bien mis en valeur, est de plus en plus profond.
Et puis sa guitare ! !
Quel régal, dans l'attaque des notes, dans certains climats hendrixiens ou en finesse sur World Wake Up, le guitariste a assimilé des tas de genres (il suffit de voir la variété des cover jouées live) en jouant avec l'Allman Brothers Band ou les rescapés du Dead et en participant à de nombreux projets divers et variés
On dit souvent que Gov't Mule est surtout un groupe de scène et c'est une évidence quand on écoute les Mule Tracks, avec les set-list qui, soir après soir sont bouleversées.
Mais le studio n'est pas négligé, d'ailleurs Billy Gibbons de ZZ Top pointe sa barbe sur Broke Down On The Brazos, qui ouvre l'album, alors bien sur c'est bon, c'est superbe, cool (pour info les shows de ZZ Top en Europe actuellement sont des merveilles), six minutes de bonheur, et ce duo donne la couleur à l'album, car Steppin’ Lightly reste dans le même climat avec un gros son de guitare avec un solo superbe. Et la fête continue, j'aime particulièrement le tempo endiablé de Any Open Window et son solo rageur.
Frozen Fear renoue avec le rythme syncopé/reggae/formaté FM pour tenter de passer en radio (?), Forever More avec son intro à l'acoustique, fait la part belle à la voix, Inside Outside Woman Blues #3, Scenes From A Troubled Mind, World Wake Up sont plus heavy qui sont destinés à faire les beaux jours des concerts à venir par leur construction.
Au final, malgré quelques tentatives FM , un bon CD avec de bonnes chansons, la voix de Warren superbe.
Et la guitare !
Là encore c'est en live que les qualités de Warren éclatent mais ce CD est une belle carte de visite pour avoir une idée de l'immense potentiel du groupe.

[Ayler]

Personne n'a noté la ressemblance entre "Steppin’ Lightly" et un titre repris par Jeff Beck récemment ?

[Electric Thing]

Je n'ai pas suivi les derniers travaux du père Beck, donc non je n'ai rien noté !

De quoi il en retourne ?

[Merry Prankster]

Ca fait plaisir de retrouver la bande à Warren avec un album qui leur ressemble plus.
J'avais été décu (pour rester poli) avec l'album dub/reggae et le live Haunted House m'avait un peu laissé sur ma faim.
Je n'ai écouté le nouvel album qu'une fois mais je ne me suis pas ennuyé une seconde.

[Francky]

Bon. J'ai un avis, quand même. Ou des avis.
Déjà, ce disque va me conforter dans l'idée que Live Music is Better. Et les disques de la Mule, comme ceux de beaucoup de groupes, ne valent que pour la base qu'ils donnent aux concerts. Je vais encore l'écouter quelques fois, mais il n'échappera pas au sort des autres, l'étagère.
Après qu'en penser ? Globalement, c'est pas un grand cru exceptionnel, mais il y a plein de choses intéressantes. Dans tous les domaines où la Mule excelle, cette année la mode est au rock fort. Gros son, grosses guitares, voix puissante.
Mais il faut surtout écouter Jorgen Carlsson qui confirme ce que ceux qui ont assisté à un concert récent, ou écouté des mule tracks : c'est un très très fort.

Il a été dit plus haut (avec assez peu de tact), que ça sentait la FM. Moi ça me saute pas aux tympans, mais faut dire qu'en FM j'écoute surtout France Musique
. Hors donc le son de basse qui me vient le plus à l'esprit, c'est celui d'un Chris Squire, dans le Yes tardif. (C'est pas une insulte de ma part, j'adore Yes, mais quand même plus le Yes première époque). Steppin' Lightly pourrait être un morceau de Yes. Avec un chant cinq octaves en dessous, d'accord !

Voilà, faut laisser mûrir, voir ce que chaque morceau donnera live sur le long terme. Faut se méfier des premières impressions, parce qu'Unring the Bell, par exemple, qui avait été descendu ici même, avec son rythme reggae comme Frozen Fear a donné des versions absolument incendiaires à partir de 2006.

Après on entend déjà qu'avec Inside Woman Blues, Brazos, Scenes from a Troubled mind, y'a de la matière.

Ah oui zéro pointé aux fins de morceaux en fade out.
Et puis la démago écolo de World Wake Up, (car oui, Warren sait aussi être un grand Songwriter), on pouvait s'en passer.

A suivre très bientôt lors de l'Euro Tour. A propos quelqu'un a pris des billets ?

[Francky]

Après plusieurs écoute du run de San Francisco le 25 et 26 septembre, je peux dire qu'il sort vraiment de belles choses de cet album.
Pour l'instant il n'ont joué que 7 morceaux.
Brazos, très efficace, Warren parvient à faire chanter sa guitare sur deux registres. Mais évidemment c'est fait pour deux, et avec les guests ça va déchirer. j'entends déjà Derek !
Monday Mourning Meltdown laisse un très belle part au chant.
Forever More, belle balade, ça repose. Ce titre est rôdé, ça fait longtemps qu'il le jouait en solo, ou en groupe comme au New Year run de l'an dernier.

Je suis plus sceptique sur Railroad Boy. Le chant est puissant, mais la rythmique trop binaire à mon goût.

Inside Outside woman Blues est très fort. Hendrixien, et dans le genre, très bien fait. ça sera un cheval de bataille pour les mois et les années à venir.

Frozen Fear, comme Unring the Bell en son temps est un très bon morceau. Si je souscris partiellement à ce qui à été dit plus haut, en plublic c'est pas du tout le cas et quand Warren part en solo ça fait très mal.

Je suis moins client du heavy metal binaire de Any Open Window, mais bon. Y'a des clients pour Physical Graffiti alors....

Sinon à part le dernier disque, les versions de Mule, avec une nouvelle ligne de basse par Jorgen mérite une grosse attention. Du lourd, du très lourd !

[Michel]

Après plusieurs écoutes, le CD se révèle plein de bonne surprises, et comme le souligne Francky des morceaux vont casser la baraque en live une fois qu'ils seront rôdés

[Ayler]

Un SUPER article sur l'album :

On y apprend que "Inside Outside Woman Blues #1" se trouve sur le 33 tours par exemple. "Scenes From a Troubled Mind" et "World Wake Up" datent de l'album précédent ("High and Mighty") - d'où la présence d'Andy Hess sur "Scenes From a Troubled Mind". "Any Open Window" est une sorte d'hommage à Buddy Miles & Mitch Mitchell, décédés l'an passé. Warren nous rappelle la présence de "Forever More" sur le "Live at Bonnaroo" (excellent disque d'ailleurs !).

GOV'T MULE'S FIRST album in three years, "By A Thread," embraces both the old and the new. It's the Southern-leaning, hard-rocking jam band's first album with bassist Jorgen Carlsson, yet in some ways it's the closest Mule's came to its original trio sound since founding bassist Allen Woody died in 2000.

"I think when Jorgen Carlsson, our new bass player, joined the band [in 2008], it kind of was an indicator for us to revisit our first few records, which was a trio before we added keyboards, [Danny Louis in 2004]," said guitarist-singer-leader Warren Haynes. "So, I think in some ways, we looked backward and forward at the same time. We never want to do what we've already done. We want every record to be different then the one before it."

As a result, Gov't Mule's eighth studio record feels a little bit new, a little bit borrowed, but still grounded in blues, Southern and classic rock riffs, psychedelic explosions, Haynes' soulful vocals and epic jams. The influences are all there: Led Zeppelin ("Monday Mourning Meltdown"), Pink Floyd ("Gordon James"), ZZ Top ("Broke Down on the Brazos") and Jimi Hendrix ("Any Open Window"). So is the familiar riffage in "Steppin' Lightly" and "Railroad Boy." Then there's something like "Frozen Fear," which is an amalgamation of Gov't Mule's pop sensibility ("Soulshine," "Beautifully Broken") and its love of reggae ("Unring the Bell," 2007's reggae album, "Mighty High").

"All these influences that make up the new record have been with us the entire time," Haynes said. "It's hard to bring all your influences to the surface. Eventually as many of them rise up as can, but I don't know, it just felt like this record came about really quickly and most of the songs that I had written prior to rehearsal were songs that were written in a short period of time, but then when we got to the actual rehearsal and recording process, we wrote three or four songs on the spot, and it's hard to determine where they come from because they were so spontaneous."

Perhaps most interesting are two songs held back from Gov't Mule's last album, "High and Mighty." One, "Scenes From a Troubled Mind," features former bassist Andy Hess, while the other, "World Wake Up," was written when President George W. Bush was in office, but takes on new meaning now. "Forever More" was a Haynes solo song, previously available acoustically on his "Live at Bonnaroo" album. And "Railroad Boy" is an old Celtic song.

Still, this may be the heaviest, and most aggressive the Gov't Mule's sounded in years — at least since Woody was in the band. Express asked the perpetually-on-tour Haynes — he's also a member of the Allman Brothers Band and The Dead — to guide us through "By a Thread."



"Broke Down on the Brazos"
Well, when we listened back to the recording of "Broke Down on the Brazos," which was the last song we wrote and recorded for the record, it reminded us of early ZZ Top. So, I called Billy [Gibbons, the iconic band's guitarist], who's been a friend for a long time, and I asked him if he'd be interested in playing on it. So I sent him the track and he called back and said, "All right, let's do it." A few days later we sat in the studio staring each other in the face, trading guitar licks and it was a short, quick, smooth process — took about 30 minutes and we were done. But his contribution was amazing. I don't even like to think of the song without his contribution now. But I think, in addition, [was] the fact that he helped inspire the song in the first place — whether we knew it at the time or not — so I think he kind of just took it to a whole new level.

"Steppin' Lightly"
The line "By a thread" in the song "Steppin' Lightly" refers to an individual who's hanging on by a thread, but when applied by a universal overview, along with the album art, which depicts the same kind of message, it takes on this global connotation, which is looking at the world as being in a precarious time and in need of some hope and change.



"Railroad Boy"
That's actually a traditional Celtic folk song that's probably well over a hundred years old. I haven't researched its origin, but I know it's traditional, public-domain. I learned that song when I was 14 or 15 years old. I used to go sneaking into this folk music club back in Asheville, N.C., where I grew up, and I befriended some of the singer-songwriters and folk singers that I'd sneak in and hear. And they taught me "Railroad Boy" as a teenager and it's always stayed in my head. For some reason it took until now for me to think about applying a rock treatment to it. It's very much in line with the way Led Zeppelin would take a traditional folk song and make a rock arrangement.

"Monday Mourning Meltdown"
When I first wrote it, I didn't get locked into any mindset for it. I wanted to see how the band would interpret it and when we started rehearsing it we tried it a bunch of different ways, and the way that seemed to make the most sense was the way you're describing it, with the kind of moody jazz section in the middle and back to the psychedelic explosion in the end.

"Gordon James"
"Gordon James" is very much written in the tradition of a folk song. Melodically and structurally, we wanted to capture the essence of the story, and the story is about an arms dealer, so it's a very dark character, and so, we wanted the music to not only convey the melodic nature of the song, but also to capture that strange atmosphere that the lyrics project. So, it's a folk song, given the treatment the way a Pink Floyd song, or something, would help become the backdrop to the message.

"Any Open Window"
We were approaching the end of the recording sessions and that song came about through the band just jamming. Danny, our keyboard player, was playing guitar instead of keyboards. Four of us were just in the room coming up with some musical ideas and it came together really quickly. So when we took a break I went to the other wing of the studio and wrote some lyrics for it and came back.

I think we all could feel this kind of Hendrix-esque vibe emanating from the music. So I wanted the lyric to project that as well, and kind of reflecting on the fact that we just lost Buddy Miles and Mitch Mitchell, who were the two Jimi Hendrix drummers. So that was all kind of in our minds when we were writing the song. So in some way it's playing tribute to that kind of vibe — not directly, but indirectly — it was one of those songs that came up from the ground and happened so quickly that we didn't question it.



"Frozen Fear"
I think for us, it's important to maintain a balance between all the different styles we're influenced by, and for a band that relies on improvisation and playing really long shows — you know, we play three-hour shows — balance is really important. And I've noticed and learned from bands like the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead that there's the light side of stuff you do and the dark side of what you do and some stuff in between, but all of it is part of the overall picture. So "Frozen Fear" occupies that space that a "Soulshine" or "Beautifully Broken" or some of these kind of songs would occupy.

The reggae influence came about when Danny switched from keyboards to guitar. We had started recording the song with him playing keyboards and it wasn't coming together. We were trying a more rhythm-and-blues approach and we weren't happy with it, so he said, "Lets see what happens when I play guitar." And he started playing this reggae-ish-influenced thing, and it all sort of fell into place. So, the final result being similar to but different than anything we've done.



"Forever More"
"Forever More" is a song of mine that prior to this recording had only been done solo acoustic. It appears on my "Live at Bonnaroo" CD, and I had never thought of it as a Gov't Mule song, but [co-producer and engineer] Gordie Johnson came up with the idea of making it a Mule song. He kept reiterating that he loved the song and we should give it a try and see what happened when the band interpreted it. And so we did, and it just fell into place. Everyone projected their own personality and it turned out completely different than I would have guessed, but in a very positive way.

I guess I never thought of it as a rock song. I always thought of it as a folk ballad, but in the same way that we treated "Railroad Boy," we kind of treated "Forever More." And I love when that happens because part of the beauty of being in a band — especially a band like Gov't Mule, where there's a high level of musicianship — is that the band's interpretations of the song is going to exceed what's in my head when I write it. It's a luxury that I'm happy to be able to afford.



"Inside Outside Woman Blues #3"
Lyrically it was the answer to "Outside Woman Blues," which was an old blues song that Cream covered in the way that bands used to write the answer to someone else's song. That's kind of what "Inside Outside Woman Blues" started as, and I didn't know at the time, when I was writing it, that it was going to turn into this big, long, jam-oriented song, but once we started playing it, it just kind of wanted to go there.

The number "3" refers to the fact that we did three versions of it, and we liked all three of them, so we included "No. 3" on the CD. "No. 1" is on the vinyl and "No. 2" will come out somewhere — we're not sure exactly where — but eventually all three versions will be available. ["No. 1" and "No. 2"] are just live performances with the vocal and all the instrumentation going to tape live, as if we were on stage, so they just kind of have their own vibe. They differ a bit in arrangement and from a sonic perspective, but mostly in the interpretation and the improvisation.

"Scenes From a Troubled Mind"
"Scenes From a Troubled Mind" was recorded during the "High and Mighty" sessions and has Andy Hess playing bass. And we actually even finished "Scenes From a Troubled Mind" during those sessions and were on the fence of whether to bump one of the songs and include it. With that song and "World Wake Up," I knew that if they didn't make "High and Mighty" they were going to make the next record. So, once we got into the studio "Scenes From a Troubled Mind" just seemed to be like a missing piece to the puzzle. And it fits more with this record than it would have fit with "High and Mighty" — just from a song-by-song perspective.

"World Wake Up"
I wrote that song with Danny Louis during the George W. Bush administration and, we were on the fence about releasing it for "High and Mighty," and we never did really finish it. We recorded 16 songs, or something, for that record, so we knew some of them weren't going to make it. So, in the process of deciding which songs belonged together or not, we decided to wait and include "World Wake Up" on the next record, which would be "By a Thread." Now we're in the beginning stages of the Obama administration and I think it takes on a little different meaning. It's a little more somber and tranquil and little less angry then when I wrote it, but it's very much reaching out for unification worldwide.

Source : http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/10/govt-mule-by-a-thread.php

[Electric Thing]

"Railroad Boy"
a traditional Celtic folk

Ah j'avais bien vu !

[Ayler]

J'ai renommé le sujet pour que le nouvel album ressorte plus clairement. Je l'écoute bien une fois par jour depuis sa sortie.

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