A somewhat overlooked entry in the now lengthy (thirty-year) Gov’t Mule discography, the group’s third album, Life Before Insanity (released 2/15/00), is nevertheless an essential step in the group’s progression. The presence of outside musicians hearkens to the steady stream of sit-ins the band has hosted over the years. Still, more importantly, this last studio album before Allen Woody’s death foreshadows Mule’s evolution in the wake of his passing in 2000.
In the aftermath of that tragedy, surviving members Warren Haynes and Matt Abts persevered through multiple stages of ‘The Deep End’ project, the ultimate result of which was 2004’s ‘The Rebirth of the Mule,’ a four-man line-up with Andy Hess on bass and Danny Louis on keyboards. With the hindsight of a quarter century on Life Before Insanity, the expansion of Gov’t Mule’s sound seems inevitable.
In its original three-piece format, Haynes, Woody, and Abts had essentially fulfilled the group’s initial vision, which was a reimagining of the power trio concept based on the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream (formulated in the Nineties by Haynes and Woody while they were members of the Allman Brothers Band).
Not surprisingly, Life Before Insanity has its share of bone-crushing heavy rock. Long-established staples of the Mule repertoire, “Wandering Child” and “Bad Little Doggie,” supply counterpoint to the muted but no less passionate (and intensely dark) introspection of “No Need To Suffer” and “Far Away,” all of which material evinces the intelligence of its author Haynes as well as his facile slide guitar.
The nimble interaction of the Woody/Abts rhythm section also adds to the energy of the performances. As do other players’ contributions: Hook Herrera’s harmonica spices “I Think You Know What I Mean,” while Ben Harper’s vocals and lap steel on “Lay Your Burden Down” bolster the intrinsic camaraderie of The Mule. Also adding varied colors throughout the album is Johnny Neel (Allman Brothers, Dickey Betts Band) via an organ, Wurlitzer piano, and background voice.
Life Before Insanity does suffer slightly compared to its two predecessors, but not due to the expansion of the arrangements or other participants’ contributions. Instead, the track sequencing produced, engineered, and mixed by Michael Barbiero (like the previous pair of records) doesn’t sufficiently highlight the record’s diversity.
Prime candidates for excision include the too-similar “Fallen Down” and “World Gone Wild,” both of which appear, to their great detriment, side-by-side in a string of tracks at the middle of the long-player. The acoustic delicacy of “Tastes Like Wine,” however, does offset that somewhat flaccid interval, and the Indian-accented folk tune “In My Life” (not the Beatles song!) serves a similar function as the penultimate cut, particularly as its juxtaposed with a hell-bent-for-leather cover of Robert Johnson’s “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” (a ‘hidden track’ on early versions of the record).
Like its two predecessors, this Mule LP has, for whatever reason, been given a somewhat short shift in terms of archival overview. As with the eponymous debut and the sophomore record Dose, this title is slightly tricky to procure physically except as an import (occasionally paired with the latter in a single package).
Given Gov’t Mule’s creative stasis in recent years, the artistic vigor of the group’s earliest period is worth revisiting, especially from the extended perspective of twenty-five years.
