If the floodgates of memory are opened, what escapes them can no longer be stopped. The US band Gov't Mule has been releasing a whole series of archive recordings of special programs with music by Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones or together with jazz guitarist John Scofield for two years. The release of her furious Doors tribute from 2014 with Robbie Krieger is only a matter of time. The provisional conclusion of the series, however, is a tribute by Gov't Mule to himself. The "Tel-Star Sessions" of 1994 are the very first recordings the band ever made. Mule boss Warren Haynes remembers with eclipsed.
eclipsed: Why did it take so long for you to release these recordings?
Warren Haynes: Almost everything that happened at the Tel-Star sessions was re-recorded on Gov't Mule's first three albums. So these are just other versions of songs that already exist. But it's the first shots we've ever taken. The reason to make it accessible now was our 20th anniversary. We've released a whole series of live records with our special projects that reveal our roots, so to speak. The "Tel-Star Sessions" are part of this series with which we celebrate the pleasant fact that we have been together for 20 years, because it is our own beginning.
eclipsed: But the sound is completely different than in later times. So innocent. I hear they're conquering new territory.
Haynes: That's what I like about these recordings. The band was brand-new. We didn't have a clear idea of what we wanted with it, but the chemistry that came out of these sessions quickly made us realize that we wanted to work together as a full-time band. During these recordings we weren't even a real band. We just tried out a little.
eclipsed: How did you get together? Back then you were still members of the Allman Brothers Band.
Haynes: The Allman Brothers Band has worked at most half the year. So we had endless time to do other things. So bassist Allen Woody and I came up with the idea of creating an improvising power trio. This was a format that was quite unpopular at the time. But we had no idea at that moment that it would become a band that could last for over twenty years. It was a pastime, that's all. We had no idea at all whether there would be an audience for it at all. Then came the first concerts, and suddenly we had a huge following. We really hadn't expected that.
