"When Woody passed away we were kind of in the middle of preparing for what would be the next Gov't Mule record anyway. After Allen passed, we didn't know how to continue that process. We didn't want to start auditioning bass players to try to find a permanent replacement. So the idea came about that all of our favorite bass players might be too busy to join the band, or even do a whole tour, but maybe they wouldn't be too busy to do one song.” -Warren Haynes

The Deep End Vol. 1 is the first disk culled from these sessions (which were filmed by Mike Gordon of Phish) for On The Banks, a documentary on the recording sessions.

"Most tribute records are re-recording existing material," he says "This record is all new material, there's no new versions of songs we'd already recorded. The main mission was to marry the right song with the right bass player, to make sure that whatever song we chose was a song that would allow each bass player to shine through with their own personality."

The songs on The Deep End Vol. 1 have Gov't Mule's trademark tough guitar riffs and jamming, but each tune is tailored to its guest players. As is the norm with Gov´t. Mule albums, it was recorded live in the studio with a minimum of overdubs.

"We overdubbed a few things here and there, but for the most part it was live performance," says Haynes. "That's the way Gov't Mule has always done it. All these bass players were such strong musical personalities, we thought it would be best to capture that vibe by making the studio as much of a live environment as possible."


Track list:

1. Fool's Moon featuring Jack Bruce on bass & vocals; Bernie Worrell on organ & clavinet
2. Life On The Outside] featuring Larry Graham on bass & vocals; Audley Freed on guitar;Eddie Harsch on organ & clavinet.
3. Banks Of The Deep End featuring Mike Gordon on bass & background vocals; Danny Louis on organ & wurlitzer
4. Down And Out In New York City featuring Flea on bass; Rob Barraco on organ & wurlitzer; Keith Barry on trumpet; Mike Uhler on tenor sax; Dan Weinstein on trombone
5. Effigy featuring Mike Watt on bass; Jerry Cantrell on background vocals
6. Maybe I'm a Leo featuring Roger Glover on bass; Randall Bramblett on organ
7. Same Price featuring John Entwistle on bass; Page McConnell on organ & clavinet.
8. Soulshine featuring Willy Weeks on bass; Little Milton on guitar & vocals; Chuck Leavell on organ & wurlitzer
9. Sco-mule featuring Chris Wood on bass; John Scofield on guitar; Bernie Worrell on organ & clavinet.
10. Worried Down With The Blues featuring Oteil Burbridge on bass; Derek Trucks on guitar; Gregg Allman on organ & vocals
11. Beautifully Broken featuring Stefan Lessard on bass; Danny Louis on wurlitzer & organ.
12. Tear Me Down featuring Bootsy Collins on bass & vocals; Bernie Worrell on organ & mini moog
13. Sin's a Good Man's Brother featuring Allen Woody on bass

The Deep End Vol. 2 is planned for a late spring 2002 release. This second album will feature bass players including Me'shell N'degeocello, Phil Lesh, Les Claypool, George Porter, Jr. and Dave Schools.