Yola spent the Dreaming The Same Dream Tour spinning DJ sets between the bands. On the final night in Irving, Texas, she was also stepping up to the mic to belt out Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” with Gov’t Mule.
That was just one of several guest spots on Saturday as the joint run with Ziggy Marley wrapped up. The Mule set turned into a rotating door of collaborators, pulling in Marley himself, two members of his band and Yola for a night built around shared songs.
Warren Haynes and company didn’t rush into the sit ins, though. They opened with a trio of originals, “Mr. High And Mighty,” “Brand New Angel” and “About To Rage,” before tipping their hats to the Lone Star State.
First came “Big Legged Woman (With A Short, Short Mini Skirt),” an Israel Tolbert tune that Texas blues great Freddie King made his own over the years.
The quartet followed it with ZZ Top’s “Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings,” pulled from the trio’s 1975 album Fandango!
Then the guests arrived. Ziggy Marley, the eldest son of Bob Marley, took vocals and guitar on his father’s “Lively Up Yourself,” a song that became a collaborative staple across the tour. Tracey Hazzard and Natasha Pearce added background vocals while George Hughes sat in on B3 organ.
After the Mule’s own “Time To Confess,” Yola walked out for “Black Dog.” The British singer, known for her Grammy nominated solo work and her turn as Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the film Elvis, had been singing the Zeppelin classic with the band throughout these dates.
The pairing makes more sense than it might look on paper. Yola has always moved freely between soul, country and rock, and a hard rock vocal workout like “Black Dog” gives her room to show the full range of that voice.
The band kept rolling with “The River Only Flows One Way” and “Same As It Ever Was” before swinging toward Grateful Dead territory. Adam Zimmon and Damon Grant from Ziggy Marley’s band joined in on guitar and percussion for “Bertha” and “Fire On The Mountain.
That Dead stretch is where the tour’s two worlds really met. Gov’t Mule have long leaned into jam culture, and the loose, rhythmic groove of “Fire On The Mountain” sits closer to reggae than most rock fans might expect.
The quartet closed with “Mr. Man” and came back for an “Endless Parade” encore. That handed the tour a send off that felt more like a family gathering than a standard double bill.
For fans who caught these shows, the lineup offered something you rarely see on one ticket. A reggae icon’s son, a Southern rock jam band and a genre hopping soul singer all ended up on the same stage, playing each other’s favorites.
Gov’t Mule aren’t taking much of a break. The band’s New Year’s run kicks off at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on December 28 before heading to MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston for New Year’s Eve.
