Mighty High

To its detractors -- and few genres inspire such open aggravation -- "jam" music suffers from a fatal lack of edge. Guitar solos noodle aimlessly, neo-hippies (actually prep-schoolers in disguise) dance goofily, and everyone just seems to smile too much. That's the rap, anyway, and certainly, the music hasn't helped its cause with names like the String Cheese Incident.

But one bunch of Bonnaroo regulars you'd be hard-pressed to pin that tag on is Gov't Mule. Led by guitarist Warren Haynes, the decade-old former Allman Brothers Band off shoot have proffered a thoroughly muscular, occasionally downright nasty sound. Spinning a swampy Southern rock template into riff adventures the Phish generation has the patience for, the group has managed to satisfy hard-rockers' need for decibels and jammers' need for bad dancing.

In the seven years since the passing of original bassist Allen Woody, the group hasn't lost the punch that first distinguished it, and they certainly don't on Mighty High, a new reggae and dub-styled set of old tunes and covers. (The title, a twist on last year's High & Mighty, will be fairly transparent to any attendee of a festival parking lot scene). The theme might imply a mellowing out, but only if you don't notice that Michael Franti appears on two tracks. Spearhead's star makes reggae of the firebrand sort -- and that's exactly why he's on board.

Third track "Horseflies," for example, not only isn't too easy to listen to, it's almost too hard. The song is a takeoff on High & Mighty's "Like Flies," with the original's crunchy rock guitars replaced by a piercing and abstracted variety. And all of that is swallowed inside a heavy fog of dub beats. It's bracing stuff, and certainly not lacking in edge.

Other highlights include "Hard To Handle," the Otis Redding classic that's become a jam-circuit favorite, "Unblow Your Horn," and the Band's "The Shape I'm In." "Handle" is handled with the otherworldly Toots Hibbert (cut live, it was given a studio treatment later). It's a deliciously scuffed take, broken-in and absent the show-offish verbal gymnastics of the Black Crowes' version. "Unblow Your Horn," the album's third spin on "Unring The Bell," features a spacey flutter of muted trumpet that actually does suggest horns being unblown. And "The Shape I'm In" gets at the spirit of Robbie Robertson's raggedy old ditty. Rough shape, was the answer, and the bruised blues vocals and squelching riffs show again that few jam acts can go grimy like Gov't Mule.