Gov’t Mule offered another cut from the band’s forthcoming album, Heavy Load Blues, with the new single, “Snatch It Back And Hold It”. Heavy Load Blues is out on November 12th via Fantasy Records.
Heavy Load Blues is branded as Gov’t Mule’s first-ever “blues” album, with Friday’s Junior Wells cover supporting that branding. The album’s lead single, the Warren Haynes-penned “Heavy Load“, went heavier on the traditional blues angle with a stripped-down acoustic approach. On “Snatch It Back And Hold It”, however, Mule plugs in and cranks it up for a more modern blues tribute.
While the song itself is taken from the Junior Wells songbook, Gov’t Mule makes it wholly their own during an instrumental jam the band dubbed “Hold It Back”. In an in-studio performance video shared along with the song, Mule can be seen weaving through the composed section of the track before arriving in an expansive jam, similar to what the band would do onstage. Heavy Load Blues, though recorded in the studio, was tracked live, thus allowing for the kind of spontaneous exploration that makes up a sizable chunk of “Snatch It Back And Hold It”.
“We had never played that middle section prior to recording it,” Haynes said in a press release. “While we were working up ‘Snatch It Back,’ we just ran through all the key sections and when we got to the instrumental part, we did a very brief talk through about how it might go. It was virtually a jam, and in that sense, it kind of referenced what we normally do on stage. We get an idea and run with it to see where it winds up. It never turns out exactly like you plan it, which is great, because if it is good, it’s usually better than it would have been had you planned it a certain way.”
Watch Gov’t Mule perform Junior Wells’ “Snatch It Back And Hold It” live in-studio for the upcoming album Heavy Load Blues, available here for pre-order. The band will perform its new album live in its entirety on October 29th at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA the night before its annual Mule-O-Ween celebration, also at The Tabernacle. For tickets and more information click here.
Gov’t Mule — “Snatch It Back And Hold It > Hold It Back > Snatch It Back And Hold It” (Official Video)
[Video: Gov’t Mule]