When Gov’t Mule’s GRAMMY-nominated Heavy Load Blues was released in late 2021, few who heard the album could have sensed that it was merely one part of a two-album project from guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes and his band mates, drummer Matt Abts & keyboardist Danny Louis. While Heavy Load Blues was designed as a live-in-the-studio project exploring the blues idiom, in the midst of that creative rush, Haynes found himself with a bumper crop of new material that ventured outside of the blues genre. The result is Mule’s 12th studio album, the sparkling Peace…Like a River (Fantasy), out now. Co-produced by Warren Haynes and John Paterno, Peace…Like A River deftly combines structure and spontaneity. Concise songcraft coexists seamlessly with the band’s trademark instrumental journeys, and Haynes’ lyrical themes serves as the glue that fuses the new LP’s extraordinary sonic variety.