Chords for Gov't Mule - Making Heavy Load Blues

_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ _
We didn't make the decision to make a blues record
_ till a few months before we embarked on this whole project,
but in some ways I've been preparing for this for years and years.
I didn't know if it was going to be a mule record or a solo record or what,
but I've been jotting down ideas about blues songs that I always [Bm] wanted to cover
and thinking about ways of [E] twisting and turning them [F#m] into different directions
and how we would approach this and how we [C#] would approach that.
Once [Bm] the decision was [E] made for it to be [F#m] a Government Mule blues record,
then that gave it a lot more focus,
because Government Mule has [B] a [F#] collective personality of its own,
and so we needed to make a record that sounds like Government [Bm] Mule,
but also [B] different and [E] sounds like [F#m] us _ interpreting
what has been a major influence [C#m] on our music.
[Bm] We come from a [E] blues background to [F#m] begin with,
so _ _ _ [C#] we've done a lot [G#] of older blues material,
and [F#m] in the blues world that we've been recording,
there hasn't been as much prep [Bm] as the Government Mule stuff.
We've had to learn the Government Mule songs,
and [F#m] in a lot of instances with the blues recordings,
hey, this is how it [C#m] goes, not too much talk,
[Bm] and immediately into the [F#m] playing without thinking about it,
because we [C#m] all [Bm] instinctively know [F#m] that music pretty much.
[B] _ [F#m] _ _
_ [B] _ [F#m] [Am] The [B] blues project [F#m] is a lot [A] more [Bm] throwdown. _ _
We're adding [F#m] the mule stamp to it,
so it's not like a real _ [Bm] heritage, [C#m] _ tribute, homage [Bm] type of thing.
[E] [F#] It's still to me _ _ got us now, _ contemporary us, whatever that [E] is.
_ [F#m] _ _ The other [Bm] great thing about the blues record
is that they're doing it live on the floor,
so no one has headphones on.
It's all an interactive [G#m] experience.
They [F#m] are setting their [B] volumes based on how [F#m] they hear each other,
_ [C#] so the approach is this [Bm] more intimate band [E] setup,
[Am] and [Bm] it's what these [F#] guys do [D#m] best.
[F#] Now we're in our blues world,
[F#m] and so you can see that it's set up completely different
than the normal [B] mule world.
When we're recording [F#m] _ the blues record,
I'm singing through a little monitor.
[B] _ [F#m] _ [C#m] We're much more squeezed together,
[Bm] [F#m] like we would be in a little club or something, which is great.
_ _ _ Yeah, no, the idea is great, and so far it's been really good.
We get off [E] headphones, [F#m] the cans just play out in the air,
which is good, [D] different. _ _ _
[Bm] _ [E] _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] Almost everything in here is older than me,
_ _ _ [F#m] and I'm _ [Bm] _ _ [F#m] not as young as I once was. _
_ _ _ But it's a good [C#m] feeling to kind of _ [Bm] [F#m] come in and go,
oh, I wonder what that Supro guitar is going to sound like,
or that Bigsby guitar is going to sound like
plugged into this little Les Paul Jr.
amp.
We got off number [B] 2. _
_ [E] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ We're going to embark on some [Em] acoustic blues.
Some of this stuff will make its way into [Bm] that.
_ [E] This is an old Ampeg flip-top amp
that so many records were made on in the 60s and 70s as well.
[G]
That's the [E] bass rig [B] for [Em] the blues stuff.
[A] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ Instead of a big massive thing like we would use on stage
[E] with a bunch of different cabinets and [A] stuff,
it's just that little guy.
[C] And [Em] any of these little [D] amps
[E] could be what I [Em] plug into for [G] the song.
_ [B] _ _ [F#m] And it's [A] just a [E] nice alternative to modern [Em] recording.
_ [F] The majority of what Government Mule does
[Em] is capture as much live as possible.
[A] But the blues stuff, [C] it's 100% [E] live. _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ [A#m] _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [C#] I'm [A] really psyched.
I think [Em] we're walking out of here
with more than one blues record in the can.
_ _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ [A#] _ _ _
_ Between those, we've got to have something, [E] right?
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [D] _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ [E] _ [G] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _