‘The Deep End Volume I’, the new release from Gov’t Mule, was released in stores last week. The CD is the first of two volumes (the second will appear next spring).

The albums are a tribute to original Gov’t Mule bassist Allan Woody, who also spent a number of years playing bass for the Allman Brothers Band. The project’s concept was to feature a different bass player on each track, and guitarist Warren Haynes and drummr Matt Abts recorded twenty-five tracks with a veritable who’s who of rock bassists, including Flea, Phil Lesh, John Paul Jones, Bootsy Collins, John Entwhistle, and Tony Levin.

The first CD includes the song “Banks of the Deep End”, co-written by Warren Haynes, Mike Gordon and Joe Linitz. The track features Mike on bass and background vocal. The CD also includes “Same Price”, with John Entwhistle on bass and Page playing organ and Wurlitzer piano. The first pressing of the CD includes a limited edition 4 song enhanced bonus disc called ‘Hidden Treasure’, which has a live rendition of Gov’t Mule playing ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago” along with Mike and Page. ‘Hidden Treasure’ also features a 8 minute trailer of “On the Banks”, Mike’s documentary of the making of “The Deep End”, that you can play on your computer. Mike has just completed the editing for the documentary, which is expected to be released on DVD sometime in early 2002.

In other Mike news, he will be joining El Buho on stage November 9 and 10 at Antone’s in Austin, Texas. The lineup also includes Jeff Sipe, Scott Murawski and Peter Schimke. Ticket are $12 advance and $15 day of show. For more info, please check out http://www.antones.net