Wintertime Blues: The Benefit Concert

This is tough. You’ve got a double album chronicling Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes’ annual Christmas Jam (with the proceeds benefitting Habitat For Humanity), which also happens to contain some of the last known recordings featuring Gov’t Mule bassist Allen Woody, before he died unexpectedly at the age of 44. So how can anyone with a heart find fault with this album? Well, that’s why they pay us the big bucks. There are plenty of worthwhile cuts across these two discs (Edwin McCain’s “Beautiful Life,” the Derek Trucks Band’s take on Bob Marley’s “Rastaman Chant,” and Susan Tedeschi’s soulful interpretation of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” among them), but too many of these bluesy shuffles are heavy on instrumental flash and light on grit—not exactly a winning formula. While Gov’t Mule keeps the bong-happy noodling to a minimum on their own albums, here, their cup runneth over with the sort of interminable jams that drive the unwashed masses wild, and drive the rest of us to drink. But hey, it’s for a good cause.