I love to read.  I dig the YouTube revolution, but I’d rather create the pictures in my mind’s eye.  My idea of heaven is sitting at the kitchen table reading magazines while listening to XM.

Which is where I found myself last night.

Suddenly, the deejay got on a run.

He started with Frampton’s "Blooze" from his new album.  Introducing it by saying Warren Haynes helped out.

This was not the pop of latter-day Frampton.  It was more akin to Humble Pie.  There were no looks, only soul.  And as I marveled at the power of the deejay on Deep Tracks to extract the one cut from an indecipherable album and reach me, the song segued into a Gov’t Mule number.

Now this was quite a run.  Subsequent to Gov’t Mule’s "So Weak, So Strong" I heard Procol Harum’s "The Pursuit Of Happiness".  Which turns out to be from their comeback album on Zoo, "Prodigal Son".  It was like they never left.  The music sounded as fresh and ethereal as it did when the band debuted.

And subsequent to Gary Brooker’s otherworldly vocal, I heard Mr. Tubesteak himself, Billy Gibbons.

I didn’t sign up for the ZZ Top express until "Deguello".  Before that they were that little old band from Texas on London Records, the Stones’ OLD label, that toured with farm animals.

Imagine yourself on a hot night in June, sitting outside by the lake, since it’s too hot to be inside, and you can’t handle another minute of air conditioning.  You’re slowed down to a crawl.  Even your mind is running at half-speed.  That’s what "Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell" sounds like.

ZZ Top aren’t like the Beatles, every album doesn’t sound different.  Rather, they have variations on a theme, the blues.  Here Billy’s voice sounds world-weary, but not so tired that he’s not going to tell you his story, isn’t going to clue you in.  But it’s the guitar work that takes you away.  Everybody starts with the same six strings, it’s all what you do with them.  It’s not about speed, it’s not about raw technique, it’s about getting what’s inside YOU to come out of the speakers in your amp.  In his playing on this track, Billy seems descended from all those great delta blues musicians.  He makes it cry and sing.  I had to look up from my magazine, stare into space, let the music wash over me, remind myself that this is how it used to be, before image triumphed over music.

Now there was a good Crowded House song after that.  Another one that seems to have eluded me.  But the track from this run that startled me, that I couldn’t get out of my brain, was by Gov’t Mule, the aforementioned "So Weak, So Strong".

I’ve followed Warren Haynes since the Megaforce days.  Back when indie labels were seen as homes for the second-rate, not the cutting edge.  I heard a track and was stunned that out in the wilderness was this guy who seemed to be functioning with a seventies ethos, but was brand new.

Warren’s gained in acclaim since.  He’s gone on to play with the Allman Brothers.  And he’s gotten traction with Gov’t Mule.  But too many of those Gov’t Mule tracks were heavy.  For stoners.  I took my last illegal drug in the seventies, I don’t want bludgeon, I want something more mellifluous.  And I keep hearing songs from this new Gov’t Mule album, "High And Mighty", and they deliver on this level.  They just SOUND RIGHT!

Maybe I was open because I heard Warren’s Bonnaroo cover of "Wasted Time" on XM.  He got the emotion right on that Eagles classic.

Then I heard "Mr. High & Mighty", the title track from the new album.  In an era when guitars are an assault, Warren’s guitar was up front and center, but the riff he was playing was not only MEMORABLE, it didn’t kick my ass, but entered my heart.  Like the work of all those great southern pickers of yore.

Then on Deep Tracks I heard "Million Miles From Yesterday".  Which was mellower, but not sans balls.  Warren’s not thin.  He doesn’t look like a guy on a poster.  But inside I could tell he’s just like me.  Not trading on his looks, but experiencing the world, and using his art to feed back.  The backup singers were not superfluous, rather they hearkened back to the days when Leon Russell conducted Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear behind Joe Cocker.

And now I hear "So Weak, So Strong".

It’s no longer about albums.  It’s about the track.  You hear one, then you want to hear more.  Cherry-picked good stuff.  Until you want THEM ALL!

I started combing my house.  I know I’ve got "Mr. High & Mighty" somewhere.  Don’t I?

Bugged me I couldn’t instantly steal this stuff.  I had to dig to find my Frampton CD and ZZ Top boxed set.  Do I still OWN "Prodigal Son"?

But finally I got "So Weak, So Strong" P2P.

There’s an intro of porch picking.  And then rock majesty.  The kind you conduct with your arms when you hear the tunes in concert.  And then Warren starts to sing with his pure voice and you say to yourself THIS SHIT IS GREAT!

Just when I think I’m gonna give up on new music because it’s too trendy, too image-based, too much about my head and not my heart, I discover stuff like "So Weak, So Strong".  And I realize that not everybody is playing along, not everybody has sold out, SOME people still remember when it was about music and are carrying on the tradition.

Suddenly Gov’t Mule is my favorite new band.  I want to see them most.  I want to get this same hit live.