Gov’t Mule & Ziggy Marley raise money for hurricane relief in Richmond, Virginia

It’s always nice when the timing of things just works out in your favor. Recently, I made a trip back home to Richmond, Virginia to see family, but before going, I had the idea of checking to see what concerts might be happening while I was in town. Lucky for me, Ziggy Marley and Gov’t Mule were set to co-headline as part of their Dreaming the Same Dream Tour at the Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront on September 27th.

Finishing its second season, this beautiful new venue — perched alongside the James River by the historic Tredegar Iron Works — has been drawing in some very well-respected acts. A great example is these two artists sharing a bill, coming from totally different worlds (one of reggae royalty and the other a southern rock institution) on a tour named after a song they co-wrote together.

Like I said, the timing couldn’t have been better.

British country-soul artist YOLA was put in charge of priming the crowd for the night, but not in the way she’s used to. For this tour, she traded in her guitar for two turntables and a microphone, providing house music in between sets. She was keeping everyone’s feet tapping, with fresh takes on old classics by artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Prince. YOLA has spoken publicly about her love for dance music, the way that her hometown of Bristol’s longstanding deejay culture has influenced her, and how, without this music, she probably never would have made it to America — the place where she would eventually end up getting signed and ultimately landing on this tour.

Up next came the aforementioned reggae royalty: the eldest son of the King himself, the man who has spent decades guarding the Marley name like something sacred — the one and only Ziggy Marley.

This one was personal for me.

Like so many of us, I’m a massive Bob Marley fan, but for me, it goes beyond just his music. What Bob stood for as a human has always — and will always — continue to guide how I try to live my life. So, watching his first-born son stand on a stage, carrying his father’s same messages and making them his own, hit somewhere deep inside of me that most concerts never reach. Ziggy didn’t just play his dad’s songs, he delivered them like a sermon and the crowd sang every word of songs, like “Jammin’” and “Is This Love?”.

While, of course, we were going to get some Bob songs, Ziggy’s primary focus of the night was promoting his newest album in eight years, Brightside. Recorded at a lower 432 Hz frequency than the industry standard of 440 Hz, Ziggy gave us an album that feels more human in a way that runs deeper than its lyrics. The lower frequency, what Ziggy is calling the “human frequency”, offers listeners a much more grounded and relaxed way of connecting to the music. Concert-goers were treated to a few songs from the new album, including the title track “Brightside”, “JAH We Give Glory”, and the popular “Racism is a Killa”, which compares the injustice of inequality to a disease that needs to be eradicated.

If Ziggy’s set was the sermon, Gov’t Mule’s set was the road to change.

Warren Haynes and company wasted no time proving it. Opening with a tragic folk love song from the 1920s called “Railroad Boy”, a song heavier and swampier once Gov’t Mule got their hands on it. This setlist wasn’t afraid to walk through the dark, with many moments jam heads were waiting for: the Grateful Dead’s “The Other One” was stretched further and further until it melted into the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”, for instance. It felt like two sides of the same storm, rolling in over the James. Just when it seemed Gov’t Mule had played every card, YOLA took a break from spinning Prince records and stepped up to the mic for a cover of Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”, proving the deejay was a powerhouse rock vocalist, too.

After all that darkness and thunder, Gov’t Mule came back for the encore with “Soulshine”, a song Warren wrote long before the Allman Brothers made it famous. It landed like an answer to Ziggy’s set: earlier, Ziggy told us there’s always a “bright side”; Warren closed the night by telling us to let our “soul shine”. Two artists, two different worlds, a tour named for a co-written song — ending on the same message. They really are dreaming the same dream and, for a city that went years without these types of big shows, a night like this on the James River felt like making up for lost time. Did I mention that $2 from every ticket sold this night went to Food for The Poor Jamaica for relief after Hurricane Melissa, the most destructive storm in Jamaica’s history? If you missed the show, there are more ways you can help if you visit www.foodforthepoorja.org/.

Photography by Thomas Semonco

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