With 2 million paid song downloads through their site MuleTracks, seven critically acclaimed studio records already released, a handful of DVDs andlive albums, plus an ever-expanding fan-base and sold-out coast-to-coast tours, Gov't Mule could easily rest on its laurels. For guitarist/lead vocalist Warren Haynes and his band, Gov't Mule, creating a new album is akin to walking a tightrope: Write new songs that please old fans, while hopefully garnering new ones. Develop that material in the studio rather than on the road, to prevent premature leaks via the internet. Celebrate the roots of American music, yet take sonic forays into the future. Honor the memory of the late Allen Woody, while simultaneously welcoming new bassist Jorgen Carlsson into the fold. With By A Thread, Gov't Mule's first studio album in three years, recorded at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio in the Texas Hill Country, the band - which also features drummer Matt Abts and multi-instrumentalist Danny Louis - meets those challenges and more. "It feels like we're moving forward and backward at the same time," Haynes notes. "Hardcore fans tend to not want us to move too far away from where we started, but the band never wants to stay in one place for very long." From the opening licks of "Broke Down On The Brazos," a hard-hitting up-tempo Texas stomp that features ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' unmistakable fretwork, through the meditative closing ballad, "World Wake Up," it's clear that Gov't Mule is intent on plowing new ground.