Gov’t Mule will open the second leg of its New School of Gov’t Mule tour with a May 5 show in New Orleans. As with the tour's first leg, Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools and keyboardist Chuck Leavell (the Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers Band) will join Gov't Mule [ tickets ]’s drummer Matt Abts and vocalist-guitarist Warren Haynes.

Besides the outing with Gov’t Mule, Haynes will spend time this summer touring with Phil Lesh and Friends, as well as with the Allman Brothers Band. He joins the Allmans from June 15-24, and joins the Lesh tour beginning on June 27 in Los Angeles.

Haynes and Abts have scheduled studio time in May to finish up work on Gov't Mule's fourth studio album. It has been dubbed a tribute to late band member Allen Woody.

"It's not really a tribute per se, considering it's predominately all new material," Haynes said in a press release. "It's very similar to the record we would have made if Allen had not passed away. Since this is the next Gov't Mule record, we wanted to capture Allen's spirit, so we asked bass players whom he respected to join in."

The May sessions will include performances by Bootsy Collins, Me'shell Ndegecello, Mike Watt, Billy Cox, John Paul Jones and John Entwistle. Bassists such as Les Claypool, Lesh, Tony Levin, Mike Gordon and Gregg Allman already have recorded tracks.

The album is tentatively scheduled for release in the fall.

Haynes has been keeping busy with a variety of other projects. Besides recording with Everlast, Corrosion of Conformity and Incubus, he will appear on the new Alanis Morissette album slated for release this summer. Gov't Mule tracks are also featured on the new Sony Playstation NASCAR 2001 game and on the "3000 Miles to Graceland" soundtrack.