Once upon a time there was rock ‘n’ roll. It wasn’t punk, grunge, alternative, zip-glip hop, or alternative. It was songs played on AM and then FM radio before it became over-formatted into categories like AOR or Triple A. 
Mulebone’s debut cd, 5 Shakes 7 Spirits, is a collection of songs in that old-school rock mode. The band is the brainchild of New Orleans trombonist Mark Mullins, and one might think after his stints with Harry Connick Jr. and George Porter Jr. that Mullins would be playing jazz or funk. But he’s teamed up with keyboardist and guitarist John Gras, Wooden head guitarist Jimmy Robinson, bassist Vernon Rome, and drummer Mike Barras to form a kickass rock band.
Mullins and Gros split most of the songwriting duties, and the music is no-nonsense hard rock. The rhythm section lays down a steady beat over which the guitars play heavy riffs on the stompers or quietly mix with the keyboards and organ on the ballads. The vocals have a low growl and bust-a-gut wail, but blend into the mix of the other instruments too often, leaving them less distinguishable. Tunes such as “Monkey Song” and “Dancing in the Darkness” would have benefited from having the vocals more out front.
The whole record has a dark, claustrophobic texture, but still retains the anthemic, Southern-rock feel of the Allman Brothers or the Marshall Tucker Band. On a regretful song like “Deed Well Done,” one can almost hear female backup singers chiming in with the admonishing chorus of “My, My, My,” like vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd.
And then there is the trombone, not a usual lead instrument in a rock band. Sometimes it has a brass sound, and other times it is drenched in effects, occasionally sounding like a slide guitar. It never sounds out of place, and on tunes like Jim McCormick’s “Young Animal,” Mullins solos using what sounds like a wah-wah pedal, taking the trombone JO places where few have ventured in this setting, the trombone recalls Miles Davis’s wah-wah trumpet with his early 1970s spacefunk bands or more recently Howard Johnson and Gravity’s orchestrations. for multiple tubas playing bop jazz classics. On 5 Shakes 7 Spirits, Mulebone sounds big, like stadium rock, and such authority on a debut record is impressive.
