Gov’t Mule. From Mountain Jam’s blog

Gov’t Mule’s parade of guests continued the second night of Mountain Jam. Partway through the group’s headlining set at the Hunter, NY festival, Kofi Burbridge joined on flute for “Sad & Deep As You.” Soon after, Derek Trucks played guitar on “Kind Of Bird,” a Dickey Betts/Warren Haynes original the Allman Brothers Band recently revived. The group’s second set featured appearances by Matisyahu on “The Joker,” Lettuce’s Eric Krasno, Ryan Zoidis & Sam Kininger on “The Spider & The Fly” and Jackie Greene and the Lettuce Horns on “Ventilator Blues.” Greene also appeared on “Monkey Man.”

Like Gov’t Mule’s headlining performance Friday, the group also played a slew of covers, including a sandwich of Neil Yong’s “Rockin’ In The Free World” and Jim Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” and a version of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” that contained a nod to Hunter, NY. Warren Haynes also dedicated the group’s cover of Traffic’s “Sad & Deep As You” to that band’s guitarist Dave Mason, who played his own set at Mountain Jam but was under the weather and unable to join Mule onstage.

Mountain Jam host Haynes sat in with a number of groups throughout the day beginning with Yonder Mountain String Band on Danny Barnes’ “Death Trip” (earlier in Yonder’s set Jeff Austin said he would “mow Warren Haynes’ lawn” if he asked). The guitarist also joined the new Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band and Dark Star Orchestra during their sets. Since the new group features Oteil Burbridge on bass, Tedeschi noted that half the Allman Brothers Band was onstage.

Traffic guitarist Dave Mason played a tight set of new originals and early hits like “Feelin’ Alright.” Mountain Jam veteran Drive-By Truckers made its second appearance at the festival before joining Levon Helm at his nearby Midnight Ramble later in the night. The group’s frontman Patterson Hood was particularly chatty—he sent well wishes to Simone Felice, who canceled his Mountain Jam set to undergo heart surgery, and recounted hearing The Band for the first time on Saturday Night Live.

A few afternoon highlights took place on the festival’s intimate stage in the Awareness Village. Singer/songwriter Sonya Kitchell concluded her short set with a “joyous, festival” song for President Barack Obama and a “darker, more artistic song” attacking former President George W. Bush. Later in the day, Zach Deputy drew the stages’ largest crowd with his mix of loops and acoustic instruments. In addition, Jerry Joseph and Wally Ingram played a duo set that climaxed with a song Joseph wrote for Widespread Panic, “Climb to Safety.”

Mountain Jam will continue today. Levon Helm will headline the festival with an all-star 70th Birthday Jubilee.