ORVILLE PECK BARES HIS SOUL FOR HIS CAREER-DEFINING FOURTH ‘ALBUM MULE’
HEADLINING MAN TURNED MULE TOUR LAUNCHES TONIGHT AT THE
HOLLYWOOD BOWL
TICKETS HERE
Trailblazing country artist Orville Peck releases his most striking and personal album yet: Mule, a candid, chronological account of the night he hit rock bottom and his subsequent journey through addiction, sobriety, and rebuilding a life bit by bit. Told with honesty, humor, and heart, the 13-song set finds Peck confronting love, loss, identity, and growth through tunes that move fluidly between classic country storytelling, stirring bluegrass, rowdy rock, and expansive Americana.
Peck headlines the legendary Hollywood Bowl tonight following last weekend’s intimate two-night run at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre, where he and his band played Mule in its entirety and discussed the deeply emotional story behind the album. Peck’s North American Man Turned Mule Tour then continues on — with Nashville singer-songwriter Abbie Callahan joining from October 28 on — before wrapping up on November 22 in Huntington, New York.
One dollar from every ticket sold on the Man Turned Mule Tour will be donated to The Trevor Project, supporting its mission to provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ young people. Find Peck’s complete itinerary below and ticket information HERE.
Mule arrives alongside a visual for “Run Out Of Road,” a late-tracklist highlight that finds Peck happy and hearty with a bursting soundtrack to match. Back on his own two feet, he has a message for a capricious ex who wants back in: “I’ll admit you cross my mind, but not enough to cross that line / You can have a change of heart, but you won’t break mine a second time.” Then comes the hook: “Don’t come running back to me when you run out of road”.
As Peck shared in an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone, Mule unfolds as a timeline of the year that reshaped his life, starting with a moment in which he nearly lost everything. The result, according to the magazine, is “his best, most realized, album yet.” Peck brought his vision to life alongside producer Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, Eric Church) at his Neon Cross Studio in Nashville and a tight-knit crew including Peck’s five-piece full-time band and a handful of guests including Molly Tuttle, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, and Teddy and the Rough Riders.
Perhaps most notably, Noah Cyrus, Allison Russell, and Emmylou Harris lend their voices to Mule’s opener, “Prologue (Eulogy Of A Man Turned Mule)” — three generations of female country icons harmonizing lyrics that Peck wrote and arranged to represent his own would-be memorial. It’s a beautifully bleak ending that, it turns out, is actually a beginning. As depicted in the music video (where Harris is played by Cathy Cooper), Peck wakes up before it’s too late.
Of course, he has a long road to travel, and that progression is reflected both on the album and in the visuals released thus far. Last month, Peck shared “Already Gone,” a raucous track that masks some dark feelings as it captures the moment he enters rehab. The video illustrates the song’s central conflict, contrasting the difficult work of getting clean — therapy, medicine, urine tests — with a choreographed fantasy full of shimmying orderlies and twirling fellow residents.
Peck also shared the upbeat track “Too Little, Too Late,” which hails from the back half of Mule and finds him dancing toward the finish line. The song embodies what it feels like to be finally secure with yourself, and it came with an appropriately freewheeling video. Cyrus, Russell, and Cooper make cameos in each visual as figments of Peck’s imagination warning him away from doom. Similarly, strands of bluegrass appear intermittently across the LP, representing healing.
As Peck told Playgirl for their September cover story, “I always try to be vulnerable, but with Mule I tried to be as blatant as I could about what I was going through and not present that in metaphors … I usually leave it up for interpretation, but this time I wanted to call it what it is.”
With Mule, Orville Peck reckons not only with his past, but the divide between his public self and the man behind the mask. Saddle up for a ride into resilience, redemption, and self-discovery.
If you are struggling or in crisis — or know someone else who is — contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or The Trevor Project (for LGBTQ+ youth) by texting “START” to 678-678.
Orville Peck, Mule
1. “Prologue (Eulogy Of A Man Turned Mule)”
2. “Big Ol’ House”
3. “Already Gone”
4. “Rehab Blues”
5. “Ring The Bell”
6. “Blue Skies”
7. “The Fall”
8. “Cowboy Heart”
9. “The Breeze, The Grass, The Mourning Dove And Me”
10. “Run Out Of Road”
11. “Too Little, Too Late”
12. “War Of The Worlds”
13. “Mule”
Orville Peck’s Man Turned Mule Tour
Sep 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl *
Sep 23 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Concerts on the Lawn *
Sep 26 – Bonner, MT @ KettleHouse Amphitheater *
Oct 28 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24
Oct 29 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Anaheim
Oct 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
Nov 01 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
Nov 03 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
Nov 04 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
Nov 05 – Milwaukee, WI @ Landmark Credit Union Live
Nov 07 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
Nov 09 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
Nov 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
Nov 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
Nov 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Nov 14 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
Nov 15 – Nashville, TN @ The Truth
Nov 17 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
Nov 18 – Ottawa @ Hard Rock Ottawa
Nov 19 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
Nov 21 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Nov 22 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
* Abbie Callahan not appearing on these dates
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