Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mojo (Reprise Records, 2010)

Thirty-four years after the release of their first album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show no signs of slowing down. Mojo is the outfit's twelfth studio album, not counting Petty's three solo albums or the recent album Mudcrutch on which Petty and two other Heartbreakers figure prominently. Petty's long time fans have a good idea what to expect, and while they might not be overwhelmed by Mojo, they won't be disappointed by it either.

Mojo can roughly be broken into two halves. The first half finds Petty and his bandmates -- lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassist Ron Blair, drummer Steve Ferrone, and third guitarist/harmonica player Scott Thurston -- heading in something of jam-band direction, similar to what Petty did on the Mudcrutch album. Two of the album's strongest tracks, "First Flash of Freedom" and "Running Man's Bible," run in excess of six minutes. Eventually the album takes a bluesier turn, though; presumably this is what inspired the album's title. "U. S. 41" is some fine swampy acoustic blues, and the single "I Should Have Known It" and closing song "Good Enough" features some blistering guitar work from Campbell. As always, the musicianship is rock solid. Mojo may lack the kind of standout song that would force its way onto a Petty Best Of, but that's partly because of the depth of Petty's back catalog.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' stick-to-basics approach to making music is certainly familiar, and if there's a fault in it it's that the familiarity sometimes leads to predictability. Having said that, Petty's formula has worked for him for a very long time, and you can always count on enough quality songs to make the album worth your while. Mojo is not an exception.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

The opening song "Jefferson Jericho Blues"

Mudcrutch (Reprise Records, 2008)

Mudcrutch was a band that formed in Gainesville, Florida in the early seventies. Fronted by singer/bassist Tom Petty, Mudcrutch based their sound on the later recordings of The Byrds, which combined traditional folk and country with hard-edged rock. In addition to Petty, the original band featured the dueling guitars of Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon, with drummer Randall Marsh completing the quartet. By the time the band headed to Los Angeles in 1974 to pursue a record deal, Leadon had been replaced by another guitarist and Benmont Tench had been added on keyboards. They released one single in 1975, but that was as much interest as they could generate. Mudcrutch quickly disintegrated, and the band members crawled their way back to Gainesville. Petty would not be deterred that easily, though. He traded in his bass for a jangly electric 12-string, formed a backing band called The Heartbreakers which included (and still does include) Campbell and Tench, and went back to L. A. to try his luck a second time. The rest, of course, is history.

You might think that the story of Mudcrutch would have ended there, and for thirty-two years you would have been right. But Petty has, on a number of occasions over the past twenty years, stepped at least a little bit away from The Heartbreakers as his whims have suited him. At some point last he year, he decided that he wanted to make the kind of album Mudcrutch would have made. The idea eventually morphed from making an album that sounded like Mudcrutch into having the album actually performed by Mudcrutch. Campbell and Tench were recruited easily enough, but I have to think that Leadon and Marsh were taken aback by the initial phone call.

The album, simply titled Mudcrutch, does have a bit of a throwback feel to it, starting with the traditional American folk standard "Shady Grove" and continuing with a combination of vintage classic rock with a few country songs thrown in for good measure. The album differs from a typical Petty album in several ways. There are several covers, most notably The Byrds' "Lover of the Bayou," and Petty lets both Leadon and Tench take a turn singing lead on the album. The double lead guitar sound on the band's harder rock songs also distinguishes Mudcrutch from what The Heartbreakers generally have done. The band even engages in an extended but subdued jam on the nine-minute song "Crystal River." The performances are strong throughout the record, and Leadon and Marsh hold their own very nicely with three much more experienced professional musicians.

Given those qualifications, Mudcrutch is still dominated by the singing and songwriting of Tom Petty. And that is a good thing, as this is the best Petty album since Wildflowers in 1994. The particularly strong track "Scare Easy" is an obvious single. A lot of Petty's albums are a little too uniformly mid-tempo rock, but this album has an excellent mix of harder and softer songs. In fact, the more energetic songs come across as a breath of fresh air, and Petty sound generally revitalized on this recording.

To say the least, it's very strange to see a band that had basically been a footnote in another band's history for over thirty years show up and make the debut album that never happened in 1975. But Tom Petty has some experience making strange ideas work. The combination of Petty being in fine form, Campbell and Tench providing their usually solid support, and Leadon and Marsh taking full advantage of their long-delayed big break makes Mudcrutch a solid album. Petty fans will have no difficulty getting into this, and people looking for something new in a classic rock vein will find plenty to like as well.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

"Scare Easy"

"Lover of the Bayou"

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hard Promises (MCA, 1981)

The fortunes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had already gone through several ups and downs by the time Hard Promises, their fourth album, was released in 1981. They had started battling with their record label when their second album You're Gonna Get It was a commercial disappointment, but Petty would develop a reputation for really delivering the goods when his career needed it the most. Boasting a number of quality singles, including and especially the chart-topper "Refugee," the 1979 LP Damn The Torpedoes returned Petty and the Heartbreakers both to the spotlight and to their label's good graces, but extremely strong and deep albums like Damn The Torpedoes and Petty's 1989 solo album Full Moon Fever are more of the exception than the rule in Petty's discography. Still, pretty much all of his albums have contained at least one or two strong singles and a couple of other fine tracks. Such is the case with Hard Promises, the follow-up to Damn The Torpedoes.

Hard Promises opens with one of Petty's trademark songs, "The Waiting," featuring a distinctive opening riff on Petty's electric 12-string guitar. Mike Campbell's wailing lead guitar takes the spotlight on the second song "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)," another fine single. Most of the remainder of the album is par for the course by Petty's standards, with Petty's nasal Dylanesque vocals, decent melodies, and the Heartbreakers' standard, Byrds-influenced no-frills rock. The exception is excellent ballad "Insider," boasting the backing vocals of Stevie Nicks. Petty and the Heartbreakers also collaborated with Nicks that year on the hit single "Stop Dragging My Heart Around," off Nicks' solo LP Bella Donna.

The biggest criticism you can make about the early Heartbreakers recordings is that the sound does tend to get a bit predictable. What Petty, Campbell, organist Benmont Tench, bassist Ron Blair, and drummer Stan Lynch lacked in variety, however, they made up for with superior musicianship and chemistry, coupled with a strong resolve to stick to the rootsy rock and roll they loved and knew how to play well, even as punk and new wave raged on all around them. This would turn out to be the last album by the original Heartbreakers line-up, as Blair left the band shortly afterwards and was replaced by Howie Epstein. (Blair did return to the band in 2002 during the recording of The Last DJ.) Petty and the Heartbreakers went on to make more albums of comparable quality to Hard Promises through the early to mid 80's. Their popularity slowly but steadily declined through this period, though, before the combination of Petty's involvement with The Traveling Wilburys and the release of Full Moon Fever thrust Petty back into the spotlight in a big way yet again.

Overall Grade: B

TomPetty- Damn the Torpedoes (1979)

I always think it's fun to look back on familiar artists to their earlier, and lesser known work. In many cases, these tracks are better off forgotten, but sometimes we can find the roots of later sounds. While I am old enough to have been listening to albums when this vinyl album debuted, I only listened to it quite recently. I've been listening to Tom Petty since Scott put on "Full Moon Fever" in 1989. It still stands today as one of the best rock albums made in my opinion.

When I found Damn the Torpedoes, I recognized some of the other tracks, like "Refugee," and "Even the Losers" from a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers greatest hits album. However, the rest I have not heard before. In fact, there were several well known popular songs that I wasn't sure if this was a greatest hits album. However, it's not, as it is the third Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, and this historically was the one that put them on the map.

A late '70's album, it surprisingly doesn't sound dated as well. Damn the Torpedoes is Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's third album. It is a mix of solid classic rock, with a pinch of Southern rock, with two pinches of punk rock. Here's the tracklist:

Refugee
Here Comes My Girl
Even The Losers
Shadow Of A Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Century City
Don't Do Me Like That
You Tell Me
What Are You Doin' In My Life?
Louisiana Rain

To my ear, out of these tracks, there really isn't a bad song in the mix. Even the stuff that would have been on the B-side of the vinyl record (remember those?) still aged well through the years. What results is a classic American rock album that bridges the gap between late 70's, but avoids the artificial electronics that took over during the '80's. Even well known tracks have a few surprises, like that the original version of "Even the Losers" started with a drum solo, and not as the cleaned up version that we've heard on the radio.

This is the best album I've heard in quite some time, hence why I finally have a music review to contribute. Ok, I'll go back to reading books now...

Overall Grade: A+

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Tom Petty, Highway Companion (American Recordings, 2006)

No matter what kind of tangent my musical tastes may be wandering off on at a given moment, I invariably wind up craving some good old fashioned, straightforward, two guitars, bass, drum and maybe some keyboard no-frills rock and roll. This is why I always look forward to new releases from Tom Petty. Sure you can argue that he's predictable -- and he certainly doesn't throw any curve balls on his latest album Highway Companion -- but he's also very dependable. For Highway Companion, Petty gave most of the Heartbreakers the session off. Only Petty, Heartbreakers lead guitarist Mike Campbell, and producer and fellow Traveling Wilbury Jeff Lynne perform on the recording. (In case you were wondering, Petty handles the drums himself and does an acceptable job.) The sound of the album is a bit laid back on the whole, but more or less what you'd expect from Petty. The songs are melodic, the playing is solid, and the style is guitar rock in its purest form. Highway Companion may not string together one memorable song after another the way Full Moon Fever did, but every song is at least decent. The stand-out tracks are the bluesy "Saving Grace" and the upbeat "Flirting With Time." Both would make excellent singles, and could conceivably win Petty some new fans. Even if that doesn't happen, long-time fans of Tom Petty will have no difficulty getting into Highway Companion.

Overall Grade: B+

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