You've probably heard by now that Tom Petty has reunited with Mudcrutch, his pre-Heartbreakers band from his Gainesville, FL days, for an album and short tour. Considering that Mudcrutch also contained two other Heartbreakers, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench, it's admittedly not that big a stretch, and there's nothing on the self-titled Mudcrutch debut album, released next week on April 29th (a long time coming for a band that started in the early '70s!) that would prove too off-putting for Petty fans, but there's definitely a difference.
In keeping with the original Mudcrutch spirit (look around the web and you can find some mid-'70s live bootlegs), there's an old-school country-rock feel running through the album. Check the Byrds cover tune "Lover of the Bayou" and the Mudcrutch version of country standard "Shady Grove" for starters, not to mention the easygoing twang of a number of original tunes here. The more straightforward rockers, like "Scare Easy" and "The Wrong Thing To Do" wouldn't sound out of place on any other Petty album, but they'd likely be standouts if they popped up on one of his more recent releases. For longtime Petty fans, the most appealing aspect of the Mudcrutch project will be the fact that he hasn't sounded this loose and inspired since he made the two biggest aesthetic errors of his career: letting drummer Stan Lynch go and hiring Jeff Lynne to (over)produce him. Be of good cheer, Pettyites, this can only augur well.
No comments:
Post a Comment