Listen to Chicago based blues musician Daniel Gunderson tackl the Tom Petty classic Climb That Hill Blues. It is a track from his Remember album, his long overdue debut as a solo artist on which he covers songs by his musical heroes. The album is released via Ravenslake Music Productions.
Ian Leslie describes four ways for the inner workings of a band in his article A rocker’s guide to management for 1843, The Economist’s magazine of ideas, culture and lifestyle: friends (Beatles, autocracies (Tom Petty, Bruce Springteen), democracies (R.E.EM.) and frenemies (The Stones).
In 1979, Michael Stipe, a college student in Athens, Georgia, was browsing in a downtown record store called Wuxtry when he got talking to the clerk, a college dropout and amateur guitarist called Peter Buck. The two men bonded over a love of underground rock and soon decided to form a band, recruiting two fellow students, Bill Berry and Mike Mills. Thirty-two years later, their band, R.E.M., broke up amicably, ending one of the happiest collaborations in rock history.
Tom Petty died yesterday, aged 66. He was found unconscious in his Malibu home having suffered cardiac arrest. He rushed to the UCLA Santa Monica hospital, where he was diagnosed braindead and taken of life support life support:
On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty.
He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived.
He died peacefully at 8:40pm PST surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.
Tony Dimitriades, longtime manager of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on behalf of the family
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have addes hows in Portland (08/31), Holmdel (09/11) and Allentown (09/16). The new album Hypnotic Eye drops on July 29th. Steve Winwood is the special guest on all shows.
Live dates:HCTF review of Mojo.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers will release their new album Hypnotic Eye on July 29th. One of the album tracks, American Dream Plan B, can be streamed thru Rolling Stone.
An American arena tour kicks off in San Diego on August 3rd. Steve Winwood is the special guest on all shows.
Live dates:HCTF review of Mojo.
We enjoy playing with each other, which I think is a pretty important part of this. If we didn't, we'd have given it up a long time ago. The idea when we started was to take five people and keep 'em together no matter what and see what we could get out of it, and we've pretty much stuck to that plan.
Tom Petty
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers will be on tour in Europe for the first time in twenty years in June 2012. They are headlining the Isle of Wight Festival. Dates have been confirmed in Ireland, Italy. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, UK, Switzerland, and France. Their Spring tour takes them across the USA, with a single show in Canada.
North American tour:Video: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Something Good Coming
HCTF review of Mojo.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers started laying down the tracks for their new album Mojo in April 2009 in Petty's own recording facility. With repeated visits to the studio in May, September and November the album was in the can, save for Lover's Touch, a slow blues that was committed to tape in January this year. Their label sat on int for a couple of moth, waiting for the tour announcement to happen (and offering it as a freebie to ticket buyers).
Mojo is a mellow, mid-tempo album. Lead guitarist Mike Campbell does his utmost to channel George Harrison on Good Enough and takes a bow for the Allman Brothers, both living and dead. He shares songwriting credits with Tom Petty on three of the tracks. Petty never was much of a singer, but he knows his limitations and puts them to good use adopting a nasal twang for Candy and Takin' My Time - the latter has all the hooks and crannies to become a jam vehicle in a Black Crowes kind of way.
It's been eight years since Tom Petty made an album with The Heartbreakers. He doesn't have to proof anything and the same goes for his band. When they decided to lock themselves in at Petty's and plugged in their vintage Gibsons, Les Pauls, Hammonds and even a Vox Continental organ, they fell in step with their musical heritage of country, blues and southern rock. It's all been done before, but a lot was done by these guys who have been playing together on and off since 1976.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers:
Tom Petty: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Mike Campbell: lead guitar, mandolin
Scott Thurston: rhythm guitar, harmonica, backing vocals, piano
Ron Blair: bass guitar, backing vocals
Benmont Tench: keyboards, backing vocals
Steve Ferrone: drums, percussion
Mojo is released on Reprise.
Tracks:Video: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Should Have Known It
Video: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Mojo
(documentary directed by Sam Jones)
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers have unveiled two new videos. Jefferson Jericho Blues and Something Good Coming are tracks from on the new album Mojo.
They are on the road all through Summer in the US
Live dates:Watch the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers video for I Should Have Known It, a track from the forthcoming album Mojo.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are releasing their new album Mojo on June 15, their first record in 8 years. The band embarks on a huge 3-month North American tour. They will be on the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 15.
You get the album for free with every ticket you buy online. Listen to First Flash Of Freedom off the new album here.
