Contemporary Country music has adapted the roots rock of the 1980s as its heroes which always seemed like an obvious relationship. Springsteen and Mellencamp have been canonized, songs like Tom Cochrane’s “Life is A Highway” and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” have become cover hits, and as Contemporary Country Music has also revered southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker Band, its no surprise the country community has come to love Tom Petty.
I had an online conversation recently about most universally loved musicians and Petty was mentioned a lot. As I was growing up, Petty did seem like a big deal. 1985 single “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was one of the handful of most important music videos and the Dave Stewart produced song was no slouch either.
Only a handful of artists like Billy Joel, ZZ Top, Genesis, Springsteen, Van Halen and the Police seemed to bridge the cultural gap from FM Rock to the Video climate. 1986 me thought Petty was a bigger name than Dylan as they toured together (and at the time, maybe he was) and in 1988 when Petty became the youngest Wilbury.
And let’s talk about Full Moon Fever which probably should get more mention as one of the big albums of my lifetime. It was deep with 5 singles- certainly in conversation with Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Free Fallin surely as overplayed as any song I can think of. Following that album - 2 hit singles off 91s Into the Great Wide Open and 1993s Greatest Hits maintained Petty as perhaps the most unlikely and unsung hero of music video television.
1994s Wildflowers is another album we should probably talk about. There were again three killer singles and accompanying videos. Although atypically downbeat, in retrospect it seems like a perfect 90s album on par with any Grunge album of the day.
It surely doesn’t help that Petty went five years without a new album and when he did it was a soundtrack. Still music was under going a change and you can’t expect everyone to hang on. Still, from then on, Petty never seemed to command as much attention again.
I’m probably oversimplifying. 2002’s single “Last DJ” was a big hit with the FM rock crowd. Still as indie music seemed to be rising, artists on non-indie labels were not of interest to indie media.
Which is a shame as during this time, in 2008 and then again in 2016, Petty made some incredible albums with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. They are some of my favorite 21st Century albums.
But I never heard people in the cool websites talking about Petty. I am not saying he didn’t get any attention but he sure felt underappreciated. At least not until his passing. That's when a lot of Petty tribute bands seemed to start pop up, too.
The Tom Petty tribute Petty Country features a mix of some of the biggest names in popular country music with some of the most innovative. The album itself was overseen by Petty’s daughter and the estate.
Legends like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Wynonna and Dolly Parton meet some of the biggest radio stars of today like Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Eli Young Band and Luke Combs with a nice mix of fhosw who push radio country’s boundaries like Ateve Earle, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Rhiannon Giddens and Marty Stuart.
The Petty tribute isn’t likely to get a lot of traction in the Americana circles as it is heavy on the pop country names. There’s also not much in the way of deep cuts. It’s understandable. Sirius XM (who gave Petty his own dedicated channel a la U2, Jimmy Buffet, and the Beatles)played a good deal of the singles on release on its pop country Highway channel.
If you drop the needle most anywhere you will get something like Lady A’s “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”. One of the most popular bands in America for a time, their version of pop country isn’t something I would normally listen to. But it’s hard to deny the strength of Petty’s song. So is the album
More adventurous listeners will likely wish there was more songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens backed by the Silk Road Ensemble and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench. It’s a perfect match of ambitious musician and a song that isn’t a cookie cutter pop song. Giddens adds banjo and I can only describe as neo psychedelica among other elements to really bring out the dream world envisioned by Petty’s famous video.
I would remiss to mention a personal favorite of mine. Steve Earle’s cover of “Yer So Bad” is a bit of a revelation in its own way. Of course, most of the album stays pretty close to the originals and so I won’t complain about a Petty cover. But “Yer So Bad” has such great lyrics and is a perfect match for the story telling abilities of Earle. Like he did with Townes Van Zant and Guy Clark, it’s hard to beat the original but he can at least match the original in his own way.
I had an online conversation recently about most universally loved musicians and Petty was mentioned a lot. As I was growing up, Petty did seem like a big deal. 1985 single “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was one of the handful of most important music videos and the Dave Stewart produced song was no slouch either.
Only a handful of artists like Billy Joel, ZZ Top, Genesis, Springsteen, Van Halen and the Police seemed to bridge the cultural gap from FM Rock to the Video climate. 1986 me thought Petty was a bigger name than Dylan as they toured together (and at the time, maybe he was) and in 1988 when Petty became the youngest Wilbury.
And let’s talk about Full Moon Fever which probably should get more mention as one of the big albums of my lifetime. It was deep with 5 singles- certainly in conversation with Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Free Fallin surely as overplayed as any song I can think of. Following that album - 2 hit singles off 91s Into the Great Wide Open and 1993s Greatest Hits maintained Petty as perhaps the most unlikely and unsung hero of music video television.
1994s Wildflowers is another album we should probably talk about. There were again three killer singles and accompanying videos. Although atypically downbeat, in retrospect it seems like a perfect 90s album on par with any Grunge album of the day.
It surely doesn’t help that Petty went five years without a new album and when he did it was a soundtrack. Still music was under going a change and you can’t expect everyone to hang on. Still, from then on, Petty never seemed to command as much attention again.
I’m probably oversimplifying. 2002’s single “Last DJ” was a big hit with the FM rock crowd. Still as indie music seemed to be rising, artists on non-indie labels were not of interest to indie media.
Which is a shame as during this time, in 2008 and then again in 2016, Petty made some incredible albums with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. They are some of my favorite 21st Century albums.
But I never heard people in the cool websites talking about Petty. I am not saying he didn’t get any attention but he sure felt underappreciated. At least not until his passing. That's when a lot of Petty tribute bands seemed to start pop up, too.
The Tom Petty tribute Petty Country features a mix of some of the biggest names in popular country music with some of the most innovative. The album itself was overseen by Petty’s daughter and the estate.
Legends like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Wynonna and Dolly Parton meet some of the biggest radio stars of today like Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Eli Young Band and Luke Combs with a nice mix of fhosw who push radio country’s boundaries like Ateve Earle, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Rhiannon Giddens and Marty Stuart.
The Petty tribute isn’t likely to get a lot of traction in the Americana circles as it is heavy on the pop country names. There’s also not much in the way of deep cuts. It’s understandable. Sirius XM (who gave Petty his own dedicated channel a la U2, Jimmy Buffet, and the Beatles)played a good deal of the singles on release on its pop country Highway channel.
If you drop the needle most anywhere you will get something like Lady A’s “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”. One of the most popular bands in America for a time, their version of pop country isn’t something I would normally listen to. But it’s hard to deny the strength of Petty’s song. So is the album
More adventurous listeners will likely wish there was more songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens backed by the Silk Road Ensemble and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench. It’s a perfect match of ambitious musician and a song that isn’t a cookie cutter pop song. Giddens adds banjo and I can only describe as neo psychedelica among other elements to really bring out the dream world envisioned by Petty’s famous video.
I would remiss to mention a personal favorite of mine. Steve Earle’s cover of “Yer So Bad” is a bit of a revelation in its own way. Of course, most of the album stays pretty close to the originals and so I won’t complain about a Petty cover. But “Yer So Bad” has such great lyrics and is a perfect match for the story telling abilities of Earle. Like he did with Townes Van Zant and Guy Clark, it’s hard to beat the original but he can at least match the original in his own way.
