Tag: You Got Lucky

New Music Musings

Been Stellar, Widespread Panic, Axel Rudi Pell, Oliver Wood, Madeline Hawthorne and Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs

Happy Saturday and welcome to my weekly look at newly released music. Unless noted otherwise, picks are from albums that appeared yesterday (June 14).

Been Stellar/Pumpkin

Kicking us off today are New York-based indie rock group Been Stellar who have been around since 2017. According to this story in Alternative Press, the members of the five piece – Skyler Knapp (guitar), Nando Dale (guitar), Sam Slocum (vocals), Nico Brunstein (bass) and Laila Wayans (drums) – met at New York University. They released their eponymous debut EP in August 2022. Off their first full-length album Scream from New York, NY, which will drop on June 21, here’s Pumpkin, credited to all members of the band.

Widespread Panic/Cosmic Confidante

Widespread Panic are a rock band from Athens, Ga. From their website: Formed by vocalist/guitarist John Bell, bassist Dave Schools and late lead guitarist Michael Houser in the mid-1980s while the three attended the University of Georgia, over the next several years [the] band’s lineup expanded to include drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo Ortiz, and keyboardist John Hermann. The current lineup now includes lead guitarist Jimmy Herring and drummer Duane Trucks. AllMusic describes them as a “neo-hippie jam band” playing a “rootsy brand of Southern rock informed by jazz and blues textures.” Their latest album, which is now available on vinyl, is titled Snake Oil King. Here’s the cool-sounding Cosmic Confidante.

Axel Rudi Pell/Darkest Hour

Axel Rudi Pell is a hard rock guitarist from Bochum, Germany. He started his career in now-defunct German heavy metal band Steeler who he joined in 1984. Four years later, Pell launched a solo career and released the first album under his name, Wild Obsession, in 1989. Fast-forward some 35 years to his latest studio release Risen Symbol. In addition to Pell (guitars), his band includes Johnny Gioeli (vocals), Ferdy Doernberg (keyboards), Volker Krawczak (bass) and Bobby Rondinelli (drums). Let’s listen to Darkest Hour written by Pell – heavy but melodic hard rock I find very accessible!

Oliver Wood/Little Worries

Oliver Wood is the guitarist of The Wood Brothers, a roots rock band he founded with his brother Chris Wood (upright bass) and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix in 2004. To date, they have released nine studio albums. Prior to that, Wood was part of Tinsley Ellis’ touring lineup and headed his own band King Johnson who released six albums over a 12-year span. In May 2021, Wood’s debut solo album Always Smilin’ appeared. He’s now out with the second album under his name, Fat Cat Silhouette, produced by his bandmate Rix. Here’s Little Worries. I like the bare bones feel to this song.

Madeline Hawthorne/Night Ride

Madeline Hawthorne is a Montana-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. From her website: Obsessed with music since her childhood on the East Coast, Madeline planted roots in Bozeman, MT during college and never turned back. She honed her talents through countless backup and band gigs before going solo amid the Global Pandemic. Balancing Americana, roots, folk, and rock, she introduced herself on the 2021 LP, Boots…In between, she shared the stage with everyone from Jason Isbell, Lukas Nelson, Josh Turner, and Kip Moore to Sierra Hull, John Craigie, and Nathaniel Rateliff. From her second and latest album Tales From Late Nights & Long Drives, here’s Night Ride.

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs/Angel of Mercy

Mike Campbell first gained prominence as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of their hits with Petty, including Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, You Got Lucky and Runnin’ Down a Dream. In the early 2000s, Campbell founded The Dirty Knobs as a side project. After his touring gig with Fleetwood Mac had ended in 2019, he focused on his own group. Their debut Wreckless Abandon, which I reviewed here, appeared in November 2020. For their March 2022 sophomore release External Combustion they adopted the name Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs. Angel of Mercy is from their third and current album Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits. You could easily picture the song on a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album – love it!

Sources: Wikipedia; Alternative Press; AllMusic; Widespread Panic website; Axel Rudi Pell website; Madeline Hawthorne website; YouTube; Spotify

Musings of the Past

Great Covers Tom Petty Style

Hard to believe the first month of 2024 is already in the past. As we enter February, I thought this would be a good time to republish some content from the earlier days of the blog. This post about great cover versions by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers first appeared five years ago. It has been slightly edited and the Spotify playlist at the end is an addition.

Great Covers Tom Petty Style

American Girl, Refugee, You Got Lucky, Runnin’ Down A Dream, Breakdown, Free Fallin’, Southern Accents, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, The Last DJ – there are countless great songs written by Tom Petty. Additionally, Petty has performed many fantastic covers, especially during his concerts. With The Heartbreakers, he had one hell of a backing band. I was reminded of that earlier today, when I came across and listened to an EP titled Bad Girl Boogie, which apparently was exclusively released on Amazon.com in June 2010 as a bonus CD to the DVD Live At The Olympic: The Last DJ. This triggered the idea of putting together a post focused on covers played by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

I’d like to start things off with what I believe was the first cover I ever heard from Tom Petty: Needles And Pins, a song I’ve always dug. It was included on Pack Up The Plantation: Live!, the first official live album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,  which appeared in November 1985. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono, the tune was first released by Jackie DeShannon in April 1963. In January 1964, The Searchers turned it into a no. 1 hit single in the U.K. In the U.S., it performed strongly as well, peaking at no. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Petty’s great rendition features Stevie Nicks on backing vocals.

Next up: Green Onions, simply one of the coolest instrumentals I know. It appears on The Live Anothology, a live box set and true treasure trove released in November 2009. The tune was initially written by Booker T. Jones and recorded by Booker T. & The M.G.’s in 1962 in a largely improvised fashion while waiting to back another artist in the studio. It became the title track of the Stax house band’s debut album from October 1962 and their signature tune. According to the liner notes, the Heartbreakers’ killer take was recorded during a February 6, 1997 gig at The Fillmore in San Francisco.

Here’s I’m Crying from the above-mentioned bonus CD to the Live At The Olympic DVD. The concert was recorded on October 16, 2002 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Written by Eric Burdon and Alan Price, this great tune by The Animals first appeared as the B-side to the Australian version of their 1964 single Boom Boom, a cover of the John Lee Hooker tune. I’m Crying was also included on their second U.S. studio album The Animals On Tour.

Another intriguing cover appearing on The Live Anthology is Goldfinger – yep, that would be the title track of the classic 1964 James Bond motion picture! Composed by John Barry, with lyrics co-written by Leslie Bricusse and  Anthony Newley, it’s one of the greatest movie songs I know. Presumably because it would have been hard to capture the amazing vocal by Shirley Bassey, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the track as a cool Shadows-style instrumental. Mike Campbell is doing an outstanding job that I assume made Hank Marvin proud, if he heard it. Like Green Onions, Goldfinger was captured at The Fillmore in San Francisco, except it was a different date: January 31, 1997.

The last cover I’d like to highlight in this post also appears on the above Bad Girl Boogie EP/bonus CD: The Chuck Berry classic Carol, first released as a single in August 1958. It also appeared on Berry’s first compilation album Chuck Berry Is On Top from July 1959. This take features more awesome guitar work by Campbell and some kickass honky piano by Benmont Tench – great gosh a’ mighty, to borrow from another talented gentleman and piano player called Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard.

– END –

The original post, which was published on February 3, 2019, ended here. Following is the aforementioned Spotify playlist, which features the above and plenty of other covers performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

Great Covers Tom Petty Style

American Girl, Refugee, You Got Lucky, Runnin’ Down A Dream, Breakdown, Free Fallin’, Southern Accents, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, The Last DJ – there are countless great songs written by Tom Petty. In addition to that, Petty has also performed many fantastic covers, especially during his concerts. With The Heartbreakers, he had one hell of a backing band. I was reminded of that earlier today, when I came across and listened to an EP titled Bad Girl Boogie, which apparently was exclusively released on Amazon.com in June 2010 as a bonus CD to the DVD Live At The Olympic: The Last DJ. This triggered the idea of putting together a post focused on covers played by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

I’d like to start things off with what I believe was the first cover I ever heard from Tom Petty: Needles And Pins, a song I’ve always dug. It was included on Pack Up The Plantation: Live!, the first official live album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,  which appeared in November 1985. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono, the tune was first released by Jackie DeShannon in April 1963. In January 1964, The Searchers turned it into a no. 1 hit single in the U.K. In the U.S., it performed strongly as well, peaking at no. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Petty’s great rendition features Stevie Nicks on backing vocals.

Next up: Green Onions, simply one of the coolest instrumentals I know. It appears on The Live Anothology, a live box set and true treasure trove released in November 2009. The tune was initially written by Booker T. Jones and recorded by Booker T. & The M.G.’s in 1962 in a largely improvised fashion while waiting to back another artist in the studio. It became the title track of the Stax house band’s debut album from October 1962 and their signature tune. According to the liner notes, the Heartbreakers’ killer take was recorded during a February 6, 1997 gig at The Fillmore in San Francisco.

Here’s I’m Crying from the above-mentioned bonus CD to the Live At The Olympic DVD. The concert was recorded on October 16, 2002 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Written by Eric Burden and Alan Price, this great tune by The Animals first appeared as the B-side to the Australian version of their 1964 single Boom Boom, a cover of the John Lee Hooker tune. I’m Crying was also included on their second U.S. studio album The Animals On Tour.

Another intriguing cover appearing on The Live Anthology is Goldfinger – yep, that would be the title track of the classic 1964 James Bond motion picture! Composed by John Barry, with lyrics co-written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, it’s one of the greatest movie songs I know. Presumably because it would have been hard to capture the amazing vocal by Shirley Bassey, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the track as a cool Shadows-style instrumental. Mike Campbell is doing an outstanding job that I assume made Hank Marvin proud, if he heard it. Like Green Onions, Goldfinger was captured at The Fillmore in San Francisco, except it was a different date: January 31, 1997.

The last cover I’d like to highlight in this post also appears on the above Bad Girl Boogie EP/bonus CD: The Chuck Berry classic Carol, first released as a single in August 1958. It also appeared on Berry’s first compilation album Chuck Berry Is On Top from July 1959. This take features more awesome guitar work by Campbell and some kickass honky piano by Benmont Tench – great gosh a’ mighty, to borrow from another talented gentleman and piano player called Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube