Mudcrutch BY Mudcrutch Reviewed by Adam D. Miller    Six years before Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers struck it big with their self-titled debut LP and hit single, “American Girl,” Tom Petty sang and played bass in Mudcrutch, a Gainesville, Florida country-rock band that also included future Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, along with drummer Randall Marsh and guitarist Tom Leadon.Mudcrutch was the band that Petty took to California in hopes of landing a record deal in the early 1970s. The band was actually signed, briefly, to the independent Shelter Records and released one single, “Depot Street,” in 1975. That track, along with a few other Mudcrutch rarities, was included on the 1995 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers box set Playback. Up until now, however, this small sampling was the only Mudcrutch material available anywhere commercially. In August 2007, a nostalgia-fueled Tom Petty reunited his old band for the first time in more than thirty years to record a proper album. Mudcrutch was recorded live-on-the-floor, with no headphones and minimal tinkering. Its sound is raw, spontaneous and mostly upbeat. In other words, it doesn’t sound a whole lot different than a Tom Petty solo album like Wildflowers. As is the case with any other Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album, Petty is the clear leader of the band, and even though he reverts back to playing bass like he did before he was famous, he’s still the primary singer-songwriter. What’s different is the overall style of the record. In many ways, the album plays out like a precursor to 1976’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Gone are the hints of punk and new wave typical of Petty’s early work, and instead we hear much clearer nods to The Byrds (“Lover of the Bayou,” “Shady Grove”), psychedelic rock (“Crystal River”) and the southern rock popularized by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band during Mudcrutch’s infancy (“Six Days On The Road”). Although three-fifths of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers appear on Mudcrutch, the substitution of Tom Leadon on guitar instead of Petty shifts the sound considerably. Leadon, a much more country-influenced guitar player, offers some exciting interplay with Mike Campbell throughout, particularly on the instrumental “June Apple.” He also proves to be a more-than-capable singer in his own right, taking the lead on “Queen of the Go-Go Girls.” Keyboardist Benmont Tench also gets a rare shot at the mic for his own composition, “This Is A Good Street.” What could have easy been a novelty record and vanity project ends up being a great record, thanks in large part to strong songwriting and excellent musicianship. Mudcrutch may not have Tom Petty’s name on the cover, but that’s only a testament to how much respect and appreciation he has for the people he’s playing with. |
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