I’ve been a fan of lead guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers since I first noticed the group stay after I was a scholar on the College of Florida again in 1981, when Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks joined the Heartbreakers on stage to sing “Cease Draggin’ My Coronary heart Round” and 4 or 5 Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks songs in the course of the encores.
After the tragic passing of Petty in 2017, Campbell spent two years (2018-19) because the substitute for Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac, however then began his personal band, The Soiled Knobs, in 2020. The brand new band — presently comprised of Campbell on lead guitar and a lot of the lead vocals, current Eagles touring guitarist Chris Holt on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Lance Morrison on bass and former Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone — has put out three albums so far, “with a fourth one within the can,” in response to Campbell final night time.
The group’s next-to-last cease on their present tour (the Soiled Knobs play in Jacksonville tonight) was at Ruth Eckerd Corridor final night time they usually placed on a present far more laden with solo Petty and Heartbreakers tunes than a lot of the Soiled Knobs’ earlier dates — eleven in all, in reality. Though it was wonderful for this 45-year Petty fan to listen to so a lot of these previous favorites, I really would personally have been happier to listen to Campbell & Co. play extra of the Soiled Knobs’ personal catalog.
Contemplating that Campbell hardly ever, if ever, even had a mic to sing to on stage when he was with the Heartbreakers, I completely love the man’s voice and his music, as at all times, is stable rock with many of those songs having that Petty-esque nation twang. And, though Mike is credited as a co-writer on dozens of Petty’s basic tunes, my understanding was that Mike would normally write or co-write the music, however Tom dealt with the vast majority of the lyrics. So, it’s fairly startling to listen to so many songs that Campbell has written and sings himself.
Amongst my favorites eventually night time’s present have been the hard-rockin’ however melodic “Dare to Dream” and the country-infused rocker “Depraved Thoughts,” the super-fun “F–ok That Man,” plus “Irish Woman,” “Shake These Blues,” and “Angel of Mercy,” all of that are from the three Soiled Knobs albums. There have been no less than 7-8 extra of these songs that I want they performed — together with the just about Rolling Stones-ish title observe, the funky rocker “Sugar” and the candy “Anna Lee” from the primary Soiled Knobs album, “Wreckless Abandon.”
Others they didn’t play that I really like are the nice lyrics and catchy beat of “Soiled Job,” the attractive duet with Margo Value known as “State of Thoughts” (which sounds prefer it may very well be Petty and Stevie Nicks collectively once more), “It Is Written” and “Electrical Gypsy” from the second album, “Exterior Combustion,” and “Fingers Are Tied,” “Harmless Man” (a very totally different tune than Billy Joel’s “An Harmless Man”), “Hell or Excessive Water” and “The Best” from the most recent album, “Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.”
In case you like Campbell’s “minimalist” guitar from the Petty days, many of those songs are equally as addictive — no less than in a single editor’s opinion.
However sure, it additionally was superior to listen to Campbell’s guitar riffs and belted-out, Petty-like vocals on the entire Petty and/or Heartbreakers tunes, particularly on “Love Is A Lengthy Street,” “A Lady In Love (It’s Not Me),” “Don’t Fade On Me,” “You Bought Fortunate,” “You Wreck Me,” “Runnin’ Down A Dream” and my favourite Heartbreakers tune of the night, “The Greatest Of Every little thing” (in duet with super-talented opening act Shannon McNally, a Grammy-nominated Lengthy Islander from Jones Seaside).
Total, it was an great present and a lot of the not-quite-sold-out crowd of over 2,000 folks appeared to like it as a lot as Jannah and I did.
Whether or not you have been on the live performance or not, for those who’re a fan of the Heartbreakers, it’s a must to learn Campbell’s just lately launched guide, Heartbreaker: A Memoir — which I used to be stunned to not see on sale at Ruth Eckerd. It’s an unimaginable learn, ghost-written by Ari Surdoval, and it tells the entire tales of how Campbell got here from lower than nothing in Jacksonville, to getting a scholarship to the College of Florida, the place he met Petty (who wasn’t a scholar however grew up in Gainesville), who satisfied Mike to drop out of U-F, to assembly the opposite members of the band then-called Mudcrutch, to heading out to Los Angeles and discovering stardom with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers — and all the pieces that got here since then. I’m positive it should embody Campbell’s ideas on Tom passing away in 2017 — though I haven’t completed studying the guide but. Even so, it’s truthfully already among the best non-fiction memoirs I’ve ever learn.
I don’t know what’s subsequent for Mike Campbell & The Soiled Knobs or when they are going to return to our space, however all I can say — after actually eight of them final night time — is “Encore!”
