Albums That Should Exist: Various Artists - Tom Petty's 70th Birthday Bash, 10-23-2020

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Various Artists - Tom Petty's 70th Birthday Bash, 10-23-2020

Here's something that I think is great if you're a fan of Tom Petty's music at all. And who isn't a fan of Tom Petty's music? Petty died in 2017. Had he lived, he would have turned 70 on October 20, 2020. There has been a yearly tribute concert in his hometown of Gainsville, Florida, on his birthday each year since his death. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a normal concert wasn't possible, so a virtual home concert was held instead, with different artists sending in their cover versions of Petty songs from their homes. The entire concert was well over five hours long. I've cut that down to three hours to make a really strong concert.

Somewhat strangely, this concert was broken into three different parts. The first two parts were only played on SiriusXM satellite radio. The first part consisted mostly of performances by Gainsville musicians. Most of those musicians are obscure, with no officially recorded music whatsoever. In cutting this concert from five hours down to three, I mostly cut from the first part. There are a lot of generic and unremarkable covers of Petty songs by bands you've never heard of, such as the Arts in Medicine Hospital Band and Jeff Slate's Weekend Wilburys. But there were some excellent performances by some unknowns, so I've included those. There are were a few songs by more famous artists sprinkled in early, such as one of my favorites, Larkin Poe, doing a song with Steve Ferrone of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on drums. Another Heartbreaker, guitarist Mike Campbell, also helped with a song by Starcrawler.

For the second part of the concert, a different SiriusXM DJ took over. The focus on Gainsville musicians ended. Instead, more famous musicians from all over were featured, starting with Eddie Vedder, lead vocalist of Pearl Jam. This section continued through the performance by the Raconteurs.

The final and longest section tended to feature the most famous names, though a few lesser knowns are scattered in as well. This last second was made available on video at Tom Petty's official website and other places. You can find all of it on YouTube if you want to watch and not just listen. Since this section is much more widely available, most press accounts mistakenly asserted that was the entire concert. But in fact it was only about half.

Now, let me explain some more about what I chose not to include. There were five songs performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers scattered through the concert. Judging by appearances, they're from different years of Petty's long careers. I didn't include any of those because I felt they didn't fit the rest of the concert. They were typical versions of his famous songs, like "Refugee" and "I Need to Know." Most of the songs were done by other musicians in the concert, so including them would have increased the repetition of songs a lot.

There also were a lot of spoken word sections. I removed nearly all of those. They're nice to hear once or twice, but they don't have much replay value after that, in my opinion. I've only included the between song banter by Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench, the lead guitarist and pianist, respectively, of Tom Petty's band the Heartbreakers. They did a mini-set of three songs, and the banter between the songs was an important part of that, in my opinion. Nearly all the talking was in the last section of the concert. If you watch that on YouTube, you'll hear nice spoken tributes to Petty by his wife Dana, his daughter Adria, Stevie Nicks, a poem by George Harrison's wife Olivia, and more.

Most of the songs sound great. But a few were recorded from homes with poor recording equipment. I rejected a few songs due to sound quality issues. I didn't include a version of "Yer So Bad" by Adam Sandler mostly because it was so poorly recorded. The songs by Beck and Susanna Hoffs also were not recorded well, but I included them because they just barely sounded good enough for my ears, and I particularly like those two artists.

Another problem was that there didn't seem much effort to prevent multiple versions of the same songs. For instance, there were no less than four versions of the song "Wildflowers!" I removed two of them, by the bands Grouplove and the Arts in Medicine Hospital Band, while keeping the versions by Eddie Vedder and Brandi Carlile. The song "Honey Bee" was another problem. There were three versions that I decided to keep, by Larkin Poe, Grace Potter with Reysonator, and the Foo Fighters. There were all good, and all different from each other. I removed some other songs that were done more than once. There are a few other songs with two versions: "American Girl," "Room at the Top," "Runnin' Down a Dream," and "Walls (Circus)." Since the concert is so long at three hours, I figure a few of those are okay.

Almost all musicians played just one song. There are a couple of exceptions though. As mentioned above, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench did three songs together to end the concert. Norah Jones played two songs. And Margo Price and Lukas Nelson each did one song, but then also did a duet together.

As I mentioned above, this a great concert. All sorts of my favorite musicians were included, and they did excellent versions. Honestly, I could hardly have picked a better line-up myself. If you like Tom Petty at all, please give this a listen!

Another point I want to mention is that the vast majority of the performances were done on or just before the broadcast date, from the musician's homes, but there are a few exceptions. The Gary Clark, Jr. and Jason Isbell performances comes from concerts in 2017. The Killers did their song "American Girl" in concert. I don't know the date or location, but they played that song a bunch of times in concert from 2017 to 2019. Eddie Vedder's version of "Wildflowers" is a solo acoustic version done without an audience, so it sounds much like the others. But it actually was done in 2017 at some point after Petty's death and not made public until this concert.

Oh, and one last thing: as Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench repeatedly said at the very end of the concert, if you're a US citizen, please VOTE in the election on November 3rd!

01 Saving Grace (Andrew Leahey & the Homestead)
02 Anything That's Rock 'N' Roll (Hannah Harber)
03 Ways to Be Wicked (Sunkat)
04 Yer So Bad (Tristen)
05 Kings Highway (Michigan Rattlers)
06 Honey Bee (Larkin Poe with Steve Ferrone & Tyler Bryant)
07 Joe (Hannah Wicklund & the Stepping Stones)
08 The Apartment Song (Miss Tess)
09 Sweet William (Edan Archer)
10 There Goes Angela [Dream Away] (Emma Swift)
11 I Need to Know (Starcrawler with Mike Campbell)
12 Wildflowers (Eddie Vedder)
13 Walls [Circus] (Dawes with Mike Viola)
14 Room at the Top (Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit)
15 Square One (Caamp)
16 Honey Bee (Grace Potter with Resynator)
17 Learning to Fly (Kurt Vile)
18 American Girl (Killers)
19 Runnin' Down a Dream (Raconteurs)
20 Listen to Her Heart (Flaming Lips)
21 Don't Come Around Here No More (Beck)
22 The Waiting (Jackson Browne)
23 Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (Lukas Nelson & Margo Price)
24 Southern Accents (Lukas Nelson)
25 Free Fallin' (Susanna Hoffs)
26 Walls [Circus] (Wesley Schultz of the Lumineers)
27 Breakdown (Spoon)
28 Angel Dream No. 2 (Lady Blackbird)
29 Crawling Back to You (Margo Price)
30 Honey Bee (Foo Fighters)
31 Runnin' Down a Dream (Lucinda Williams)
32 Rockin' Around [With You] (Sabina Sciubba)
33 Good Enough (Gary Clark, Jr.)
34 Love Is a Long Road (Dhani Harrison & Graham Coxon)
35 Room at the Top (Amos Lee)
36 Climb That Hill (Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers)
37 Cabin Down Below (Alison Mosshart)
38 Wildflowers (Brandi Carlile)
39 Don't Fade on Me (Chris Stapleton)
40 Time to Move On (Norah Jones)
41 Only a Broken Heart (Norah Jones)
42 King of the Hill (Roger McGuinn)
43 I Won't Back Down (Stephen Stills with Christopher Stills)
44 It's Good to Be King (Dave Stewart)
45 Alright for Now (Emily King)
46 talk (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)
47 American Girl (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)
48 Something Good Coming (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)
49 talk (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)
50 We Want Boogie 'bout Midnight (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)
51 talk (Mike Campbell & Benmont Tench)