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OT: Mudcrutch

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stonebobbo
Posted 2008-04-23 12:04 AM (#43464)
Subject: OT: Mudcrutch



Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307

Location: Tennessee		So this band Mudcrutch is releasing an album on April 29th and is doing a small support tour down the coast of California. I was lucky enough to score some tickets for last Saturday's show at the intimate Arlington Theather in downtown Santa Barbara. lady stonebobbo and I squeezed into the sports car and made the trip down Highway 1 on Saturday. No fancy stage shows, just five guys with their gear and some basic lighting. In short ... one of the most fun, best shows I have ever been to. So here's the story on Mudcrutch.

They were a band formed while at Gainesville High School in Florida. The guitarist and co-lead singer is a guy by the name of Tom Leadon. Many of you may be familiar with his older brother Bernie Leadon, who was with The Flying Burrito Brothers and then was one of the founding members of The Eagles (Bernie and Don Felder were the "other" band at Gainesville High).

So Tom Leadon hooked up with a bass player by the name of Tom Petty. They formed Mudcrutch and went looking for a drummer, and found a guy by the name of Randall Marsh. He showed up to the audition with his college roomate, a cat by the name of Mike Campbell. They hired both of them on the spot. Then they recuited another local guy to play keys for them by the name of Benmont Tench.

Mudcrutch lasted for 3-4 years, even moving to LA to try to make their mark. They never really made it, except for one single released on Shelter records. The band split up, but three of them (TP, MC and BT) reformed as The Heartbreakers and the rest is history. Tom Leadon wound up in Nashville playing sideman and teaching guitar and Randall Marsh wound up in Ojai CA giving drum lessons and doing some other band and session work. Last year, they decided to get together thinking they "left some good music behind" and wanted to give it a try. So they recorded the album "live" (as TP said no overdubs at all) in a total of 10 days. The results are great. There are a number of very well done covers including Shady Grove, Six Days on the Road, Lover of the Bayou. During the show, they did a very hot version of "June Apple" with twin telecasters banging out the licks. There are also some very fine original songs on the album.

All I've got to say is that those boys had nothing but a ton of fun throughout the whole show. No Tom Petty songs at all ... this was all about Mudcrutch. The music is a blend of "southern fried rock", bluegrass, and flat out classic heartbreakers type sound. Aside from the songs on the album, they played Summertime Blues (kiler version) and a bring-down-the-house rendition of Rainy Day Women. It was a thrill to watch these guys from about 20 feet away. Rumors have it they may do another tour sometime later in the year ... if you get a chance, go see them.

I did not bring a camera with me, but I had my iPhone and it's lame little camera. I was closer to the stage (9th row) than this photo looks:



It was a real treat to watch Mike Campbell up close and personal. He is just a master of getting a ton of music out of his guitars with what looks to be very little effort. He did an amazing solo on the song "Crystal River" ... better than anything I've ever seen. If you get the album, listen to it and realize that it is one guitar doing all the different pieces of the solo and it was recorded live!

Can you tell I was inspired by the show?
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dvd
Posted 2008-04-23 12:19 AM (#43465 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1889

Location: Central Massachusetts		Bobbo, sounds like a great experience! Wish I could have found a way to catch a show!
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G8r
Posted 2008-04-23 12:29 AM (#43466 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch


Joined:
November 2006
Posts: 3969

Mudcrutch left for LA 2 years before I got to Gainesville, to my regret. Sounds like a fantastic show. Bet they all really enjoyed getting back to their roots.
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Beal
Posted 2008-04-23 8:44 AM (#43467 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch



Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127

Location: 6 String Ranch		Chrystal River is another Florida town, over on the left coast from Gainsville.

Sounds like it was a great show.
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Jeff W.
Posted 2008-04-24 6:43 AM (#43468 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch


Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039

Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub		Cool beans, Bobbo.
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Weaser P
Posted 2008-04-24 7:35 AM (#43469 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch


Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 5332

Location: Bluffton, SC		Great review too! More on them here .
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stonebobbo
Posted 2008-04-30 2:05 PM (#43470 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch



Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307

Location: Tennessee		Here's the review of the album (which released yesterday) from Rolling Stone:

-------------------------------------------------

Even a dude with a track record as golden as Tom Petty's needs to reflect on paths not taken. Mudcrutch, Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band, released a single and little else in the mid-Seventies. And that's too bad, since they reunite here for a hot country-rock set that clearly aspires to, and gets within spitting distance of, genre classics like Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Gilded Palace of Sin and American Beauty. If the Heartbreakers had never happened, this band would have worked out just fine.

Mudcrutch has more jammy, expansive guitar work than any Petty record ever. Yet the leader doesn't play a lick, shelving his Rickenbacker to play bass, as he did back in the day. The twin-guitar front is Heartbreaker Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon, a dazzling player who found less fame than his brother Bernie (Eagles, Flying Burrito Brothers). The pair duel on the hot-pickin' traditional tune "June Apple," run Allman Brothers tandems on the boogie-rock "Bootleg Flyer" and space-waltz Dead-style on the organ-swathed, nine-minute "Crystal River." Heartbreaker keyboard whiz Benmont Tench and journeyman drummer Randall Marsh complete the original lineup; everyone's back, and better for it.

The songs are mythic Americana: With help from his bandmates, Petty creates a vivid cast of road dogs, strippers and junkies that conjures Gram Parsons' Bible-haunted Southerners and Robert Hunter's cosmic Westerners. And his weathered harmonies with Leadon make them flesh; though his voice is frayed, Petty's never sounded more real. Two country-rock covers nearly match their models: The Byrds' "Lover of the Bayou" and "Six Days on the Road," a Burritos fave. If they fall a tad short, that's appropriate: Mudcrutch's ragged enthusiasm is the sound of a hungry gang getting its first taste, just a few decades late.

-------------------------------------------------

If you're a Petty fan, a swamp-rock fan, and/or like country-fried rock, this is a good get.
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alpep
Posted 2008-04-30 2:45 PM (#43471 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch


Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583

Location: NJ		there is a movie about tom petty and it has a ton of the mudcrutch info.

unfortunately it is 4 hours long. I missed my nap that day
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stephent28
Posted 2008-04-30 3:31 PM (#43472 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch



Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303

Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066		I saw that movie/documentary was on TV a while back but saw it was 4 hours long....so I passed.

Might rent the video down the road.

Al, was it 4 hours well spent or wasted time?
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kotadawg
Posted 2008-04-30 4:54 PM (#43473 - in reply to #43464)
Subject: Re: OT: Mudcrutch


Joined:
November 2007
Posts: 1486

Location: Cincinnati		Thanks for the info, stonebobbo. I'm picking up the cd on the way home. I think Tom Petty played some of the tracks on XM Monday, but I was too busy to really listen closely. I'll find out tonight.
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