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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
MOJO
Tom Petty – Vocals, Guitar
Mike Campbell – Guitar
Benmont Tench – Keyboards
Ron Blair — Bass
Scott Thurston – Harmonica, Guitar
Steve Ferrone — Drums
Some time in the last few years Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took a left turn. Maybe it was when Petty woke up in the night with the idea of reuniting his first band, Mudcrutch, to cut the album they never got a chance to make back in the early 70s. Maybe it was when the Heartbreakers assembled the mammoth multi-disc The Live Anthology, which detailed thirty years of concerts. Maybe it was when they gave all their home movies, outtakes and live footage to director Peter Bogdanovich to create the Grammy-winning four-hour career documentary Runnin’ Down A Dream. There have been side projects and experiments since the band last went into the studio to cut a new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. With MOJO, they have taken their recent freedom and experimentation to heart. They have gone off the reservation and all signs indicate they aren’t coming back.
The first thing that hits you about MOJO is that the spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions has carried on with the Heartbreakers. This is the sound of a band playing together in a room – not a studio – facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time.
Tom Petty says, “With this album, I want to show other people what I hear with the band. MOJO is where the band lives when it’s playing for itself.”
As for the songs, MOJO showcases a wide variety of American music from rock ‘n’ roll to country and both electric and acoustic blues. And then there are the images in Petty’s lyrics which slip in on the melodies and set up a home in your head: The barefoot girl in the high grass chewing on a stick of sugar cane, the run-in with the law that begins when a carload of buddies decide to party with the motel maids, and the hilariously audacious idea of opening an album with an electric blues rocker about Thomas Jefferson’s love affair with Sally Hemings. Petty would probably chuck a rock at anyone who called him a poet, but he sure is a southern writer of humor and sensitivity.
MOJO has juice and guts but it also has some sweet balladry for the slow dancers and even a wacked-out reggae number that is unlike anything that
Heartbreakers have done before. It’s the kind of album nobody’s supposed to be able to make anymore. It got here just in time.
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Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame inductees TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS released their debut album in 1976. They have since sold more than 60 million records. Between the Heartbreakers’ recordings and his solo work, Tom Petty has won two GRAMMY awards and been honored with lifetime achievement awards including induction the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Billboard’s Century Award, and MTV’s Video Vanguard Award. Tom Petty, with the Heartbreakers at his side, has become a rock and roll icon lauded by fellow musicians and music lovers worldwide. Tom Petty’s Sirius/XM radio show, Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure, is one of the most beloved and popular shows on satellite radio. It features Tom Petty spinning favorite tunes from his extensive private music collection.
Discography:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 1976
You’re Gonna Get It! 1978
Damn the Torpedoes 1979
Hard Promises 1981
Long After Dark 1982
Southern Accents 1985
Pack Up The Plantation: Live! 1985
Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) 1987
*Full Moon Fever 1989
Into The Great Wide Open 1991
Greatest Hits 1993
*Wildflowers 1994
Playback 1995
Songs and Music from ‘She’s The One’ 1996
Echo 1999
Anthology: Through The Years 2000
The Last DJ 2002
*Highway Companion 2006
The Live Anthology 2009
Mojo 2010
* Denotes Tom Petty solo album
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MOJO - Album Art
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Sam Jones
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Sam Jones