Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, “Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.”

While it’s been almost seven years since Tom Petty left us for the great wide open, Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs continue rocking in his wake. Campbell is the longtime Heartbreakers guitarist whose legendary collaborations with Petty date all the way back to the mid-’70s and their Florida rock band, Mudcrutch. Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, the third album from Campbell and company, both alleviates and intensifies the sense of Petty’s loss.

On the one hand, Campbell’s vocals sound A LOT like Petty’s. Put this record on in a big box store or a Dave & Buster’s restaurant and half the people there will think they’re listening to Heartbreakers deep cuts with Petty on vocals. Campbell’s sound as a guitarist is inseparable from his work with the Heartbreakers, and the new album explores familiar musical territory.

An added bonus for Petty fans is the inclusion of Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone replacing Matt Laug, who became the touring drummer for AC/DC last year. Ferrone’s rock-solid drumming on Petty songs like “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” which should be studied in both geology and music classes, is instantly recognizable on the album opener, “The Greatest.” His colossal backbeat undergirds the overdriven wall of sound on the album’s serious rockers, including “Don’t Wait Up,” “Shake These Blues” and “Hands Are Tied.”

Plus, Campbell’s nasally Southern drawl is joined by some big time guest vocalists on the album.

Heavy electric guitar playing creates “Kashmir”-like tension on “Dare to Dream,” before major chords launch an anthemic chorus. Campbell is joined by folk legend Graham Nash as they deliver the song’s optimistic message together: “These are the best of times/ This is the good life/ And all you dare to dream can come true.” Country star Lucinda Williams sings a verse on tender country ballad “Hell or High Water.” Chris Stapleton accompanies Campbell on the raucous “Don’t Wait Up,” which also features Mudcrutch and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench.

On the other hand, the album is a bit of a trip into an uncanny valley where things that seem familiar and special to us suddenly become kind of creepy because they’re not quite what we’re looking for or expecting. There are moments, like the drum fill and guitar intro to “Hands Are Tied,” that feel like clones of earlier Petty songs. It’s like visiting a location in the real world where a famous scene in a favorite movie was shot. Tom Petty had such a singular presence as a musician and performer. Campbell’s crucial role in the Petty sound is so much more obvious in hindsight, and so the guitarist is cursed and cursed again. First to be overshadowed by Petty’s genius, and then to become a kind of living ghost who haunts fans by reminding them of what they’ve lost.

Clearly though, Campbell still resides among the living. Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits is a vibrant, vivid rock and roll album made by a guy still very much in love with music and very much at the top of his game. Tom would want us to give it a listen.