Benmont Tench, “The Melancholy Season.” A case could be made that the world has become much more terrible since Tom Petty died in 2017. It’s also hard to believe we’re closing in on a decade since the legendary singer-songwriter’s passing. Life goes on. For Benmont Tench, the keyboardist in…

“Bad Monkey” original series soundtrack, celebrating the music of Tom Petty. The gift and curse of a genius like William Shakespeare’s is that the bard’s work is always being reimagined. So you get “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set amid a roller derby, a robotic Lady Macbeth or Hamlet delivering…

“Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.” Two things come into clear focus while listening to the 20 Tom Petty songs on the new Petty Country compilation album, meant to emphasize the rocker’s Southern roots and his influence on country musicians. Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration…

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…

Tom Petty, courtesy. As regular readers of my column and anyone who’s sat near me for any length of time know, my musical tastes are stuck in the ’90s, along with my fashion sense. It’s the second best decade of music in American history behind the ’60s, and I…

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Live at the Fillmore 1997.” It’s 1997 and you’re inside The Fillmore theater in San Francisco. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are onstage—at the peak of their prowess. Petty tells the audience, “We’re live on the internet tonight; whatever that is.” You’re seeing one…

Tom Petty, courtesy. The Tom Petty estate and guitarist Mike Campbell will release a new live album composed of performances from six concerts of the 20-show Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ residency at the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1997. Live at the Fillmore (1997) will come in various formats,…

Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs perform at The Independent in San Francisco on April 15, 2022. Sean Liming/STAFF. SAN FRANCISCO — “I hope you all paid your babysitters. We’re going to be here for a while,” Mike Campbell told a sold-out crowd at The Independent, a couple songs into…

The best albums of 2020 include Washed Out, the Mountain Goats, Ethan Gruska, Tom Petty, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, Logic, The Strokes, Moses Sumney, Fleet Foxes, Willie Nelson, Yves Tumor, Nicolas Jaar, Ed O’Brien, Charli XCX and Blackpink. After nearly a decade of living through 2020, we’re finally…

Novelist William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past.” The maxim is not simply applicable to the study of history. People are haunted by the things they have and haven’t done, as well as those they’ve known. Artists are haunted by their influences, desperate simultaneously…