Review: “Mudcrutch,” Mudcrutch
It’s no big secret that Mudcrutch, the band, is the Gainesville, Florida, band that served as the prototype for Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. Petty is back at the mic for the 2008 version of Mudcrutch, also featuring Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell. Original Mudcrutch members Randall Marsh (drums) and Tom Leadon (guitar), brother of Eagles and Flying Burrito Brothers member Bernie Leadon, are also in the lineup. Mudcrutch is a 14-song catalog of country rock and apparent Heartbreakers outtakes that wouldn’t have diverted anyone’s attention from the Eagles or the Byrds if it had been released in the early 1970s. Those two groups are the obvious touchstones here – “Lover Of The Bayou” is indeed a Byrds tune, one of three cover songs on the album, and “Orphan Of The Storm” (another Katrina-related song) has an Eagles-like lilt. Leadon takes over lead vocals on “Queen Of The Go-Go Girls” and Tench and Campbell even sing a bit on the album too. “Scare Easy” has that familiar Heartbreakers sound and will likely be the bait that lures the listener inside. Recorded in a two-week period, this is a little too accomplished to pass off as garage rock but Mudcrutch is a perfect throwback to those early ’70s days when bands knew how to play and, uh, take it easy.
30 Days Out 
Leave a Reply