What’s In The Bag?

Tom Petty
Highway Companion
American Recordings

Tom Petty’s third solo affair, the first since 1994’s Wildflowers, showcases the kind of artist who weathers with age but never fades. He is the undisputed heavyweight champion of cool, anyone who’ll take issue with Petty is either unhappy or awkward to hang out with. Now, I love his last record sans Heartbreakers a lot, a lot. Highway Companion may not have the hits a-plenty as the former did, but it thereby avoids the sore-thumb problem of megahits on full lengths. In snippets and clippings, I always hear Tom Petty talking about what “time does to you.” He’s pretty much the golden boy for Jonathan Richman’s “Dignified and Old” campaign. Unlike fellow grandpa Neil Young, who occasionally dances that rocking chair dance, Petty maintains a steady path along the mellow edge. Most surprising to me was the minimal lineup of musicians. It seems this was a tightly knit closed-session type record with only two others helping. Heartbreaker Mike Campbell produced and played a spot of lead electric, and producer Jeff Lynne swept up with some key piano and guitar, especially on ‘This Old Town,’ where the piano drives after each chorus. There’s a familiarity with any artist as solid gold as Petty, whose songs are scattered through my memory. Marking the start of his shift within Warner Bros, as he joins up with Rick Rubin’s newfound American Recordings, Highway Companion does what Petty does. It has great songs, quick stories and classic melodies.

Sammy Hagar
Livin’ It Up
Rhino Records

Maybe Sammy’s right, and I should spend some time half-baked under the Cabo sun before passing any judgement on his music. Tough call though, give the benefit of the doubt to the soul patch I only remember liking for a hot minute after the ‘Right Now’ video came out? I giggled when the tequila thing happened, if only to see someone make talk show appearances in shorts and flip flops. Not this time I’m afraid. I was physically upset to hear him sing Dylan. When you open the Livin’ It Up packaging, a handful of sand falls out. If you still play the CD, you’re forced to decide which is a better time: staring at a small pile of sand or listening to Sammy Hagar tear a hole in music.

Michael Franti and Spearhead
Yell Fire
Anti (USA)

I caught the last half of Franti being interviewed by Travis Smiley on PBS, discussing his trip to Iraq and the making of the documentary ‘I Know I’m Not Alone.’ He’s a tall man with great posture, eloquent and softspoken in person. I’d heard some of his early, charged music (he called it “angry”), but never learned much about him. Seeming older and more positive about his anger with the current world, politically and socially, he described his impulse to travel to Iraq during this war. Tired of reading and watching the news, he brought his guitar and a film crew along. This record is largely inspired by that trip, the people he met and talked with. He said, “it’s not really a protest album…it’s more about people in the street.” He finds more justice in having real conversations than by taking stabs at a giant monster like war. These songs are mostly good, though the documentary’s title track sounds like Ben Harper doing a Jack Johnson song, which makes me shiver even to think of. There’s some nice reggae update moments in songs like ‘East to the West’ and ‘Hey Now Now.’ It’s a fine record and its motivation is admirable.

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