Covered In Folk: Tom Petty
(Dawn Landes, Kasey Anderson, Mark Erelli, Johnny Cash, & more!)
April 24th, 2010 — 11:26 pm
We’re back from our Florida vacation not much worse for wear, though the long slog home from anywhere proves a perennial challenge, and reentry into the world of work is always bittersweet. Still, the heart is light, and for that, I owe my family a great debt: to my father for making it all possible, to my children for helping me see the world as ever wondrous through their eyes, and most of all, to my spouse for planning the hell out of yet another perfect Spring Break.
Case in point: though much of our journey hewed close to the fabricated world of Disney, on our final day we eschewed the parks, and headed west to the mid-coast keys. The detour was a perfect capstone to our week: a respite from the plastic crowds, and a fine reminder of why people live here among the swaying palm trees, the warm and gentle gulf stream waters, the white sugar sand as fine as talc. Watching the sun set over Tampa Bay on the long, flat bridge to St. Petersburg was as sweet as the waterfront mojitos that followed.
Though it’s hard to imagine getting used to the heat of the day, it’s equally hard to walk away from the sheer joy of just sitting, calm and cool in shirtsleeves, in the gentle Spring breeze on the balcony after dark. And I can think of no better way to capture this moment forever than through folk music, in a tribute to a fine Floridian native son.
Tom Petty is Florida’s most famous export, musically speaking. Born and raised in Gainesville – where he was inspired by a chance childhood meeting with Elvis and high school guitar lessons from Don Felder of The Eagles – the grinning, iconic frontman and singer-songwriter has sold millions of records, won three Grammys, earned a star on Hollywood Boulevard and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and is often presented as the typical American Rock success story.
Though he went deeper and a bit more experimental in his later years, Tom Petty’s most identifiable musical alliance is with Heartland Rock – a white working-class subgenre popular in the 70s and 80s, typified by “traditional” rock-band electric guitar and drums tinged with mandolin and harmonica, and accessible blue-collar lyrics that tell of the social, physical, and economic isolation experienced by those struggling to recapture the american dream in a post-industrial decline. And sure enough, like the subgenre’s other famous practitioners – Bob Seeger, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and John Fogerty among them – though he has enjoyed renewed popularity among the younger set in recent years, Petty’s laconic drawl can most commonly be heard on bar-room jukeboxes and classic rock radio, alongside southern and country rock artists such as the Eagles and Lynard Skynyrd.
Like anybody, I guess, I find Tom Petty’s vast catalog of hit songs familiar from the very first chord. And though my struggle to love what can only be called “distinctive” voices is well known to our regular readers, as a child of the eighties, a pop culture aficionado, and a fellow pursuant of the dream, though I don’t own a single Tom Petty album, I nonetheless find comfort in the constant presence of his direct and often softly cynical songbook.
I’m not alone in this. The blogs were awash with Tom Petty covers back in 2008, when his superbowl halftime show was the talk of the town – a sure indicator that both bloggers and modern singer-songwriters share my appreciation for Petty’s apt portrayal of both the American heartland and the American heart. Today, as a mark of my own prodigal return, and in celebration of the coincidence of both American excess and Floridian paradise which I experienced in his home state, we gather in the best and folkiest – many posted previously here and elsewhere; all well worth repeating.
- Dawn Landes: I Won’t Back Down
(hidden track from Fireproof, 2008; more Dawn here) - David Baerwald: I Won’t Back Down
(artist-released demo recording, unknown era) - Johnny Cash: I Won’t Back Down
(from American III: Solitary Man, 2000)
- Kasey Anderson w/ Anna Foster: Walls
(from Way Out West, 2009) - Jim Boggia: Walls
(from self-released rarity Transistorized 220, vol. 2, 2003; more Jim here)
- Melora Crager: American Girl
(from Perplexions, 2006; more Melora here)
- Daisy Mayhem: Wildflowers
(from Ranky Tanky, 2010)
- The Gibson Brothers: Cabin Down Below
(from Iron and Diamonds, 2008)
- John Dissed: Even The Losers
(bonus track from 2nd EP, 2009; more John here)
- Johnny Cash: Southern Accents
(from Unchained, 1996)
- Jon Shain: Time To Move
(from Army Jacket Winter, 2007)
- Kathleen Edwards: A Face In The Crowd
(from Starbucks’ Sweetheart: Love Songs compilation, 2004 [out of print])
- Kings of Convenience: Free Fallin’
(live, from Cosmosonica: Vol. 1, 2005; more Kings here)
- Lipstik: Yer So Bad
(from There Is Only One Thing, 2008)
As always, Cover Lay Down is first and foremost in it for the artists: if you like what you hear above and below, we encourage you to pursue artist and album links to give back to the musicians we feature, and acquire some fine tuneage for your own files, too. Tom Petty may be ubiquitous, both with and without his perennial backing band the Heartbreakers, but those interested in pursuing his original works should head over to his webpage for videos, samples, tickets, purchase links and more.
Today’s Bonus Tracks offer up a pair of favorite covers of a song Petty cowrote for the late eighties supergroup Traveling Wilburys – whose star-studded line-up also included Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and George Harrison.