The Tom Petty Project

01/06/2025

I have a special episode coming out for you this week. I know, I know! I need to get to Angel Dream and I promise, next week I'll crack the seal on that beauty!

But I have noticed that a lot of podcasters have been posting out their best albums of 2024. Now, I don't really listen to a lot of "new" music, so instead, I thought I'd share some of my 2024 highlights on and off the mic as well as share my favourite albums that I've discovered this year, or in a couple of cases have been important to me this year. A little self-indulgent? Sure. But so is a 200+ episode podcast about one artist when you think about it! 😁

01/01/2025

No episode today folks! I've been taking some time off over the Christmas break and didn't have time to write and record!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and I'm looking forward to kicking off episodes for 2025 in style next week!

Love to you all ❤️

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today's song is a wonderful little piece of fluffy Christmas fare. There’s no big message here, it’s just a nostalgic, whimsical throwback type song and I’m almost surprised that it wasn’t a co-write with Jeff Lynne because it has a bigger ELO feel to it than it does a Heartbreakers feel!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/yc3sru8z
🟢https://tinyurl.com/p8mpkz94
🟨https://go.goodpods.com/XSIXXT

12/18/2024

The second installment of my Artist Conversation Series sees Matt Jaffe return to the show to talk about his fantastic new album, Gone Enough To Miss. It was a joy to nerd out over broad aspects as well as details of the album and our conversation took in some excellent diversions regarding Tik Tok, superstition (not the Stevie Wonder song!) and how to release an album in the Gen-Z era!

Matt was incredibly articulate, thoughtful, and completely open and generous with his time and insights as always and this was a fantastic chat, which I hope you enjoy. I'd recommend giving the album a listen first if you haven't heard it!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/yc8822yb
🟢https://tinyurl.com/4tv7m3wj
🟥https://youtu.be/qBL3-E1zkBg (with video)

12/11/2024

First of all, Changed The Locks by Lucinda Williams is a fantastic song and her delivery of it is sublime and very intimate - a tone that is enhanced by the arrangement that is used on that recording. The Heartbreakers amp up the anger by speeding the track up slightly, making the guitar tones heavier, and adding in that extra guitar phrase.

So you have an interesting original song with a cool, atypical song structure, interpreted in a raucous, noisy way by members of the opposite s*x, in a different musical genre. It’s one of those covers that adds to the original and makes it feel unique and authentic to the artist interpreting it. It’s a very simple song musically and the theme is well-trodden ground, but the way all of it is packaged and delivered really works for me.

🍎https://tinyurl.com/zfu2nw75
🟢https://tinyurl.com/3n3ksbx6
🟥https://youtu.be/embDSul1qi4

12/04/2024

“Tempers flaring And words are spoken, ya close one door And another opens, you hear the music And you're wondering“. It’s a verse that opens up the possibility of change, if not actual resolution. It’s a verse that doesn’t wrap anything up in a neat little package, but hints at something beyond itself. It’s all very nicely constructed in a similar way that Crawling Back To You is, with those similarly disconnected narrative verses and broader chorus.

Climb That Hill is out now!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/4j5rzycf
🟢https://tinyurl.com/3smdpsj4
🟥https://youtu.be/akSn3TehOQ8

12/03/2024

Tempers flare
And the words are spoken
You close one door
And another opens
You hear the music
And you're wondering

12/02/2024

It’s been a great weekend full of bracing exercise and fantastic tunes!!! Hope you’ve all had a good one! ❤️

11/27/2024

“You think that you're above me. You think that you're so big. Well, I saw you kick that dog. When the wind blew off your wig” This is Tom’s brilliant whimsy, channeled through Dylan’s cynicism to fantastic effect. It really means nothing at all, just a very broad way of saying “you’re kind of a dick!” Again I’d love to have notes on this one from Tom because I wonder how much of this was written and how much of it was spontaneous. I could see there being about 7 or 8 more variations on these verses, with random thoughts or streams of consciousness coming in and out and the three that we get being taken as the best ones. We’ve all heard Tom messing around singing silly songs with his acoustic, like Them JuJu Beads, or I’m a du***ss baby. There’s a similar energy to this one for me. It’s just straight up rollicking good fun!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/bddeb2a9
🟢https://tinyurl.com/5xp85a7m
🟥https://youtu.be/9MjB4KoK62w

11/20/2024

“We grew up fast and no-one seemed to notice. We grew up fast and we grew up alone”. All of us latch key kids can relate very easily to what he’s communicating here. Even though our parents loved and supported us, quite often we were just left to our own devices. During school holidays, once I was 9 or 10 years old we were just left at home, left to sort out our own lunches, let ourselves in and out of the house responsibly and hopefully not burn the place down trying to cook a Christmas pudding in the microwave. Top tip by the way, that doesn’t work! This idea of self-relience then morphs into emotional abandonment in the second half of this verse; “Mom and Dad Were never what we wanted”. And I think about this line differently now that I’m a parent too. We’re all just muddling through as best we can as parents, but we’re just as flawed and insecure as our kids, they just don’t see that!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/296xtphx
🟢https://tinyurl.com/4u9m9v9f
📺https://youtu.be/-h1LUsA1RbY

11/20/2024

Just when you needed your day to get excellent, Jeff Slate HQ delivers! 😎

BLACK FRIDAY VINYL DROP! In time for the holidays, my 2024 album “The Last Day of Summer” is now available on LP. This black vinyl, 180g release is a strictly limited edition. Featuring 10 tracks and collaborations with and performances by Dave Stewart, Earl Slick (official), Duff McKagan, Steve Cradock Official, Mick Talbot and more, MOJO called “The Last Day of Summer” “…an album of classy, Greenwich Village-scented folk and soul.” https://jeffslatehq.com/product/1052129

11/18/2024

Good morning all! I had an absolute blast chatting to Brian on the My Weekly Mixtape podcast. We put together a twenty song playlist that I think stands up as an introduction to Tom's music. I reckon there will be plenty of "WHAT??? YOU DIDN'T INCLUDE [insert favourite song here]????" but I also think there will be plenty of "Great to see [insert underappreciated song in your opinion] getting some love!" too :)

This week’s guest curator is Kevin Brown, host of The Tom Petty Project and we’re crafting a playlist filled with our favorite songs from across Tom Petty’s career: from his work with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, to Mudcrutch, the Traveling Wilburys & more!

https://myweeklymixtape.com/2024/11/17/ep-95-the-ultimate-tom-petty-playlist/

11/17/2024

In my opinion, The Last DJ and Highway Companion are grossly overlooked albums in the Petty canon. That opening four songs that constitute the concept suite are worth the price of admission alone, then you also get a stunning four pack to close the album; You And Me, The Man Who Loves Women, Have Love Will Travel, and Can’t Stop The Sun. 🧨🧨🧨

11/15/2024

Tune in Monday to listen to me dive into the Pettyverse with Brian from My Weekly Mixtape :) This was a TON of fun!

There's a fun & diverse group of episodes coming up on MWM! Stay tuned!

11/13/2024

Check out this fantastic mashup by my pals The Nextdoors! And a huge congratulations to them for their recent award as Best Musical Act 2024 in their hometown of Pasadena!

11/13/2024

“Half of me is ocean. Half of me is sky”. There’s something so brilliantly grand and epic about that line. The ocean and the sky are both vast and hint at the complexity of being human. You also have the contrast between something that is heavy, and anchored to a point in the ocean and the wide open, limitless possibilities of the sky. We’ve all said it before, but this is why Tom is a cut above most writers; his ability to express an idea that complex and that rich in such a seemingly simple yet abstract way is just remarkable.

Walls (Circus) now available for your listening pleasure!

🍎https://tinyurl.com/ycywuyrn
🟢https://tinyurl.com/59ds95d6
📺https://youtu.be/cNJQdYtJHsU

11/10/2024

Your last roving report from Gainesville from Pete Nester is a conversation with some of the people involved behind the scenes at the Tom Petty Weekend. Pete caught up with Lynne Ellison, Dan Spiess, and Brandon Leavitt at the Soundstage.

🍎https://tinyurl.com/4ru6ppuh
🟢https://tinyurl.com/2dm8rww8
📺https://youtu.be/IMcRMsAIIqA

11/10/2024

The first of two episodes for you today is another roving report from Pete Nester, down in Gainesville at the Tom Petty Weekend! Pete caught up with the main man, Jake Thistle and had a great chat with lead singer/guitarist for Lowly Worm and the Fantastic Beverages, Jared Hart.

🍎https://tinyurl.com/52s7hffc
🟢https://tinyurl.com/4frvt8da
📺https://youtu.be/6hFt1OvOQUM