Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs : Mission Of Mercy

I always felt like Mike Campbell was Tom Petty’s secret weapon. Petty took the spotlight for sure, as he was the music scholar in the band. He took his love of bands like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds and so many others and turned it into a lifelong music career. Borrowing from but never regurgitating or out and out copying what came before. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came out of the gate with a southern jangle but with the ferocity of punk.

Guitarist Mike Campbell was there since the beginning and was a major part in the sound that became The Heartbreakers. After Petty left us far too soon Campbell continued on, even joining Crowded House’s Neil Finn in Fleetwood Mac to help fill the giant, empty shoes left behind by the firing of Lindsey Buckingham.

But if you want the vibe of those Petty days, look no further than Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs. This is a rock and roll band thru and thru, and their new album Mission Of Mercy is all big guitars and driving tunes. Tom Petty left a huge hole in rock and roll when he died, Mission Of Mercy goes a long way to fill that hole.

The big thing you notice when hitting play on Mission Of Mercy is just how much Mike Campbell sounds like Tom Petty. It’s kind of spooky, really. I guess when you spend 40 years in a band with the same guy; writing songs, traveling the world, mind melding in the studio together you start to have similarities. And the vocal similarities were never as apparent when they were singing together. But now it’s very in-your-face. Opener “No Regrets” has a dusty swagger to it, as if the Traveling Wilburys somehow had a reunion beyond the grave. Campbell captures the nuances Petty was known for, but with his own spin on it. “Let Me Back In My Dream” is just a cool rocker with some attitude for miles.

Elsewhere “Bongo Mania” features Kate Pierson of The B-52s on vocals, while “Armageddon” goes dirge-like heaviness. Album closer “Vagrant” has Campbell narrating a story to groovy, jazzy music that is part beatnick, part Doors.

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs may not completely fill the gigantic hole Tom Petty left behind, but Mission Of Mercy is a hell of a rock record nonetheless.