Tom Petty's sudden passing is still reverberating through the music world as we approach the one year anniversary on October 2nd. Petty was a prolific musician and songwriter as he always seemed to have an album ready every three years or so. Soon we'll see how much we didn't know existed as a four CD box set of previously unreleased material is due out on September 28th called An American Treasure.
Shepard Fairey (of Obama Hope fame) lent his hand to the album cover as Petty's wife Dana, daughter Adria, The Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and engineer Ryan Ulyate compiled the songs for the upcoming release. The 60-song collection spans Petty's entire career and includes unreleased songs, alternate takes, and live tracks.
We've already seen how much great material sat in Petty's archives before with his Playback box set along with "Somewhere Under Heaven", recorded during his Wildflower sessions, that was supposed to be a part of the yet to be released Wildflowers: All The Rest double album.
The first song we have is "Keep A Little Soul", recorded in 1982. IT has all the trademarks of Petty's music - a driving guitar riff from Campbell, gorgeous keys from Tench, and of course Petty's vocals. The music video uses archival footage from Petty rocking out on road and off stage with the band.
More details on the box set are available at tompetty.com.
