Marion

Got both CD's today for the concert tickets I bought. My vinyl with T shirt came yesterday. The FLAC files are a real bonus for me as they are in 48khz/24bit which after a bit of work will play as lossless Alac files at 48/24. 
btw...if you download the Pono Music World player from Pono you can play FLAC files in their native form and it also has a converter built in to convert them to other formats. 

I received the digital download this morning and listened to the entire album from beginning to end on my way to work this morning cranked up to 10 and all I can say right now is this album is pure joy from beginning to end. It made me so happy it brought tears to my eyes a couple of times!  This cd won't be coming out of my CD player anytime soon!  More later....❤️🎶

Got my vinyl today! Will try to listen to the album soon.

I just listened for the first time all the way through and I am absolutely distraught that I am not able to get to one of the shows this time around! The album is AMAZING!! Even better as a whole than what I already loved in the previews on TP radio and even the NPR preview. Dreams of flying and Hope really stand out more on the album. Of course I am still totally hooked on Victim of Circumstance and ready to bow down in respect with tears in my eyes to I Forgive it All. Every song has special qualities all to its own. I love that they each got to do one of their own songs, yet the album is really a solid piece of work with real flow. I absolutely love it!

PART 2 then....
'Hope', this screams 'She's The One' album to me! Ironically, it's Benmont's keys in this one that make me think that....without the keys it would hide the 'She's The One' reference point, but then again wouldn't be as good a song without the keys which actually makes the song...I'm also getting ''Hey Baby, you're a free girl now'' from High Grass Dogs DVD based on the drum pattern here....quite a nasel tone in Toms voice...maybe he had a cold when cutting this one...like this one a lot!
'Welcome To Hell'...a great homage to Jerry Lee Lewis here, if anything I would have liked to hear an extended 'Killer' jam from Benmont at the end of this one...it ends quite abruptly...so maybe a missed opportunity for Benmont to really cut loose on the piano on an extended solo.
'Save Your Water'..ah yes, the other one I had in my 'bottom two' after the radio premiere. This one really clicked upon first listen on the album....there's a southern country rock authenticity and purity to this one that I missed out on first time around. 'Save your water woman I won't drink out of your stream', love that lyric! Again, one of those where the lyrics really fit the song and there's more than one stream of consciousness going on!
'Victim Of Circumstance', the more I listen to this the more I like it....love Mikes vocal delivery here, laid back but right on the money...serving the songs needs with an understated hint of panache....just like his playing. We need more singing from Mike! Similiar to 'Welcome To Hell' this one is at least two minutes too short though which is a bit frustrating.
'Hungry No More', for some reason this one reminds me of the atmosphere of 'Free As A Bird' the song that was put together around the time of the release of The Beatles Anthology documentary all those years ago....the best compliment I can give this is that in my view only 'Dreams Of Flying' and 'I Forgive It All' could be considered better...and even then you'd have to splice and dice some thin threads to justify that...certainly these three comfortably belong in the same ball park of excellence. After the radio premiere I had these three and 'Hope' as the strongest songs I liked best....since buying the album 'Hope' has slipped out of that bracket a bit....and 'Beautiful Blue' is fighting hard for re-examination...there's something about that song that I can't make up my mind about....guess the only thing for it is to keep listening to it until I find the answer! 
So to summarise, I'd give this a four out of five star rating overall....great job on recording the album..it sounds great, even on CD, so can only imagine how good it sounds on vinyl...i'm always clamouring for external producers to produce Tom/Heartbreakers/Mudcrutch but great job on this one. On another note, i can't under estimate the value and importance of Benmont to the album....he really rounds out the sound with intelligent flourises here and there to really accentuate the songs....the lack of enough Benmont on Hypnotic Eye (i know he was working on his own album but not sure if that was the full reason for his lack of keys on the record as a whole...it's a bass heavy record so maybe that was deliberate in terms of the way they wanted to get the sound for that album..but still)  really inhibited that album from reaching it's full sound potential I thought....so maybe after 'Wildflowers All The Rest' we can get a re-recorded deluxe HE release with Dreams Of Flying included! 
On a more humorous note....they missed a trick by not having a closing 'Jerry Springer Final Thought' with Jerry saying his trademark ''Take care of yourself, and each other''. It would have fit in well with some of the tales of the songs in the album that could easily be linked to the type of characters and stories that featured on The Jerry Springer Show!

I received the digital download this morning and listened to the entire album from beginning to end on my way to work this morning cranked up to 10 and all I can say right now is this album is pure joy from beginning to end. It made me so happy it brought tears to my eyes a couple of times!  This cd won't be coming out of my CD player anytime soon!  More later....❤️🎶

Mudcrutch Farmer from the UK signing in with a latest status report on this official Mudcrutch 2 release date.
PART 1.
Well off I went to the local friendly non-corporate music store only to find that they didn't have it! So off it was to the local friendly copropate music store which did have it...at least in CD format. Interesting to see the 'New Release Stand layout. Top shelf Bob Dylan, second shelf Eric Clapton, third shelf Richard Ashcroft of former The Verve fame, second last shelf Ariande Grande and bottom shelf under Ariande we have Mudcrutch!
First price, £9.99 pounds sterling which works out as $14.49 US dollars....I was informed by the guy on the check out that the vinyl would not be in store until next Friday May 27th...vinyl album will be £18.99 pounds sterling which is $27.54 US dollars for comparison purposes... 
Firstly I have to say that this album sounds absolutely fantastic in terms of how it was recorded, great balance and clarity distinction and a blend that lets all the instruments complement each other in the mix...of course having a band of players who understand that concept and listen to each other is a big help to this....as was clearly evident as a point of importance to them when they were making the album as we learned from the radio exclusive interview that Marion kindly shared earlier.
The thing that really pleasantly surprised me on first listen to the album in it's sequence is that the two songs that I had bottom of the pile in terms of the songs I liked from the radio show were the two songs that grew the most in my enjoyment of the album....these were 'The Other Side Of The Mountain' and 'Save Your Water'. I 'got it' hearing them in their sequence as part of the album. So thats a great sign of an album when the songs you don't really get upon first listen start to reveal themselves upon second listen.
So second time around the block.......
I'm still not digging the new 'Trailer' and i have a feeling that I'll always be set in my ways of going for the 1984 vintage version...a personal preference.
I see 'Dreams Of Flying' as Heartbreakers territory any day and every day of the week. A CRACKING song. Great that it has seen the light of day with Mudcrutch and it sounds awesome....I see it as a Heartbreakers song and have done since first listen...Mudcrutch do a great version of it! If and when The Heartbreakers tour again, I'll be shouting for this one...and I'm looking forward to hearing Mudcrutch give this one the live treatment....in my mind it's a MUST for the live shows coming up, hope i'm not disappointed. A wider point is that this is the only song that screamed out Heartbreakers on the whole album for me...I know they were very careful in making sure that it was very much a Mudcrutch vibe in making the album and it was a great achievement to actually achieve that. In my personal playlist i'll be putting Dreams of Flying into HE and Red River into Mudcrutch 2! When I sat back listening to this one for some reason Howie, bless him came into my mind, not in terms of the song content necessarly, but in terms of grooving up on stage with this one if he were still around and if The Heartbreakers ever did this one....or from the Wildflowers sessions..............for me at least I get a sense of Howie in this one some how...
Beautiful Blue.....this one regressed a bit from when first hearing it....a lot of great things in it....still hearing Benmont doing his Melinda solo at the end there!
Beautiful World.....''I just want to let you know that I will stand, by you, through what ever may come, where ever you run, will you stand by me When The Time Comes'' from 'You're Gonna Get It album'. No escaping the similarities between the two songs in my view...not that you would necessarly need to escape either...but it's an interesting cross reference discussion point if nothing else...
I Forgive It All....I won't say too much here, as the song speaks splendidly for itself...a beautiful and moving song, if you managed to keep the tears in your eyes from falling down your cheek you did very well...stunning song, one of the best songs Tom has ever done in my view.
The Other Side Of The Mountain....the most improved song upon second listen on the whole album for me, i must admit when I heard this first on the radio premiere I had visions of line dancing in community halls in suburbia hell....but the penny dropped hearing this on the album...there are hidden layers in this song..lyrics are deceptively simple...a lot going on in this song. It's fast becomming one of my favorite songs on the album! Anyone else think that after about 30 seconds into the song the tempo speed of the song quickens by about 50% from there on in to it's finish? Not sure if that was by conscious design or not...but to me there's a perceptible change..
PART 2 TO FOLLOW....

I received the digital download this morning and listened to the entire album from beginning to end on my way to work this morning cranked up to 10 and all I can say right now is this album is pure joy from beginning to end. It made me so happy it brought tears to my eyes a couple of times!  This cd won't be coming out of my CD player anytime soon!  More later....❤️🎶

I love the lines in his face.  He still moves me.  This photo is from an article posted here---> 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-petty-wont-back-down-1460731202

Monday – May 16
1am ET / 10pm PT - Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
8am ET / 5am PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
12 noon ET / 9am PT – Buried Treasure Show #235
4pm ET / 1pm PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
9pm ET / 6pm PT - Buried Treasure Show #235
11pm ET / 8pm PT - Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
 
Tuesday – May 17
10am ET / 7am PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
3pm ET / Noon PT – Buried Treasure Show #235
8pm ET / 5pm PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
11pm ET / 8pm PT - Buried Treasure Show #235
 
Wednesday – May 18
8am ET / 5am PT - Buried Treasure Show #234
Noon ET / 9am PT – The Benmont Tench Show (debut of Show 5)
6pm ET / 3pm PT – Buried Treasure Show #235
9pm ET / 6pm PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
 
Thursday – May 19
11am ET / 8am PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere
5pm ET / 2pm PT – Buried Treasure Show / debut of New Show #236
11pm ET / 8pm PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
 
Friday – May 20
9am ET / 6am PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
1pm ET / 10am PT – Buried Treasure Show #236
6pm ET / 3pm PT – Mudcrutch 2 Album Premiere (last airing)
10pm ET / 7pm PT - Buried Treasure Show #236
 
 
Saturday – May 21
11am ET / 8am PT – Buried Treasure Show #236
3pm ET / Noon PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
6pm ET / 3pm PT – Buried Treasure Show #236
10pm ET / 7pm PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
 
Sunday – May 22
7am ET / 4am PT – Buried Treasure Show #235
Noon ET / 9am PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
6pm ET / 3pm PT – The Benmont Tench Show (Show 5)
10pm ET / 7pm PT - Buried Treasure Show #235

I really loved the whole album and interview!  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️  I hope we get some YouTube videos from the concerts.  I couldn't work it out to get to a show either.  It just seems so down to Earth and fun. I recall how much fun they had playing together at the last shows.  I think TP was floating above the stage like his feet didn't touch the ground with the hugest smile on his face the whole time. It looked like the most fun he ever had!  

Thank you, Marion!  So wonderful to have this interview. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE "Dreams of Flying"!!!!   It's that old school early 80's TPATH feel with tons of energy and it really gets the serotonin flowing.  Awesome!
Hope is soo good too, the organ is killer!
Too bad it is late at night right now and I can't really crank these up.  Tomorrow these songs will be on blast!

Thanks Marion!!
I listened to the first 3 tracks on NPR, but the sound quality is miserable. On the other hand, I just can't wait until next Friday... 
I guess I'll listen to it once, then I'll listen to the premier/interview show and then wait for the real thing.
I haven't seen this on HDTracks yet. I hope they'll publish it in HD audio as well...

I love and adore this album! Thank you, Marion, for recording this for us! You're the best!

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

OMG what a great album !
it all sounds exactly the way I like best. One of the big surprises is Benmont´s Boogie Woogie "Welcome To Hell" fantastic. "Dreams Of Flying", great, great, great !!! This time there is absolutely no song I do not like. All Killers. I'm speechless,really 
...but Nightdriver you´re right. On NPR the album sounds terrible, can´t believe, why ? The albums on npr sound actually getting very good. (but thank God we have Marion in this forum)   Bob Dylan´s new album sounds great on NPR. But i also can´t wait until next Friday !!!
 

Great to read all the excitement in here! Fun times. Again, thanks Marion, listening to this show was the most fun I've had in long time.. part of me felt like a little boy again. Such a great way to be introduced to this new album, really. Felt like a luxury for sure. These guys.. they're so humble and so much fun to listen to. As always, I find Ben's personality and remarks to be so spot on and clever.. the guy just has to be a genius. (Then again, in their various way I guess they all are!). And Tom2.. can a guy ever be any more humble and overly well mannered than that?! Gotta love him! Here he is, a very core part of Mudcrutch, to talk about the new album, on a show on TomPettyRadio that will/can be heard by super fans only - still he insists on telling people who he is before he speaks. Priceless!
As for the album.. It's not easy - or perhaps not even a good idea - to judge the album qualities as such, from hearing the songs split up and talked through like this, not to mention trying to say something after just a handful of listens. Nevertheless, I'll try to share my first impressions, without being overly specific about it.
I think this is a fantastic bundle of recordings! The overall feel of the album is that it is indeed, like mentioned in the interview, quite a bit more elaborate and.. let's say.. worked than the last one. It does have a slightly wider diversity in terms of style and disposition and it does have more layers and intricate details in arrangements.* You can tell this album has been through a lot more subsequent fiddling than the last one, but the way it plays out and the way the material works, this seems to have been all for the best. It does seem, for most parts, to benefit from being more of a layered full production album, although there is always pros and cons to such approach for a band like Mudcrutch. On the one hand some stuff really flies high, on the other the raw feeling of spontanity and intimacy of the last album - that to me was the quintessential Mudcrutch vibe, that made them unique - has been moved back a notch or two, making this Mudcrutch2, in a sense more of a Mudcrutch equivalent of She's The One. (I mean.. there is no comparsion, but still there is a few parallells to be drawn, kinda.) That said, it still does have that special something that they mention in the interview, the interplay of the TP bass and RM drums that really sets it aside from the Heartbreakers and brings forth slightly other qualities in BT and MC.
Ok, enough of that already. At least for now. As for the songs.. generally speaking, I think this time around they really have reached an incredibly high and even level in terms of the compositions. That is the song writing is top notch! There might be segment or two, in a song or two, that itches me a little bit, but in general each and every song here is incredible, musically speaking! More over - each and every song feels extremely inspired, the playing, the arrangements and production decisions fantastic to a point! To me, in the department of the music (composition as well as sound) Mudrcutch2 has to be among the most consistently top notch albums in the entire TP catalog.
There might be - to me - some difficulties to cheer sincerely for the drumming on Beautiful World (ironically, Randall's own piece sounds a bit machine like to me). Also, I might not find myself blown away by TP's vocal on the otherwise great opener Hope, that somehow strike me as mildly strained. And speaking of vocals.. MC does a super job - I've never heard him sing this great! BT is.. staunch..  to the point of sounding his normal cool. RM gets a pass, if barely, but I am really sorry to say this.. Why oh why (oh, I know why.. it's obvious!) why do they let TL sing?? I have to say it almost hurts my ears. And this is even more sad, since much unlike the first time around (where he contributed the by far weakest song IMO) this time he really did a wonderful job with the song writing (love his song!!) and he brings on some fantastic stuff as a player too! I do think he's core to this sound and seemingly a wonderful man too, core to the Mudcrutch vibe, but damn if he can sing..?
Most parts, those initial "objections" of mine are very minor. It's quite awesome how they've seemingly managed baking all the various loose ends together to such a tight fit. A really fun and well conceived album all in all. Not an easy thing to accomplish as it is, but to do it with five songwriters, and five singers.. I am, at least from certain angles, even more impressed this time than I was with the stunning first album. (This bundle of songs of "2" make you wonder about the 8 or 9 songs from the sessions that reportedly were scrapped..)
There are more things to be said for/ and about these songs, and I'm sure we will..
But for now, my favorites: 
* Victim of Circumstance - pretty much a perfect song, that surely are "gonna knock the wall down" when performed live. I am impressed to the extent that I ponder taking back everything bad I've ever said about I Don't Wanna Fight.. But ok, each song for itself, right?
* Beautiful Blue - Perhaps not the strongest chorus structure I've ever heard from TP, but man.. this is some seriously spiritual sh*t! The verses are great, and the solos and playing in general is totally fantastic! Everybody keep namedropping Hungry No More as the Crystal River 2. I'd nominate this one. There are several almost epic, dreamy.. shall I say transcendental (got nothing to do with teeth, right??) moments on this album. Moments where you really DO lose yourself in some seriously spiritual places.. most of which moments are located within the frames of this song... 
* I Forgive It All - Such a nice and simple structure. So beautiful, both the music and the lyrics. The phrasing! The vulnerable tone of voice, and the phrasing is just among the most heartfelt thing I've ever heard. Goosebumps, a tear in the corner of my eye, just from the vocal delivery.  
* Dreams of Flying - Really good song. Traditional TP in some ways.. almost to the point of feeling like retro 90s or 80s Heartbreakers, like someone said. And it appears the song is from back then too. Perhaps not the ultimate Mudcrutch song in my book, but fantastic enough to fit most slots. (Now.. here's a thought - if the very much Mudcrutch:ish song Red River would have been saved for this album, and Dreams of Flying would've instead have taken it's slot on Hypnotic Eye, then I'd personally be quite pleased with two perfect jig-saw puzzles.. )
* Welcome to Hell - I had to play it back immediately. There was something at odds at first. But I don't know what it was, because already upon second listen, volume up much louder, it was gone. Nothing there, cept a really good honky tonk smoker. Really good song, very clever and genre appropriate lyrics too. For what it is - extremely simple in structure - this is a very nicely written piece! I would love to hear Jerry Lee "killing" it!!  
* Hungry No More - Again. At first I wasn't sure I liked the structure of this song.. or if was just the repetitive nature of the lyrics.. that seems to suggest the blues while the music doesn't. Nevertheless, it immediately grew on me and again.. like so many songs on this album.. the sounds and the instrumental and vocal deliveries are so beyond great that it more or less knocks the song right into position and makes it come out the other end a modern classic.  
As for the rest of the lot: Hope is a great tune. Again, not quite the typical Mudcrutch song to me, but it works. I don't like the vocal delivery too much at this point though. Trailer is really, really good and I do think it's an improvement on the original, even if that one is good too and have some other qualities to it - certainly not terrible). More over, as it turns out this is the one song here that most clearly hints back to the Mudcrutch vibe as it came across, at least to me, on the last album, with that loose, southern, slightly gritty, immediate and simple delivery and as such it will be core to bring this bundle together as an album, I think. A good song and a pivotal piece. Beautiful World is actually a good song, perhaps more fun than really good.. at least I don't think the playing.. is quite as otherworldly on this one as on most of the others. The Other Side of The Mountain would have been in my top favorite category straight away, if it wasn't for what I mentioned about TL vocals.. they butcher this sweet ditty, to my ears. Too bad. The TP parts are incredible. Great song! Save Your Water is a sneaky piece of work.. It may not seem like much, there are a few odd little turns in the composition perhaps.. and the lyrics seems somehow elusive even by TP standards.. but after a few listens this kinda feels vintage Petty just like Dreams of Flying does.. Still, it's actually very much in the vein of The Byrds in some sense (by coincidence.. or not) .. and thus a very appropriate and good Mudcrutch tune, even if it may not feel that way at first.
I find myself, at this point, realizing that while their first album - incredibly good, warm and genuine as it is - do have some filler (covers, mindbendlingly great covers, but still covers, not to mention one light weight instrumental piece and at least one original that did not quite keep up, this new album - despite being all originals and all guys contributing - does not have any obvious filler. Amazing! Very, very consistent album, if this hold the test of time.
This, again, is just early impressions. It's way too early to say anything too specific about the long term impact of this beast - it's not even out yet - but Mudcrutch2 promises to be one hell of an album. I really look forward to hear these songs back to back on a vinyl album. "Long playing, you know"... It will be a blast. This will be the album of the summer around here, I can tell. "Groundbreaking title" and all..
 
---
*I find it funny that TL talks about working with additional overdubs and vocals as being the "traditional" way. As opposed to the experimental new way of recording straight into the funnel?? Well, I guess overdubs and studio cut and paste work is "traditional" to the children of the 60s and 70s rock scene, whom just in recent years, due to the alignment of mature age and new purity and retro trends, learned about the old classic, "true" form of recording, live, pure and raw - the actual traditional, and often times superior way, as it were.

Marion!  
Big Hug from ole SG!

I recorded this yesterday and haven't even listened to it yet.  It's the Mudcrutch Album Premier/Interview with the band broadcasted on Sirus XM yesterday afternoon.   I know it's a serious temptation to those of you who want to wait but here it is.  It will be a very pleasant drive into work for me today! 

http://www.mudcrutch.com/marion/mudcrutch_album_premier.zip

I really loved the whole album and interview!  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️  I hope we get some YouTube videos from the concerts.  I couldn't work it out to get to a show either.  It just seems so down to Earth and fun. I recall how much fun they had playing together at the last shows.  I think TP was floating above the stage like his feet didn't touch the ground with the hugest smile on his face the whole time. It looked like the most fun he ever had!  

I recorded this yesterday and haven't even listened to it yet.  It's the Mudcrutch Album Premier/Interview with the band broadcasted on Sirus XM yesterday afternoon.   I know it's a serious temptation to those of you who want to wait but here it is.  It will be a very pleasant drive into work for me today! 

http://www.mudcrutch.com/marion/mudcrutch_album_premier.zip

Thanks, Marion.  It will be a perfect start to my day tomorrow on my drive in to work.

I'm with Tom on this one, the new Trailer is a massive improvement over the original.

On the whole, this interview was pretty great. They all seem happy to be doing this Mudcrutch thing and not having too much pressure on them.

Thank you Marion!! Wonderful! This will be interesting...

Marion thanks for recording this and sharing. I really enjoyed listening to this! And no doubt will listen many more times. Very insightful questions and candid answers from the guys. Sure sounds like they're having fun! I really wish I could make it to a show this time. The more I hear, the more it kills me! Maybe I'll win the XM contest-fingers crossed.