Mudcrutch Extended Play Live CD

Mudcrutch: Tom Leadon (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar); Benmont Tench (vocals, piano, organ); Tom Petty (vocals, bass guitar, background vocals); Mike Campbell (guitar, mandolin); Randall Marsh (drums).
Audio Mixer: Ryan Ulyate.
Recording information: Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA (04/20/2008/05/02/2008); Ventura THeatre, Ventura, CA (04/20/2008/05/02/2008).
Photographer: Dennis Callahan.
In 2008, Tom Petty and a couple of his Heartbreakers reunited with the other members of Mudcrutch, the early-'70s band in which they cut their teeth. Mudcrutch released a studio album of new songs, but the four-song EXTENDED PLAY LIVE captures the group on a short string of shows promoting the album. Three songs from the studio sessions plus a version of Jerry Lee Lewis's "High School Confidential" find Petty and his pals in fine roots-rocking form, with a loose, easy feeling of communication as the prevailing instrumental dynamic.
Mudcrutch's supporting tour of their belated 2008 debut was brief, spanning only a handful of dates in California in spring of 2008, so it's only logical that the accompanying tour souvenir of that CD is also short and sweet: an old-fashioned EP instead of the multi-format CD/DVD/Blu_Ray release that's all the rage in 2008. Fans might gripe about its abbreviated length, but the four tracks on Extended Play Live are all top-notch, showcasing everything the band does well: there's the swampy rock of "The Wrong Thing to Do," the country-rock & roll of "Bootleg Flyer," the epic 15-minute jam of "Crystal River," and a rip-snorting tear through Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential." It's enough to entertain and enough to make any fan wish that Mudcrutch decided not to be quite so old-fashioned this time around and give the fans a full show instead of an EP. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine