Wild about Petty's drawl
By Steve Davy
Hong Kong Standard - Friday, February 3, 1995
Tom Petty understands his music perfectly; he has had plenty of practice in a recording career which spans 20 years. But much of his material sounds the same. While that's an accusation which could be levelled at many a performer - it's a musician's idiosyncrasies which make them unique, after all - with Petty many songs bring a sense of deja entendu.
Tom Petty's new album shows a new dose of inspiration
By Eric Broecker and Erich Hennig (E&E's Musical Jactation)
The Concordian - February 10, 1995
This week we bring you a new album from an artist whose career has spanned a good part of three decades. We find it amazing that an artist so old can dominate so much air time on MTV. Not that the single "You Don't Know How It Feels" isn't good, but really, five times an hour?
By now you're wondering where we are really going with this. Well, we realized that no one really reads our article, they just like our picture. Therefore, instead of reviewing albums, we'll change our picture weekly.
For Al Kooper, turning 50 was a good excuse for celebrating
By Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - March 3, 1995
Over more than 30 professional years, Al Kooper has had his hand in some of rock 'n' roll's biggest projects, from Dylan and the Stones to Tom Petty and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He's an accomplished songwriter, singer, record producer and arranger, and is proficient on a dozen instruments. He doesn't like to stay in one place for too long.
And yet, despite a prolific career as a recording artist, he's never had a hit under his own name.
Reviews: Petty crowd blossoms for flashier 'Wildflowers'
By Dave Tianen
The Milwaukee Sentinel - March 6, 1995
It was natural to wonder if Tom Petty could grow "Wildflowers" in an arena.
Petty's new album, "Wildflowers," is perhaps his most personal, intimate work, much of it more in the singer-songwriter realm than in his usual heartland rock style. So it was natural to wonder if the sellout crowd Sunday night at the Arena would be in a mood to sniff "Wildflowers," or if it would grow restless with anything more idyllic than "American Girl."
The results were decidedly mixed.
Tom Petty Relishing In Relaxed Groove
By Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune - March 9, 1995
Tom Petty came out firing cliches Wednesday at the United Center, and it sounded just fine anyway.
"Love is a long road," he drawled, and his longtime band, the Heartbreakers, fell in behind him at a deliberate tempo, the favored travel speed most of the night.
On the subsequent "You Don't Know How It Feels," Petty and his accomplices settled into one of those comfortable, midlife Grateful Dead grooves, and made the first of several wildly received references to pot smoking. As Scott Thurston's harp choogled amiably, one could practically see the straw-haired Petty ambling down a dirt road, hands thrust in jeans pockets, chewing on a blade of grass.
He's made a career of playing a regular guy, and save for the ridiculous bullet belt he donned on the cover of his debut album (way back in 1976), he has conducted his business with remarkable, easygoing dignity.
Both concert and album prove rapturous
By Marta Conlon
The Argus - Friday, March 10, 1995
Tom Petty| Monday, March 6, 1995 | Peoria Civic Center
"Absolutely Incredible!"
These two words, spoken by junior Tim Petersen, describe the evening perfectly.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers spun a web of musical delight over Central Illinois Monday night in a 2 ½ hour performance.
This concert series is the first time Petty has toured with the Heartbreakers in over two years, but from the sound of the show you would not know they were ever separated.
Music Review: Petty knows how it feels to skip hits, still wow fans
By Ed Masley
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Wednesday, March 15, 1995
Tom Petty may not be the first big rock 'n' roll star ever to sell out a venue the size of the Civic Arena and then spend nearly two hours completely ignoring the songs that made him famous.
He'd almost have to be the first one who's ever gotten away with it, though.
And he got away with it in a real big way, too.
Pure Petty
By Jim Farber
New York Daily News - Wednesday, March 22, 1995
For good and bad as a singer and songwriter, the star has learned to fly, but his band rarely took wing at Garden show.
You won't find a less assuming creature on an arena stage than Tom Petty. At Madison Square Garden on Monday, Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, shuffled through two hours of affable boogie while the star sang in the wry, measured tones of a local raconteur out to shoot the breeze.
It's not the kind of thing that makes for high thrills or great glamor. But for Petty, the lack of flash reveals his character as surely as it invites a critique.
ROCK REVIEW; No Heroics, Low Hopes, Happy to Break Even
By Jon Pareles
The New York Times - March 22, 1995
With his scraggly beard, long legs and intermittent grin, Tom Petty looked like a cagy young geezer at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, someone who has been cheerfully holed up in his own private citadel. The 41-year-old Mr. Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, have persisted for two decades, barely budging from folk-rock, but regularly ascending the pop charts.
Although Mr. Petty's tone is calm and the tempos rarely rush, the music is at home in arenas. Every so often, Mr. Petty would walk out to the lip of the stage to draw extra cheers, or hold his guitar aloft in triumph.