Posthumous album by musical great of Heartbreakers’ fame
Thomas Earl Petty (Tom Petty) – a giant in the pantheon of musical greats – was taken away from us all too soon when he died on October 2 2017.
His recording legacy, both with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist is huge.
And now, posthumously, sees release of Finding Flowers alternate versions of his songs on April 16 via Warner Records.
The release features previously unreleased track You Saw Me Comin’.
Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) has been curated with help from his loving family, bandmates and collaborators.
The tracks, which were previously released on the limited-edition Super Deluxe nine-LP version of 2020’s Wildflowers & All The Rest, will now be available on limited edition gold vinyl, CD and on all digital streaming platforms for the first time. A black vinyl release will follow on May 7.
The album is previewed by You Saw Me Comin’ previously unreleased recording from 1992, which premieres alongside a video directed by Joel Kazuo Knoernschild and Katie Malia.
Reflecting upon recording You Saw Me Comin’ for Wildflowers, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, said: “There’s this kind of longing in the song, in the way that he wrote the chord structure, the melody and the lyrics.
It’s wistful, and it would have been the perfect way to end the disc.”
Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) features 16 studio recordings of alternate takes, long cuts and jam versions of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and co-producer Rick Rubin worked to finalise the album in 1994. The release offers fans further deep access into the writing and recording of Wildflowers as well as realising the full vision of the project as Tom had always intended.
The collection was produced by Tom’s long-term engineer and co-producer Ryan Ulyate who listened to 245 reels of 24-track tape, revealing Tom and his collaborators’ evolutionary process and finding the group willing to do whatever it took to discover the essence and magic in the material.
Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) follows Wildflowers & All The Rest.
Critical acclaim for the album included from Uncut “It sounds even better at this extended – and intended length”.
Classic Rock meanwhile said about the recording “This is worth luxuriating in”.
Mojo, meanwhile, stated: “The quality of the songs, performances and recordings is so consistently high, any staunch Petty enthusiast should be delighted.”
Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions)’ tracklist ... 1 A Higher Place
2 Hard on Me
3 Cabin Down Below 4 Crawling Back to You 5 Only a Broken Heart 6 Drivin’ Down to Georgia 7 You Wreck Me
8 It’s Good to Be King 9 House in the Woods 10 Honey Bee
11 Girl on LSD
12 Cabin Down Below (Acoustic Version) 13 Wildflowers
14 Don’t Fade on Me 15 Wake Up Time
16 You Saw Me Comin’