Ode to Tom Petty
New tribute album includes Hamilton acts Redhill Valleys, Terra Lightfoot and Maggie Szabo
Hamilton artists, including Terra Lightfoot, are on 23-track tribute
Tom Petty would have celebrated his 68th birthday Saturday, if he hadn’t died from an accidental overdose of painkillers a little more than a year ago.
The first anniversary of his death earlier this month brought about the highly anticipated “An American Treasure,” a box set of 63 remixed and remastered recordings covering Petty’s solo albums, as well as his work with the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch.
For Petty’s birthday, we get a more modest compilation of covers recorded by 23 Canadian acts paying tribute to the iconic American rocker. It’s called “Canada Covers Tom Petty,” and will be available as a streaming playlist on Spotify and YouTube on Oct. 20 (search for “Canada Covers Tom Petty).
The 23-song track list is not comprised solely of hits — “Refugee” isn’t even included — and contains several surprises.
Among the contributors to “Canada Covers Tom Petty” are Jadea Kelly, who curated the project and offers up a sublime interpretation of “Wildflowers”; Nova Scotia rocker Matt Mays, who duets with Hamilton’s Terra Lightfoot on “Learning to Fly”; Amanda Rheaume with a sliding shuffle of “Running Down a Dream;” and Toronto tunesmith Royal Wood, who delivers a surprising rendition of the psychedelic chant “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”
Local artists are well represented on the record. Besides Lightfoot, there’s also Dundas native Maggie Szabo, who takes on the megahit “I Won’t Back Down.” The Hamilton/ Toronto cover collective Dwayne Gretzky performs a stripped-down version of “Time to Move On”; and LeE HARVeY OsMOND guitarist Aaron Goldstein (under the name Espanola) slugs out a down-and-dirty “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”
One of the standout tracks is by Hamilton country-rock group Redhill Valleys, whose slick harmonies bring to life “Love is a Long Road,” a lesser known track from Petty’s 1989 multiplatinum album “Full Moon Fever.”
Redhill Valleys singer/bassist Chelsea McWilliams’ love for Petty’s music is well known in local music circles — her current Facebook profile photo is a pen-and-ink sketch of Petty and her car radio is permanently tuned to the Sirius all-Tom Petty station.
“Jadea Kelly knew that we were really into Tom Petty,” said McWilliams. “When he died, it was devastating and we were quite vocal about that (on social media). I grew up on Tom Petty. He was my hero.”
Many of the artists on “Canada Covers Tom Petty” will perform at a special tribute concert on Thursday, Dec. 20 at the Dakota Tavern in Toronto.