The upcoming annual Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe on Memorial weekend is getting some national publicity today, thanks to scoring Tom Petty and his original band, Mudcrutch, for its lineup. Yesterday, Summer Camp announced its second wave of artists for the 3-day music festival that kicks off summer in Central Illinois each year, and Mudcrutch was the big get.
Mudcrutch started in 1970 in Gainesville, Florida, formed by Tom Petty and the brother of The Eagles’ Bernie Leadon, Tom. Longtime Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench soon joined the band. After they had conquered the Gainesville music scene, they moved to Los Angeles in 1974.
Mudcrutch recorded one single, “Depot Street,” but it didn’t sell well. That was the last of Mudcrutch until they produced their lone self-titled album in 2008, which sold 35,000 copies in its first week. The band did a brief West coast tour to support that album in ’08, but touring commitments for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cut it short.
“Last time we were kinda under the gun because there was a big Heartbreakers tour coming up not long after that, so we didn’t have a lot of time.” Petty told Rolling Stone last year. “We kind of just ran up and down the West Coast real fast and did a fairly long stand at the Troubadour.”
Petty’s band will headline an eclectic group of 100 acts over the three days on seven stages. The Roots (Jimmy Fallon’s late night TV band), George Clinton and P Funk, Fishbone and Here Come The Mummies are some of the groups that classic rock fans might recognize from the jam band-laden lineup. For tickets and info on this year’s Summer Camp put on by Jay Goldberg Events and Entertainment, click HERE. And enjoy some Mudcrutch tunes below.
Doc Watson
