SAVING GRACE - TOM PETTY
Currently on tour with the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty is ready at last to share some new material. “Saving Grace” begins with a spare, Bo Diddley-style blues that builds to a roadhouse shuffle. The guitars are kept deliciously gritty, giving the song a fresh garage-like feel, and Petty’s stoner vocals are as laid-back and nostalgic as ever. A classic-sounding ode to restlessness, “Saving Grace” is the perfect prelude to “Highway Companion,” Petty’s first solo album since 1994’s Rick Rubin-produced “Wildflowers,” and his first for Rubin’s American Recordings label. The cut is off to a kick-start at triple-A (adult alternative album) radio; more important, it proves that Petty still knows how to rock. Billboard
