New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Celebrated guitarist and songwriter Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac) and his band The Dirty Knobs premieres their new song "Irish Girl," which is accompanied by a stop motion video directed by animator Steven Mertens (Sheryl Crow,
Regina Spektor, Dan Auerbach). The track appears on the band's debut album, Wreckless Abandon, which is out on Friday, November 20 via BMG.
"Irish Girl is my favorite lyric on the record," says Campbell. "It's whimsical and more poetic than most of the Knobs' songs. I was inspired to write it driving home late one-night listening to
Van Morrison on the radio. When I got home, the song just came to me. It's very simple musically and I love the sound of the record. It reminds me of Ireland."
To celebrate the release of Wreckless Abandon, the band will perform live from The Troubadour in Los Angeles this Friday, November 20 at 8 p.m. ET via FANS.LiVE with the livestream available on-demand through November 30. To watch the stream, donations are encouraged, but not required to
National Independent Venue Association (NIVA).
Most recently, the group debuted the video for their track "f That Guy," which Rolling Stone calls "cheeky." The Gilbert Trejo (X, Pixies, DIIV) directed video notably features actor/comedian Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as well as actor
Danny Trejo. Earlier this year, the group released the album's lead single and title track to critical praise, with The New York Times stating, "The music is a classic-rock portmanteau, invoking eastward-looking Beatles, the Who, the Byrds and the
Rolling Stones just for starters."
Additionally, the band's first-ever national tour of mostly sold-out dates in
September and October have been moved to the fall of 2021, including their appearance at Sea. Hear. Now Festival, headlined by
Pearl Jam. The extensive run of headline shows includes stops at Chicago's Park West, Philadelphia's World Café Live, Minneapolis' Fine Line
Music Hall, Los Angeles' Troubadour and San Francisco's The Independent as well as Brooklyn Bowl Nashville and New York. All tickets for the fall shows will be valid for the 2021 dates. See below for complete list of updated tour dates.
The Dirty Knobs created Wreckless Abandon without agenda, expectations or deadlines and without worrying about outcome or hits. They've pushed boundaries of taste, imagination and genres to create a 13-track album of brutally confident rock and roll. The record was produced by Campbell and
George Drakoulias (The
Black Crowes, The Jayhawks), with all songs written by Campbell. It features further contributions from Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist
Chris Stapleton as well as fellow
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers founding member Benmont Tench. Additionally, Klaus Voormann, who is best known for his art for The Beatles' Revolver, created the album artwork.
The Dirty Knobs came together nearly 12 years ago, after Campbell met guitarist Jason Sinay (Neil Diamond, Ivan Neville) at a session and liked the way their guitars sounded together. What began as a less structured project for Campbell in between The Heartbreakers' touring became something else altogether when they added the rhythm section of bassist Lance Morrison (Don Henley) and drummer Matt Laug (Slash, Alanis Morissette).
What followed was several years of intimate, almost incognito, performances in the band's home base of Los Angeles and surrounding Southern California cities. After all those years playing together, it became clear The Dirty Knobs should take what they were doing to the next level. After Campbell's longtime compatriot, friend and bandmate, Tom Petty, passed away in 2017, he knew the only way to heal some of the pain was to throw himself wholeheartedly back into his music.
"Losing Tom was earth-shattering for me. It was a total shock," Campbell says. "It had felt like we would be playing together forever. For a while it was hard to imagine playing in my own band again, let alone one where I'm the frontman. Tom was always my beacon. But everything I've been doing since Tom passed, including this album with The Dirty Knobs, is in the spirit of honoring what we did together."
