Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Southern Accents in the Sunshine State

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent live album

I think this is excellent.  It's a fine record of Tom Petty at his absolute peak, and it's both exciting and satisfying.

This is an FM radio broadcast of a 1993 concert in Gainesville, Florida.  It's a good, varied set with fine performances of real classics like Learning To Fly, Refugee, Don't Come Around Here No More and many others, which makes it, among other things, a great reminder of how many brilliant songs Tom and the Heartbreakers have recorded.  There is also a good smattering of more rare tracks and some covers, some of which are very good and some of which – like Something In The Air – don't work so well for me.  But that's music, and plenty of people will like the stuff I'm not so keen on and vice versa.  It's a fine set overall and no TP fan could possibly be disappointed.

The sound is pretty good.  It's certainly plenty clear enough to forget about sound quality and enjoy the music, and although occasionally there are some of the usual balance and fade problems with a live recording they don't interfere.  The engineers have done a fine job on the balance of audience noise and music, capturing the genuine excitement of the event without interfering with the sound of the band overmuch.  There are some great audience moments, like them all singing "And I'm free falling," or all yelling "Stop!" in exactly the right places in Don't Come Around Here, which really get the thrill of the concert and make me wish I'd been there.  (I join in anyway, mind you.)  There's a bit of chat in which you can feel Tom's rapport with the audience, but not too much.  It's pretty well an ideal live recording, I'd say.

I'm a bit dubious about the release of old live material nowadays after some terrible-quality recordings have been released over the last few years, but I think this is a terrific album and it's warmly recommended.