Sometimes all you need to know about a band comes from a sharp bit of bio on heir social media. So without further ado, introducing themselves are Rattle Bones who play a style of rock ‘n’ roll “chock full of isolation blues, riff-happy rave ups, guitar noir, three-part harmonies, bittersweet melodies, and a bitchin’ backbeat. Saturday night excess meets Sunday morning regret.” Sounds just like an old school Rock band.

Their Silver Bullets album offers up ten tracks of rockers and ballads, dark-groovers and blues-stabbers with musical influences from many sources, including Tom Petty, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Paul Westerberg, Mick & Keef, Ray Davies, Lennon-McCartney (& Harrison)… and the list goes on.

Gary Martin from the band comes on board us to tell why he loves Tom Petty (& The Heartbreakers).

PAINTING THE MASTERPIECE

There are certain bands and songwriters that create the soundtrack to your life, and the music of Tom Petty is a major contributor to that soundtrack. While I grew up on hard rock, heavy metal, and eventually punk rock, Petty’s tunes managed to cut through every trend and every scam that I encountered in my musical fandom.

I saw Petty & The Heartbreakers live on multiple occasions and they were one of the very few who managed to attract fans from all age groups. To see 16 year olds singing along with 60 year olds was not the standard for most concerts that I attended back in those days.

Tom Petty’s songwriting shows his ability express an intricate idea into a simple, relatable thought.  Taken out of context, lyrics such as ”Most things I worry about never happen anyway” and “One of these days, we’ll drive away, drive away singing a brand-new song” have depth and significant meaning, but once they’re in context within the song and atmosphere created by the brilliance of the Heartbreakers, the lines paint the masterpiece.

A COMPLETE CATALOGUE

There isn’t a day that goes by that I do not listen to something from the Petty catalog, and I feel that no one in rock n roll has a better, more complete catalog than Petty’s. Most artist peak when they’re young, but I could make a case that later era releases from TP can stand shoulder to shoulder with any of his early era classics.

For those who maybe burned out on the radio staples such as Free Fallin or Running Down A Dream, I suggest checking out the deeper cuts. 1982’s Straight Into Darkness, 1994’s Crawling Back To You, or 1996’s Supernatural Radio are all lesser known, should’ve been classics.

Tom Petty was also the beneficiary of working with a fantastic band, The Heartbreakers. Mike Campbell is a virtuoso of understated, memorable guitar lines that have become a part of rock guitar DNA. Stan Lynch is such an underrated drummer, and a fantastic harmony singer. Benmont Tench is a keys master, and the benchmark for tasteful additions to the song.

Please check out our tune Silver Bullets, the title track to our debut album, available for download on all of the streaming sites and available on CD at https://rattlebonespgh.bandcamp.com/album/silver-bullets-3

Our thanks to Gary, and agreed on his suggestion to head deeper into the legacy – we’d add All The Wrong Reasons from Into The Great Wide Open to his list.

Rattle Bones online: Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

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