Now that Fleetwood Mac have wound up their world tour, guitarist Mike Campbell is turning his attention to his band the Dirty Knobs. The group of Los Angeles-based musicians, led by the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist, is releasing their debut album Wreckless Abandon on March 20th. You can check out the video for the title track right here.
Mike Campbell formed the Dirty Knobs 15 years ago, but they have never gigged outside of Los Angeles or released an album. In addition to Campbell, the group features singer-guitarist Jason Sinay, bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Matt Laug.
“Over the years, The Knobs became an outlet for me to play some of the other songs I was writing,” Campbell says in a statement, “and to keep the creative juices flowing in between working on albums and tours with Tom and The Heartbreakers.”
After the shocking death of Tom Petty in 2017, they became his primary creative outlet. “Losing Tom was earth-shattering for me,” Campbell says. “It was a total shock. 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.”
Wreckless Abandon features contributions from Chris Stapleton and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. It was produced by George Drakoulias and the artwork was created by Plastic Ono Band bassist Klaus Voormann. They planned on releasing this album a while back, but Campbell’s unexpected invitation to join Fleetwood Mac delayed their plans.
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The group is playing in Santa Barbara, California, on January 24th and 25th and will launch an American tour on March 10th. The dates are below.
January 24th/25th – Santa Barbara, CA @ SOhO
March 10th – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Hall
March 11th – Chicago, IL @ Park West
March 13th – Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi Fi
March 15th – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
March 17th – Alexandria, VA @ Birchmere
March 18th – Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
March 20th – Ridgefield CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse
March 21st – Derry, NH @ Tupelo Music Hall
March 23rd – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
March 26th – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
April 7th – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
April 10th – Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
April 14th – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
April 15th – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
April 17th – Dallas, TX @ Blue Light
April 18th – Austin, TX @ Antone’s
April 21st – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
April 24th – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
April 26th – Gainesville, FL @ High Dive
April 28th – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum