With his second solo album, Tom Petty wanted to step away from the Heartbreakers, his band of musical brothers for almost 20 years at the time.
The beautiful paradox is that, player by player, the people with whom he chose to record Wildflowers turned out to be those very same musicians (the exception being a new drummer, Steve Ferrone, who would go on to become a full-fledged Heartbreaker of long standing).
That Petty ultimately viewed the 1994 release, perhaps his most openly personal, as a band album is one of the delectable and illuminating takeaways from a new documentary that delves into his archives.
Somewhere You Feel Free is a love letter, not a long-view deep dive à la Runnin’ Down a Dream, Peter Bogdanovich's exhaustive, incisive.
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