The death of Tom Petty last year after a triumphant tour with his band The Heartbreakers is still hard for many to fully wrap their heads around. It seemed like the Florida-born singer still had so much left undone, so much more music to give to the world. Though he may have moved on to another plane, Petty left behind a collection of songs that will endure long past the time that you or I join him. In fact, today, his estate has announced plans to release a new box set titled An American Treasure, filled with 60 of his songs, dozens of which have gone unreleased before now.
As opposed to some of the more obvious cash-in endeavors we’ve seen in the past, An American Treasure looks like it was a real labor of love, having been assembled by the singer’s daughter Adria Petty, and his wife, Dana Petty as well his Heartbreaker bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench with additional guidance from his studio collaborator, Ryan Ulyate. To call it comprehensive might be underselling it. The first track on the collection is an unreleased outtake titled “Surrender” from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sessions back in 1976, and runs up in chronological order to a the final cut, a live rendition of “Hungry No More” performed in Boston in 2016.
Today, the Petty family is also sharing the unreleased video for his 1982 song “Keep A Little Soul”
Tom Petty’s An American Treasure box set is set to be released on September 28 via Reprise Records. You can pre-order your copy here.
