Photos: Lucinda Williams, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs at Silver Legacy

The Silver Legacy delivered a great pair of solid performers to Reno this past weekend, in the form of Lucinda Williams and her band, with opening artists Mike Campbell and The Dirty Knobs.

For any of you who may have been asleep at the wheel for some time, Mike Campbell was guitarist and occasional songwriting partner with Tom Petty—and a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His partnership with Petty goes back to pre-Heartbreakers and pre-Mudcrutch days. Campbell started playing with the Dirty Knobs as a side project in 2000, but the band didn’t release its debut album until January 2020.

Lucinda Williams began her recording career in 1979, breaking through with her third album in 1988, which is considered an “American classic.” Success had finally knocked on her door. Over the years she has received many accolades, including 17 Grammy Award nominations with three wins, 11 Americana Awards nominations with two wins, plus ranking as the 79th greatest songwriter of all time in Rolling Stone’s 2015 list. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. One would think that this show would be sold out, but there was room for a few more music lovers.

The show was fantastic! Contrary to the normal presentation, Williams and her band were the headliners, but they opened the show, followed by Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs. After that, both bands shared the stage together for a seven-song mini-set.

It wasn’t a sell-out crowd, but it was plenty full. Williams and her band came out right on time and started off strong with “Can’t Let Go.” The sound was well-mixed, powerful, clean, and clear. Lucinda’s voice is absolutely beautiful, despite having to learn to walk and talk again after suffering a serious stroke back in 2020, which impacted her left side. She was guided out to her position at the microphone and was fairly stationary most of the show.

Lucinda Williams performs in Reno, Nev. on Sept. 21, 2024. Image: NIck McCabe/This is Reno — Lucinda Williams performs in Reno, Nev. on Sept. 21, 2024. Image: Nick McCabe/This is Reno

Between songs, she was still engaging with the audience, telling us short stories about the songs she was sharing. She’s a true professional, and it’s a blessing that she is still able to perform so well.

Williams and her band ran through an 11-song set of bluesy, Americana-ish rock and roll, with two songs—“Stolen Moments” and “Jukebox”—from her newest album released last year, Stories from a Rock and Roll Heart.

After a short intermission to reset the stage, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs came out to a thunderous reception. They started with “Wreckless Abandon” off of the 2020 debut album of the same name. They followed that with “Shake These Blues” from their current release, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits. Their set was built mainly with the Dirty Knobs songs, with a few Tom Petty selections mixed in.

The Dirty Knobs are a strong rock and roll band, playing clean, minimally processed music. Nothing fancy, just good old rock and roll. Too often lately, the new music being offered to the public is so over-processed that it just doesn’t sound real—corporate rock and roll, being overproduced and fluffed up to make a big pile of sales, only to probably fade away into obscurity.

Campbell has proved himself to be a good frontman with the Dirty Knobs. Having spent over 40 years side-by-side with Tom Petty as his creative partner, he’s well-prepared for this phase of his musical career.

The Dirty Knobs played a hard-driving set of creative songs. Although they are doing quite well, I think there is much more success ahead of them. They deserve bigger crowds. I truly believe that it can be difficult for a talent like Mike Campbell to emerge from the shadow of somebody like Tom Petty and find his own audience. It’s his time to shine.

After their set, Williams and her band returned to the stage and joined the Dirty Knobs for a seven-song mini-set and a fantastic finale. Williams’ songs “Jackson” and “Metal Firecracker” were especially well-received. Campbell introduced “Metal Firecracker” as one of his favorite songs of hers, saying it was about riding a motorcycle. He then leaned over to hear something Lucinda was telling him and said, “Oh. I always thought it was about riding a motorcycle. Oh well.” It was kind of humorous.

They closed the show with “You Wreck Me” by the Heartbreakers, and the crowd went wild.

This was really a wonderful show. It felt like everybody up there were friends playing music together. The camaraderie was thick. Lucinda’s friendship with Campbell goes back many years, with her and the Heartbreakers working and sharing songs together. In a way, it felt like a second life for both of them: Lucinda recovering from a horrific health tragedy, and Mike recovering from the loss of his dear friend and musical comrade. Keep on keepin’ on!

It’s time to move on, it’s time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing

—Tom Petty

If you weren’t there, you could have been. There were some great seats still available.