The Pretty Reckless

“The whole album just kind of fell into place and I just kind of got out of the way of it,” Ray Wylie Hubbard tells Apple Music of his 18th full-length. That’s the low-key perspective of a singer-songwriter whose four-decade-spanning catalog of leathery Southwestern mysticism and wit is admired by many of his fellow music-makers. His 10-song set features a slew of them—big names like Ringo Starr and Ronnie Dunn and well-kept secrets alike—spanning country, rock, blues, and folk. “Each song kind of dictated who was going to sing on it,” he explains. “When I asked all these cats to be on it, I didn't have to use guilt or shame—I'm not above using that, but I didn't have to. I just called them up and they all said yeah, they would do it. That was so gratifying and humbling.”

At the time Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' debut was released in 1976, they were fresh enough to almost be considered punk. They weren't as reckless or visionary as the Ramones, but they shared a similar love for pure '60s rock and, for the Heartbreakers, that meant embracing the Byrds as much as the Stones…