For Mike Campbell, External Combustion – the second album by his first band as a leader, The Dirty Knobs – is proof that lightning can strike twice. The follow-up to their 2020 debut Wreckless Abandon beats a new set of odds and jumps ahead in vision and drive, proving the first record was no one-shot deal.
Co-produced by Campbell and George Drakoulias (The Black Crowes, The Jayhawks), the 11-track album was recorded at Campbell’s home studio, Hocus Pocus Recorders in Los Angeles. External Combustion also features BMG songwriter Margo Price and Ian Hunter as well as piano from fellow Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers founding member Benmont Tench on ‘Lightning Boogie’. Although Campbell wrote most of the songs on the new album within the past year, two of the tracks had been written in the 90’s, only to be rediscovered in Campbell’s extensive vault of unreleased compositions.