SOUND CHECK: Winwood keeps material fresh

Little Feat, Cat Stevens, Free and J.J. Cale.

Do you feel obligated to play certain songs from your catalog?

I kind of do, but playing with Tom Petty, my show is even shorter and I do have a lot of material. For instance I haven't played "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" now for a while, and for a while I didn't play "Dear Mr. Fantasy." ... Last night we didn't play "Gimme Some Lovin'" ... Some stuff from the '80's —- "Higher Love" and "Back in the High Life" —- we kind of reinvent those to make them fit more with our kind of world music/jazz kind of fusion set-up that we have now, and they work very well.

Was the music created in the '60s and early '70s more special than the music now?

I think there was definitely a period in ... the '80s, that was a bit of a troubled time for music because there was huge amount of corporate involvement and massive amounts of money being made and big record deals. Of course that's all gone now. And I think that is, or will be, to the advantage of music. I think that what made music great in the '60s and '70s was the freedom ... from any corporate influence. I think that it's coming back because there are so many ways now that artists have to get their music heard without going through major record companies ...

> THE 411: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Steve Winwood. July 9, 8 p.m. $35-$125. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. 404-733-5010, 404-249-6400, www.vzwamp.com.