Review | John Mellencamp at the Midland

By JOEL FRANCIS

Special to The Star

Friday night’s sold-out John Mellencamp show at the Midland Theater was the tale of two concerts.

For the first 90 minutes, Mellencamp used his vast songbook to explore the nooks and crannies of American music. Opener “Authority Song” was stripped of its big country riff and rode bare bones on the spare bass and drum line. Later in the show, “Jack and Diane” was given the same treatment, with Miriam Strum’s violin shouldering the melody.

“No One Cares About Me” resembled prime-era Johnny Cash with a boom-chicka rhythm section and guitarist Andy York doing his best Carl Perkins impression. “Deep Blue Heart” sounded like an outtake from Bob Dylan’s “Time Out Of Mind.”

While there weren’t any jump-to-your-feet, hands-in-the-air climaxes during this part, there were a few goose bump-inducing moments. The smallest moments were the biggest, like Mellencamp’s poignant solo, acoustic delivery of “Jackie Brown,” where he was joined by Strum at the end.

A subdued “Check It Out” had the wistful air of someone watching their grandchildren play in the yard. Later, the entire theater clapped and sang along as Mellencamp sang “Cherry Bomb” without his band or his guitar.

It was clear, however, that the crowd wasn’t expecting a low-key evening. The chatter from the bar downstairs floated into the balcony during the quiet “Longest Days.” Story/songs “Right Behind Me” and “Easter Eve” lacked a traditional chorus and struggled to captivate the crowd.

After the beautiful violin/accordion duet of “New Hymn,” the full drum kit that had been tantalizing the crowd all night was finally put to use. Starting with the heartland hymn “Rain on the Scarecrow,” Mellencamp and his six-piece backing band cut loose and delivered 30 minutes of the expected energetic sing-alongs. With each song, the band raised the volume and dropped formality. Singles like “Pink Houses” drew the biggest responses, while the band seemed to relish trotting out album cuts “The Real Life” and “No Better Than This.”

In a way, Mellencamp served as his own opening act. As the audience found their seats an hour-long documentary played. The film showed Mellencamp on tour and as he recorded his latest album at Sun Studios in Memphis, the San Antonio hotel room where Robert Johnson once recorded, and First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga.

Mellencamp recorded the album using a single microphone to capture the entire band in one take. The approach may puzzle some fans, but it’s clear from the first half of the night that his songwriting chops are as strong as ever. The struggle will be to win fans over to new arrangements and sounds that don’t resemble the long-loved radio hits.

After a little more than two hours, the house lights were up, and Mellencamp was safely shuttled to his Airstream trailer parked behind the building. A large portion of the crowd lingered, whistling and clapping in vain as the stage was cleared. The evening wasn’t a complete success, but it was enough to leave them wanting more.

Setlist: Authority Song; No One Cares About Me; Deep Blue Heart; Death Letter; Walk Tall; The West End; Check It Out; Save Some Time To Dream (solo, acoustic); Cherry Bomb (a capella); Don’t Need This Body; Right Behind Me; Jackie Brown (solo, acoustic); Longest Days; Easter Eve; Jack and Diane; Small Town (solo, acoustic); New Hymn; Rain on the Scarecrow; Paper and Fire; The Real Life; Human Wheels; If I Die Sudden; No Better Than This; Pink Houses; R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/06/2399995/review-john-mellencamp-at-the.html#ixzz14WJogN7N

Journey to the south helps John Mellencamp's return to basics with new 'stripped down' record

By John Carucci (CP), Nov. 5, 2010

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Listening to John Mellencamp's latest album, "No Better Than This," is like taking a trip back through time — and that's just what the rock legend had in mind.

While Mellencamp wrote a new batch of songs for the record, he took an old-school approach to making it. He used a vintage recording deck, a 1940s microphone, and instead of trying to get perfect surround sound, recorded the entire album in mono sound.

Mellencamp's goal was to recapture the spirit of music that would become the building blocks or rock, so he also visited some of rock's hallowed ground to record the music, including Sun Studios, where the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash recorded some of their earlier records.

Before Mellencamp kicked of his recent tour, he talked about the recording process and shared some of his views on politics, nutrition, and the state of the nation.

AP: Tell me about the unique way you recorded this album?

Mellencamp: The idea was to get as far away from technology, and get back to the origins how music was recorded. Originally, the idea was to capture something in the moment, but through technology, there is no moment anymore, it's just something that's built and constructed. So we wanted to go back and play music and try to get as far away from where we have come with the technology to the almost anti-technology where it all began.

AP: You recorded in some pretty special places.

Mellencamp: In Savannah, Ga., there's the first black Baptist church in America, which sits downtown, which is unusual for a black church. The reason we recorded there is that it was really the gateway of the Underground Railroad. The church has been there — it's (a) real interesting story behind the church and the congregation is fantastic. So we started there. And then we went to Sun (Studios). Then we went to San Antonio to the Gunther Hotel, which is where Robert Johnson had recorded some of his legendary blues songs.

AP: Was it an honour to record at Sun Studio?

Mellencamp: I think it is for any musician. It was really interesting because we could only record at night because they had tours that go through there during the day. So we wouldn't be able to go into the studio until seven o'clock at night. So to be at Sun at three o'clock in the morning and the rest of Memphis is asleep, and we're in there playing music, and you walk outside and the mosquitoes find you, and you're in the south, it was hot and steamy. It was a fantastic experience.

AP: Any plans to rediscover your older songs using this technique?

Mellencamp: That's a good question because I had a hit record a long time ago called, "Jack & Diane," and I haven't been playing that for a long time. But my band, since we're getting ready to go out on tour, we just rearranged that song in the same fashion that my last record was recorded and we did away with all the pop sound and the rock sound of that time period and just turned it into a folk song. And it's a tragic song.

AP: How's your health?

Mellencamp: I had a heart attack in 1994, so I really had to start watching what I ate. Because up until that point I was bulletproof. I smoked four packs of cigarettes. I thought eating light was eating a fish sandwich at McDonald's. I didn't know anything about my health. But now I try to watch what I eat. I'm not always successful, but I try to keep things in moderation and I work out every day.

AP: You've been in this business for more than 30 years. Why do you think you've had such staying power?

Mellencamp: I think that it's a problem that people have. It's human nature to give up. I think people give up too early, and they shouldn't. ... I'm very tenacious. And I've always been person, and I've always rolled the rock up the hill. I enjoy rolling rock up the hill. I don't really care about getting to the top of the hill. I just like the struggle of trying to get up there. And I think that's what being alive is about, struggling. ... People think that it's our God-given right to be happy; it's not.

AP: Are we going through scary times as a nation?

Mellencamp: Every generation would say that their time is scary. What would be more scary than World War II? What would be more scary than the Civil War? ... It's a scary world. And if you want a better world, it starts with you. And if you follow the trends, then probably you're making a mistake.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h6uTXIEVKx6GjRIno-vHnAf4tNkw?docId=5042801

This is the first in a series of posts leading up to John Mellencamp’s Nov. 8 and 11 performances at Clowes Hall and Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University. A preview of the shows will be published in the Nov. 7 edition of The Sunday Star.


If you caught Bob Dylan’s Halloween show in Indianapolis and you’re going to a John Mellencamp performance next week, look for details the latter has borrowed from the former.

Dylan, for instance, displays the Academy Award he won for “Things Have Changed” — a song that appeared in 2000 film “Wonder Boys”  – onstage, perched on either a guitar or keyboard speaker.

Mellencamp also showcases a small statue — a representation of Jesus Christ that happens to be a piggy bank — on his guitar speaker.

Since 2002, a member of Dylan’s road crew has introduced the Minnesota native with this cliched encapsulation of his career (the rushed reading on Halloween was perhaps the lowlight of the entire evening):

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll. The voice of the promise of the ’60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the ’70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the ’80s, and who suddenly shifted gears — releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late ’90s. Ladies and gentlemen, Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan.”

For Mellencamp’s new “No Better Than This,” a similarly structured recorded introduction cites his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame credentials and characterizes him as “poet laureate of the interstates.”

The two musicians have spent plenty of time together lately, as Mellencamp toured as Dylan’s supporting act during the summers of 2009 and 2010.

I interviewed Mellencamp Oct. 28 in Bloomington, where he launched the “No Better Than This” tour the following night (at left is an Associated Press image from that show). Between his afternoon and evening rehearsals at IU Auditorium, we chatted in his aluminum Airstream trailer — and I couldn’t resist asking about the Seymour native’s time on the road with Dylan.

“He comes in this trailer and sits and gabs every night,” Mellencamp said, noting their shared pastime of smoking cigarettes. Mellencamp favors American Spirits in light-blue packaging. I neglected to ask about Dylan’s brand.

“I’ve learned a lot from Bob, and I’ve laughed a lot with Bob,” the 59-year-old said. Dylan, on course to celebrate his 70th birthday in May, once critiqued his supporting act’s stage banter, Mellencamp said — even sharing this “Odd Couple”-esque dramatization:

Dylan: John, are you going to tell that stupid story tonight about you being in a bar band?

Mellencamp: What do you care?

Dylan: Change it. I’m sick of hearing it.

Mellencamp: You’re not backstage listening to me.

Dylan: Of course, I’m listening. You know maybe you should just quit talking altogether.

Mellencamp: You mean like you?

Dylan: Yeah, I don’t talk to the audience. If they don’t come to me, then they miss the show.

Mellencamp: I’m not like that, Bob. I can’t lean on “Rainy Day Women.” I kind of have to reach out to the audience.

Dylan, as noted in this current column and video by Nuvo’s Steve Hammer, is a bit of a ghost when he’s not onstage. Unless you’re “Pawn Stars” go-fer Austin “Chumlee” Russell, who seemingly bumped into Zimmy on an episode of the History Channel show that aired in September. Do you buy this video as being legit?

Tomorrow: The film that opens every date of the “No Better Than This” tour.

http://blogs.indystar.com/sounds/2010/11/04/mellencamp-and-dylan-traveling-companions/

Bloomington - Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp continues his "No Better Than This" tour in Indianapolis with concerts Nov. 8 at Clowes Memorial Hall and Nov. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The Hoosier singer and songwriter gave exclusive access to Channel 13 as he prepared for the tour. Mellencamp, who was born in Seymour and lives near Bloomington, allowed WTHR cameras to record a 30-minute music set with his band that included "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", "Pink Houses," "The Real Life," "No Better Than This," "Paper in Fire," "Troubled Land" and "Rain on the Scarecrow."

Prior to the final rehearsal, Mellencamp sat in a director's chair on the stage of the Indiana University Auditorium for a wide-ranging 30-minute interview covering his new record and his career.

The following transcript is from Mellencamp's interview with Eyewitness News Anchor Scott Swan.

Scott Swan: "Why is "No Better Than This" so different than your other records?"

John Mellencamp: "This new record goes back into the past, the way records used to be recorded and catch a moment. Today's music, there's no moment to capture. It's all built. You put the drums in, they put that in. They put this in and then all of a sudden, you've built a song. This record is captured. It's capturing a moment of musicians playing songs. It was all recorded on on one microphone and a 1950's portable Ampex machine. So, the sound is going to be quite a bit different than a digitally recorded record."

Scott Swan: "What's the message in the song 'Save Some Time To Dream?'"

John Mellencamp: "Our lives have become so rapid and we have so much information. And our head is filled with so much nonsense, and information and important things that you really don't have time for yourself. My dad has always said that to me. He always said, 'John have you done anything fun today? And I said, no - just worked. And he said 'you better do something fun today. As we lose the ability to dream, I think life takes on a much duller meaning. So for me, I hope to continue to dream until the day I die."

Scott Swan: "What is more fun - writing the song, recording the song or performing the song?"

John Mellencamp: "Writing and recording has always been more inspiring to me than actually going out and performing the song. I like performing. But after you do - I've done some shows 180 times, it becomes like 'I wonder what's on the room service menu' about half way through the song. And then when you start having those thoughts, it's time to get off the stage."

Scott Swan: "Are you a better songwriter or a better performer?"

John Mellencamp: "I'm not very good at either. I'm just trying to make my way through. I'm just doing the best I can. There's been a lot better. But, there's certainly been a lot worse."

Scott Swan: "How has your song writing changed since you first started?"

John Mellencamp: "I've been making records my whole life. So, a young kid from Seymour or Bloomington, Indiana with a record deal. I didn't have any vision of what I was doing."

Scott Swan: "You and your wife (Elaine) were baptized while recording "No Better Than This." Where are you spiritually?"

John Mellencamp: "That's a good question. When hatred enters into religion, which it often does, under the name of God, I think it's an error. I think that's why organized religion is at an all-time low and attending churches that's my assumption. I know when I was a kid, Sunday meant something. I'm not sure what it means anymore. I think it's because money and hatred have eclipsed what the word of the Bible is. America is in a terrible place right now."

Scott Swan: "Are we worse off as a country?"

John Mellencamp: "Absolutely."

Scott Swan: "How so?"

John Mellencamp: "We're in a bunch of wars that we shouldn't be in. And of course, when I said that before the Iraq war, everybody thought I was a trader. Well, it turns out maybe I was right. We shouldn't be in Afghanistan. What are we doing in these places? Why are we spending all this money? In the constitution, it says that the government shall provide for the safety and well being of its citizens. They always have the money for the safety - equals war. But well being, just don't have the money for that. Just don't have the money to take care of our sick people. Just don't have the money to take care of the homeless people. Just can't find the money for that. But to build a bomb, we've got the money and we'll go attack people for no reason at all. Why are we in Afghanistan? For what reason? Are we really safer now that Saddam Hussein is dead. Are we really safer? Are you afraid? It's (expletive), so that's how America's worse in my mind."

Scott Swan: "You were a supporter of President Obama. How do you feel like he's done?"

John Mellencamp: "I think he was so far behind the eight ball that you couldn't possibly tell now. He was left with such a colossal mess. But let's not forget, he's a politician. Politicians are politicians. They put on the suit of doing good and I put on the suit of singing songs."

Scott Swan: "Which of these descriptions are you most proud of? Legend, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Lifetime Achievement award, sold 40 million records, songwriter, keen social conscience, a man who will not fit it, pride of Indiana, or part of the fabric of so many of us?"

John Mellencamp: "Hypocrite."

Scott Swan: "Hypocrite best describes you?"

John Mellencamp: "Probably because I'm always in motion. I think people should be in motion. You think something for awhile and think that's not really true. You think you know somebody. And then you think, I didn't even know that person. So, you have to always be adjusting your opinion. If you think you know it all, then you know nothing."

Scott Swan: "So hypocrite is the word that best describes you?

John Mellencamp: "I think it's the best word that describes all of us, if we really take a look at ourselves. I think it's human nature to say one thing and do another."

Scott Swan: "So, how have you changed?"

John Mellencamp: "I'm always changing. (Expletive), you could talk to me tomorrow and I'll give you a whole different answer to what you've asked me. What's the matter, haven't you seen a hypocrite before (laughter)- the whole (expletive) country is full of hypocrites."

Scott Swan: "How has having children changed you?"

John Mellencamp: "I've had children forever. I've had children since I was 18. so, I've grown up having children. Sometimes I'm really good at being a parent and sometimes I'm really lousy. And I think anyone whose honest with themselves would have to come to the same conclusion. There are some things you are prepared to deal with and some things were not equipped to deal with."

Scott Swan: "(Your son) Hud is a heck of a boxer, isn't he?"

John Mellencamp: "Yeah, he certainly is. Yeah, but there are other things he needs to focus in on life besides being a fighter. He likes to fight. There's good sides to that and there's bad sides to that because he's a teenage boy. I'm proud as hell of what he's accomplished. Two times Golden Glove champ, two-times US boxing champ, it's great. He just came in third in the national boxing event in Kansas City."

Scott Swan: "What is it like being John Mellencamp in front of thousands of people, performing. What is that like?"

John Mellencamp: "It's the same as anyone else that has a job they've had for a long time. Some days you go in and it's like, well this is easy. And some days you go in and you think why did I ever start doing this? Some days you love your job. Some days you don't."

Scott Swan: "But thousands of people adore you."

John Mellencamp: "Thousands of people hate me too, so what's the difference."

Scott Swan: "But when you're up on stage, you're feeling the love that you've generated."

John Mellencamp: "See, I don't look at things like that. When I'm up on stage, I'm performing a song that I had written to my best ability. That's my focus. To be able to deliver a song in a fashion that the song deserves to be written in and delivered in. And hopefully the audience is coming to the song. I wrote a song a long time ago "I don't want to be a pop singer" I was young. And, I was very uncomfortable with that whole time period. It was embarrassing to me, the way people acted, the way people thought, the stigma with being a rock star. I didn't like it. You were stereotyped right off the bat. Well, he's a drug addict, I haven't been any of those things. I didn't really like the stigma. I never really cared about money. But, I always wanted to get paid. I never really cared about being on the radio, but I loved hearing my songs on the radio."

Scott Swan: "What's your favorite John Mellencamp song?"

John Mellencamp: "I'm still waiting to write that song."

Scott Swan: "You haven't written it yet?"

John Mellencamp: "Haven't written it yet."

Scott Swan: "So, when a John Mellencamp song comes on the radio, what do you do?"

John Mellencamp: "It depends. If I've heard it a billion times, I turn it down. If it's a new song, I'll listen to it. I wonder how this song sounds on the radio. I mean, I've heard Small Town on the radio before - laughter. It's nice that people still enjoy that song. But for me, I don't need to turn it up and listen to it. but, if a song off the new record comes on the radio, I'll turn it up and listen to it because I want to know how it sounds on the radio."

Scott Swan: "Your friend and producer T Bone Burnett said 'John you had the misfortune of being a big rock star in the 1980's, how will you finish your career with some dignity?'"

John Mellencamp: "I've played the hits to death. The reason we're playing these types of venues is because I want to be able to walk out with an acoustic guitar and I want to be able to play songs. I want to be able to play music. I don't want to be a monkey on a string playing hit records that I had 20 years ago. I think that's the conclusion that T Bone and I came to was that John, you have to reinvent yourself at this point and create something new and not worry about massive audiences because there aren't going to be massive audiences for anyone my age in the near future. We're doing 24 songs which is almost 2 and a half hours. My drummer will be a on a trap kit eight of those songs. The rest of the time he's playing percussion. That should tell you there's not a lot of boom boom boom bat. That's not happening."

Scott Swan: "Is playing in Indiana any more special than anywhere else in the world?"

John Mellencamp: "It's kind of embarrassing because I'm always able to look out in the audience and see people I know. Heah, how you doing? Heah, I saw you yesterday when you were over at my house last week. It's kind of embarrassing because people know me one way but when you walk on stage it's our responsibility to create magic and so you have to create that magic."

http://www.wthr.com/story/13448868/one-on-one-with-john-mellencamp

John Mellencamp Brings The Heartland To Nashville

By Evan Schlansky on November 4th, 2010

John Mellencamp’s gig at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium came complete with a gallery showing of his paintings and a screening of his new documentary, It’s About You. Call it a portrait of the artist as a middle-aged man. Watching the film, shot on super 8 and chock full of great content (John getting baptized alongside his wife, traversing the small towns and dried up cities of America, and recording with T Bone Burnett in Robert Johnson’s hotel room and Sun Studios) was almost like eating dessert before dinner. Would the audience want to hear the same songs again, after hearing snippets of many of them in the film? The answer: of course.

The film touched on Mellencamp’s quest for artistic relevancy in an ever-changing musical climate, but there’s something the man formerly known as “Cougar” has that is undeniable. His voice, grainy and loaded with gravitas, remains as compelling and as affective as it was the day he recorded “Pink Houses” in 1983. It’s a voice that’s as distinctive as any of his arguably more famous peers, from Dylan to Springsteen to Petty, and like those artists, it’s attached to a man who has kept integrity high on his priority list.

Johnny Cash once referred to him as one of the ten best songwriters, and Mellencamp’s newer material didn’t disappoint in a live setting. A healthy portion of his two-hour set was culled from 2010’s No Better Than This, recorded in now-fashionable-again mono. Many of the songs were performed acoustically, alone or with a few adornments, and like the best folk songs, they had an instant impact. “I guess I’m playing a lot of guitar now,” quipped Mellencamp. “When I first started out, playing in bands, they used to unplug me because I was such a shitty guitar player.” A rousing cover of Son House’s “Death Letter” was largely performed Black Keys style, with just a slide guitar and drums.

Then there were the hits. There was an a capella, sing-a-long reading of “Cherry Bomb.” “Jackie and Diane” was given an Americana makeover, with a new country backbeat and accordion, stand up bass, and fiddle. A solo acoustic “Small Town” went down easy, like a cold, refreshing beer after a long day’s work.

There were opportunities to rock out, as well. The “poet laureate of the interstate” strapped on an electric guitar for a scorching, full band version of “Rain On the Scarecrow,” and growled his way through “Paper and Fire” like a modern day Dylan. The highlight of the electric set might have been the crackling “If I Die Sudden,” from 2008’s Life, Death, Love And Freedom. If death is the ultimate authority, nobody can fight it and win. But you can wring some great material from it.

During “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.,” Mellencamp pulled a sexy older woman (don’t call her a cougar) in a white tank top onstage to join him in some mildly dirty dancing. “When we first started out, we were the worst band in the world,” he said, as his longtime family of musicians vamped behind him. “But tonight, I think you’ll have to admit we’re the best band in the world.”








http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/11/john-mellencamp-brings-the-heartland-to-nashville/

John Mellencamp's Ryman show mixes nostalgia, Americana

On his acclaimed new album, No Better Than This, and again at his Ryman Auditorium concert Wednesday night, John Mellencamp showed old-school Americana to be a remarkably comfortable fit.

But as masterful as his mix of blues, folk and Sun Records rock was, some members of his audience had trouble slipping into the sound.

“‘Jack and Diane’!” a female voice called out from the balcony between songs, pleading for Mellencamp's famous hit.

“I’ll get to it, sister,” the singer playfully responded. “Now that’s the problem with a lot of women — they’re just not patient. I’ll get to it!”

Mellencamp paced his two-hour-plus show like a three-act play, moving from a stripped-down roots-rock set to an acoustic portion to a celebratory rock finale. As a room that still looks very much like it did back in the 1940s through ’70s when it housed the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman is likely the kind of venue Mellencamp had in mind when he put this new, old-timey tour together.

Wednesday's show opened with a single spotlight on the center of the Ryman’s closed curtains, an offstage announcer making a “ladies and gentlemen” introduction. The curtains opened on Mellencamp and band, bathed in plain white lights, who launched into his 1983 hit “Authority Song,” stripping a bit of the song’s punk-inspired charge and applying a lighter, ’50s rock rhythm. It was the first of many musical compromises Mellencamp made with his hard-driving rock hits.

Those hits came sprinkled between a large helping of No Better Than This tunes. “It’s not my nature to be nostalgic at all,” Mellencamp sang on the new “Thinking About You.”

He’s certainly sporting when it comes to playing those old favorites, but when Mellencamp doesn’t have the crowd’s nostalgia to rest on, a new, determined frontman springs to life. The anthemic “Save Some Time to Dream” instantly brightened the crowd, and the Pogues-esque Irish ballad “Easter Eve” kept listeners latched on through six minutes of verses.

Poverty tale “Jackie Brown” was one oldie Mellencamp had less trouble revisiting.

“I wrote this song in 1987,” he said, “thinking about the same thing that’s happening now.”

That song, along with “Small Town,” were given the solo acoustic treatment. Mellencamp stripped down the beloved “Cherry Bomb” even further, providing an a cappella audience singalong and easily one of the evening’s high points.

That promised time to play “Jack and Diane” came around, and Mellencamp brought the full band along, but gave the song a radically new arrangement. Gone were the famous drawn-out electric guitar chords and handclap-driven beat, a double-time country shuffle taking their place. It was a bold move, and the Ryman was an inspired setting for it, but it wasn’t exactly the moment casual fans were waiting for.

In the end, Mellencamp rewarded all of his admirers with a crowd-pleasing, full-band final act that featured his classics in all their glory. The pew-shaking “Pink Houses” led into the closing “R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A.,” its power inspiring one female fan to climb onto the stage for an impromptu dance with Mellencamp. In those final moments, he seemed game to let nostalgia take hold.

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2010/11/04/john-mellencamps-ryman-show-mixes-nostalgia-americana/

Rocker Todd Rundgren garnered two standing ovations Sunday when he gave a Halloween night recital to about 400 at Indiana University’s packed Auer Hall.

The gig, which included Rundgren singing with a pipe organ, is part of his job as the ninth Wells Scholars Professor at IU. He is co-teaching an honors seminar with rock history professor Glenn Gass, who has a home near his in Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.

Rundgren’s late October, early November time as an IU professor has been a mix of scholarly duties, walks around campus and a short visit with the Bloomington area’s resident rock star, John Mellencamp. Mellencamp prepared for the Friday kick off of his latest tour, “No Better Than This,” in Bloomington.

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In an interview Thursday, Mellencamp said that in his bar-band days, he often performed tunes from Rundgren’s albums “Something/Anything” and “Runt.”
“Todd Rundgren’s a really unappreciated singer-songwriter,” Mellencamp said. “I don’t know why he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He should be.”

And Mellencamp’s long-time guitarist, Mike Wanchic, loaned Rundgren an acoustic guitar for the Sunday recital called, “Cluster: The Birth of the T Chord.”

“I haven’t done a show like this in more than five years. In fact, I swore off doing this,” Rundgren told his audience before he played largely with only Wanchic’s acoustic guitar and a Steinway grand piano, instead of his usual rock band, as accompaniment.

Rundgren, who didn’t attend college, started the recital in a scholarly gown. But he took it off after a couple of songs, saying it was too hot.

“They said this gown would be kind of hot. I thought they meant it would look cool,” he joked.

Rundgren also said he was a bit “chagrined” at being in front of an audience with a guitar around his neck, and added that if he should break a string, “there are no roadies here. I’ll teach you how to change a guitar string.”

Among the songs he included in the show were his “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference,” “There Goes My Inspiration,” and “I Saw the Light.” Rundgren also covered the Beatles tune, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.”

He ended the evening, reminding the crowd, “don’t forget to vote,” in Tuesday’s election.

Rundgren — best known for 1973’s “Hello It’s Me” — also popped up to direct the IU marching band Saturday as they performed another of his popular tunes, “Bang the Drum All Day,” at IU’s football game against Northwestern.

Rundgren was last in Indiana in September, when he performed a concert at Butler University.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20101101/ENTERTAINMENT/101101016/1068/SPORTS06/Rundgren-rocks-IU-recital-Mellencamp-gives-props

Mellencamp sweetly mixes new with old

It was 25 years ago, at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill. I remember two things about the concert: The woman standing in front of me had long, straight hair that fell to the back of her knees, and John Cougar Mellencamp jumped off the drum riser, landed awkwardly and limped off the stage.

Perhaps John Mellencamp also remembers that second part.

“I’d look awful silly up here jumping around like I was 20 years old,” Mellencamp said Monday night. Instead, he told the crowd that he would be “doing it with a little dignity.”

Mellencamp’s performance at Music Hall was restrained from a rock ‘n’ roll acrobatic standpoint, but the effort was there in other ways. He and his six-piece band delivered 26 songs in a row – no encore, just a brief accordion-violin interlude that lasted about as long as it takes to sneak a backstage cigarette.

Many of the songs in the set came from his new CD, “No Better Than This,” which was released in August. Mellencamp told the crowd that he doesn’t suffer from nostalgia, and as the first half of the show concentrated on new, relatively softer material it felt like it might stay that way.

But he finished the show with a string of louder, rocking hits to the delight of his nostalgia-prone audience at Music Hall (a venue he said that he only performed at one time before – opening a Kinks show in 1978).

It’s hard for Mellencamp’s new work to compete against the mass appeal of a classic tunes from his catalog such as “Jack and Diane” or “Cherry Bomb,” but one or two of the songs were up to the task. The best was “Save Some Time to Dream,” a song he performed solo with an acoustic guitar. “Save some time to dream, ’cause your dream might save us all,” he sang.

“That’s true, you know,” he told the crowd. “I’ve had a lot of dumb ideas that worked out well.”

The old tunes he performed early in the show were made to sound like the folky newer material. Mellencamp opened the show with a great reworking of his 1983 hit “Authority Song,” which paid tribute to its spiritual predecessor, Bobby Fuller’s “I Fought the Law,” by giving it a stripped-down arrangement and copying Fuller’s famous guitar riff in the chorus. He gave the crowd a shortened a cappella version of “Cherry Bomb,” and the crowd did most of the singing.

The hits, performed mostly as they are remembered, came in a string at the end: “Jack and Diane,” “Small Town,” “Rain on the Scarecrow,” “Paper in Fire,” “Human Wheel,” “The Real Life,” “Pink Houses” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”

There was no opening act. Instead, there was a screening of “It’s About You,” a new documentary film that follows Mellencamp’s 2009 concert tour and the making of “No Better Than This,” which took place in various sessions at Sun Studio, the historic First American Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., and the hotel room in San Antonio, Texas, where blues legend Robert Johnson recorded “Sweet Home Chicago.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101102/ENT03/311020064/Mellencamp-deftly-mixes-new-old

John delivered a fantastic opening night performance in Bloomington on Friday night, playing for over two hours (two hours and seven minutes, to be exact) and running through 24 songs - his longest show since the 1992 Whenever We Wanted Tour. He played seven songs from No Better Than This and dug out several rarities from earlier in his career, including Deep Blue Heart, Jackie Brown, The Real Life and a great reworked version of Walk Tall that was the highlight of the show for me. It was different than the Walter Reed version but still fantastic.

He opened with a bluesy version of Authority Song and quickly went into No One Cares About Me and later Death Letter - the only cover tune of the night. Other highlights were the new folk/blues version of Jack and Diane, Easter Eve (John didn't mess up the lyrics once) and Thinking About You from the new album, and a reworked R.O.C.K. In the USA to close the show.

The documentary "Its About You" that played before the concert was excellent, with lots of insights into the new album and great sounding live performances from last summer's tour . All in all a fantastic night of entertainment. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

All the shows.

Who has a subscription to the Times-Herald?

http://www.tmnews.com/stories/2010/10/28/entertainment.271853.tms

Hello Jen,
Maybe you can help me.
Do you know who was the back up singer on "Little Pink Houses"
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Brian

Carroll Sue Hill

Apparently there is an interview with John in this month's edition of Q Magazine (can't find the interview online), and in it John reveals more details behind "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County."

Rocker JOHN MELLENCAMP has revealed the inspiration behind his musical collaboration with horror writer STEPHEN KING - he once owned a haunted house where a grisly murder took place.

The veteran songwriter teamed up with King in 2000 to work on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a play about a spooky holiday home inhabited by the spectres of two brothers who killed each other there years before.

The musical is finally set to hit the stage next year (11) after a series of production delays - and Mellencamp has now told of his own ghostly encounter that inspired the story.

In an interview with Q magazine, he recalls purchasing a lakeside cabin in Indiana as a holiday home for his family but later received a series of newspaper cuttings in the mail detailing a gruesome slaying that took place at the property in the 1930s.

He says, "The place was haunted. I stayed in it for two nights, couldn't stand it. You'd hear things, s**t would move. Sounds crazy, but it's true."

Mellencamp sold the cabin when he realised he couldn't live in a haunted home, and admits he said "Not a f**king word" to the buyer about the ghostly goings-on.

Asked how fans will react to his collaboration with King, he adds: "It will either be so f**king good that you can't stand it, or the worst piece of s**t you ever saw."

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/mellencamps-musical-inspired-by-haunted-home_1177638

An enjoyable read. Thanks for posting. 

Walktall......JM is well know for mixing up events. That's just John 

I know. Just giving him trouble.

Yes, I too was wondering when we were going to get these items.  I don't recall receiving an email asking for my size.  How would I go about getting these items that I am suppose to get with the purchase of the VIP package?  Any info would be great considering the concert is next week

Tracey

Tony said above that the people who bought tickets on the early part of the first leg probably won't have their items before their show arrives.