WATCH AND LISTEN TO FARM AID 2019 ON SEPTEMBER 21ST
Farm Aid 2019 is heading to Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, this Saturday! If you can't make it to the venue there are several ways for you to join in the celebration from home! Watch or listen to Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Bonnie Raitt, Luke Combs, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Margo Price, Jamey Johnson, Tanya Tucker, Brothers Osborne, Yola, Particle Kid, Ian Mellencamp and Wisdom Indian Dancers.

WATCH ONLINE
The Farm Aid 2019 webcast, presented by Farmer Focus, will stream live in HD at farmaid.org, from 2:00 pm – 11:00 pm CT on September 21.

Watch the show on your computer, phone, or tablet. If you have a “Smart TV,” Apple TV, Roku, or other streaming device, you can watch the webcast on Farm Aid’s YouTube channel.

WATCH ON AXS TV
AXS TV will broadcast Farm Aid 2019 beginning at 6:30 pm CT.  To find AXS TV in your area, visit www.axs.tv.

LISTEN TO FARM AID 2019
SiriusXM subscribers will be able to listen to Farm Aid 2019 live on Willie’s Roadhouse (channel 59) via SiriusXM radios. Those with streaming access can listen online and on-the-go with the SiriusXM mobile app and at home on a variety of connected devices, including Smart TVs, Amazon Alexa devices, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, Sonos speakers and more. The live coverage, hosted by Sirius XM's Dallas Wayne, will also include backstage interviews with artists, local family farmers, and more.

Attendees can access the entire Farm Aid experience through the official Farm Aid 2019 mobile app, available now for iPhone and Android devices. Fans can view the Farm Aid 2019 schedule and add artists, workshops and artist briefings to make their own personalized schedule for the day. To download the app today, visit: www.farmaid.org/app.

no-one?

Hi Andrew,

Most Mellenheads have moved on to Facebook Mellencamp Camp Group.  Post there!

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/mellenbuds/

Check out this recap of this year's Chapin Awards Gala as we honored musician and activist, John Mellencamp with the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award, presented to him by Monte Lipman, CEO of Republic Records. #WhyHungerAwards

On Thursday, July 11th, beginning at 11 AM ET, we will be offering a limited number of tickets in a Mellencamp.com free member pre-sale. Tickets available will include roof-covered reserved seats, non-roof covered reserved seats, and general admission lawn tickets. The pre-sale will end at 10 PM ET, or whenever our allotment runs out - supplies are limited! The pre-sale tickets will be offered through Live Nation using a password posted on the TOUR page for logged-in members. Read THIS tutorial to learn how our pre-sale works. Please watch our TOUR page for more information.

Underscoring the severe crisis in farm country, Farm Aid’s annual music and food festival will return to the heart of dairy country on Saturday, Sept. 21, at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, July 12, at 10 a.m. CDT.

Featuring family farmers, the good food they produce and inspiring music, Farm Aid 2019 will include performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, as well as Bonnie Raitt, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Jamey Johnson, Tanya Tucker, Brothers Osborne, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Yola, and Particle Kid. Additional artists will be announced later this summer.

This year, the organization stages Farm Aid 2019 in an economic climate similar to the one that sparked the first Farm Aid concert in 1985. Median farm income is expected to be -$1,449 in 2019, and while net farm income in 2019 is projected to be 8% higher than prior year levels, it will remain among the bottom 25% of all time. Farmer stress also is growing, with the risk of depression and suicide among people working in agriculture increasing as compared to the general population. Calls to Farm Aid’s farmer hotline have borne this out, with a 109% increase in calls in 2018.

“With devastating weather, low prices and harmful farm and trade policies, America’s family farmers are facing immense challenges to hold on to their farms. It’s not right ... family farmers are essential for all of us,” Farm Aid President and Founder Willie Nelson said. “By bringing our festival to the heart of the struggle, we will stand side by side with farmers. At Farm Aid 2019, we’ll highlight solutions and show our support for family farmers’ contributions to our health, economy and environment.”

Wisconsin, often referred to as “America’s Dairyland,” is one of the nation’s leading dairy producers, particularly known for its cheese. The Wisconsin dairy industry generates $43.4 billion each year, fueling the state’s economy at a rate of more than $80,000 per minute. While the dairy industry benefits the economy and culture of Wisconsin, dairy farmers are struggling, with the state losing nearly 700 dairy farms in 2018 alone.

Overall, Wisconsin agriculture is extremely diverse with livestock, row crop and vegetable production also popular in the state. Wisconsin is second behind California for number of organic farms and has a strong direct market movement. Farm to School and urban agriculture programs support a strong connection among urban cities and rural communities.

The annual Farm Aid festival is a unique experience for all the senses. Farm Aid 2019 will serve HOMEGROWN Concessions®, which will showcase family farm-sourced ingredients at all the festival’s food stands including the HOMEGROWN Youthmarket, a farm stand operated by youth involved in farming and farmers markets. HOMEGROWN Concessions® utilizes compostable serviceware, with a goal of zero waste. Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Village features hands-on activities about soil, water, energy, food and farming. Festivalgoers can hear farmers and artists discuss pressing issues and share inspiring stories on the FarmYard Stage, as well as attend demonstrations to learn agrarian skills and celebrate the culture of agriculture in the HOMEGROWN Skills tent.

Tickets for Farm Aid 2019 will go on sale Friday, July 12, at 10 a.m. CDT. Ticket prices range from $54.50 to $249.50 and will be available for purchase at LiveNation.com. A limited number of pre-sale tickets will be made available for sale beginning at 10 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 10, at farmaid.org/festival.

Farm Aid is teaming up with IfOnly to offer a collection of incredible items and experiences, from behind-the-scenes tours and VIP ticket packages to signed memorabilia from this year’s artists. People can purchase and bid on these special offerings starting July 9, 2019, at www.ifonly.com/FarmAid.

For event updates, follow Farm Aid on Twitter (@FarmAid), Facebook (facebook.com/farmaid) and Instagram (instagram.com/farmaid), and visit farmaid.org/festival. Festivalgoers are encouraged to use the hashtags #FarmAid2019 and #Road2FarmAid to join the conversation on social media around this year’s festival.

Farm Aid 2019 sponsors include Patagonia Workwear, Shenandoah Valley Organic, Horizon Organic, and Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs. Farm Aid welcomes the participation of the business community and offers corporate sponsorship and VIP hospitality opportunities. For more information, contact Glenda Yoder at [email protected].

Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For more than 30 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised $57 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms. — 30 —

**Editors and Producers Note: Advance credentials are required for all media to attend Farm Aid 2019. Please visit farmaid.org/media by Friday, Sept. 13, to apply. Media can download official Farm Aid photos and videos at farmaid.org/media.**

Republic Records, Federal Films And Universal Music Theatrical Announce The Development Of An Original Musical
This is a story about those people who live, love and die on the underside of the American Dream in small towns all across our country. This is a tale, laced with humor and visceral energy, about star-crossed lovers, and their stubborn refusal to give up, to lie down, to let go of the potential their youthful dreams once promised. This is also a story about a town in free-fall, and the tough choices people make, not always in their best interests. Book by MacArthur Fellow, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and Obie Award winning playwright Naomi Wallace and will be directed by 3-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, music and lyrics by John Mellencamp.

More details will be announced in the Fall

Head to the store for great tour merch deals!

Going to Tucson show. have first row VIP package. Still haven't received any package swag. Any thoughts?

Please email [email protected] for an update, if possible forward them your order email confirmation. That is answered by AEG Live who is the tour promoter and vendor for the VIP Ticket Packages.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/apr/22/john-mellencamp-brings-high-energy-humor-to-the-fi/?amp-content=amp&__twitter_impression=true

By Azaria Podplesky
[email protected]
(509) 459-5024
Before he took the stage Saturday at the First Interstate Center for the Arts, John Mellencamp sent fans on a trip down memory lane via a documentary detailing the ups and downs of his lengthy career.

“I don’t think in 1975 anybody would have imagined that we’d be doing this today,” he’s heard saying as photos of a young Mellencamp flash on screen. “The longevity of this is surprising. It’s all been a happy accident.”

The documentary touched on the health scares that led to Mellencamp taking a break from life on the road and the impact of Mellencamp’s music over the years.

The video wasn’t wholly necessary as most in the crowd likely already knew just about all there is to know about Mellencamp, but it was a nice primer nonetheless.

“I always learn something from my audience,” Mellencamp said as the documentary came to an end. “I wonder what I’ll learn tonight.”

With a wave to the crowd, Mellencamp launched into “Lawless,” “Troubled Land” and the still-powerful “Minutes to Memories.”

“Small Town” followed, getting the whole crowd on its feet for the first of many times, then Mellencamp addressed the audience.

“This is the way things are going to go tonight,” he said. “We’re going to play songs you know, songs you don’t know, songs you can sing to and songs you can dance to…

There’s going to be a quiet section. If you’re one of those loud (expletive)s, go out in the hallway. We got a deal?”

To seal the deal, Mellencamp led the audience in an a capella version of Louis Armstrong’s “Long Gone (From Bowlin’ Green), followed by a full-band cover of Robert Johnson’s blues-y tune “Stones in My Passway.”

After performing “We Are the People,” “Lonely Ol’ Night” and “Check It Out,” Mellencamp let the audience know the quiet section had arrived.

He then took a few moments to tell a sweet story about his grandmother, though he mentioned he was originally going to take it out of the set but didn’t know “if the people in Oregon” had heard it.

Before her death at the age of 100, Mellencamp’s grandmother called him to her bedside. Once there, Mellencamp’s grandmother told him, affectionately calling him “buddy,” that they needed to pray.

After an “uncomfortably long” time, Mellencamp’s grandmother wrapped things up with “Me and Buddy are ready to come home.”

Mellencamp, unable to stop himself, blurted out “Grandma, what the (expletive)? Buddy’s not ready to come home. Buddy’s got a lot more singing he intends to do.”

Mellencamp told the crowd that whenever there was a quiet moment in his life, he believed his grandmother was looking over him, and that now she was looking over the members of the audience too.

Mellencamp ended the story on a poignant note.

“When she was 99, she said ‘Buddy, I love you, but you’re going to find out life is short even in your longest days’.”

A performance of, of course, “Longest Days” followed, as did an acoustic, though still lively, version of “Jack and Diane.”

Joined by violinist Miriam Sturm and pianist Troye Kinnett, Mellencamp then told the audience he thinks we can all agree on the freedom of speech, that we’re all created equal, that women deserve equal pay and that children deserve quality education no matter what their economic background, a perfect lead in to “Easy Target,” a moving, political song off his 2017 record “Sad Clowns and Hillbillies.”

At the end of the song, Mellencamp waved a white flag, briefly took a knee, then left the stage while Sturm and Kinnett, now playing accordion, continued to play.

When he returned to the stage, Mellencamp and band made it known the quiet section was over with high energy performances of “Rain on the Scarecrow,” “Paper in Fire,” “Crumblin’ Down” and a mash-up of Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” and the Chris Kenner tune “Land of 1000 Dances,” which was made famous by Wilson Pickett.

After “Pink Houses,” Mellencamp shared another fun story with the audience, this one about longtime guitarist Mike Wanchic’s long ago arrest for lewd vagrancy.

“The only problem with talking about old times is you’ve got to be old to talk about them,” Mellencamp said.

Wanting to “end the show with a song about the good times,” Mellencamp and Co. played “Cherry Bomb,” a song about the time Mellencamp spent at the Last Exit Teen Club when he was a teenager.

Before leaving the stage for good, Mellencamp got the audience to join him for another singalong of “Long Gone (From Bowlin’ Green).”

During the documentary, the narrator noted that Mellencamp “sang about the joys and struggles of ordinary people trying to make their way.”

Judging from the crowd that hung onto Mellencamp’s every word, just as strong as they were in his youth, it’s clear the ordinary people in Spokane still appreciate him for giving them a voice.

https://www.inlander.com/spokane/concert-review-john-mellencamp-delivers-a-raucous-night-at-the-fic-saturday/Content?oid=17489884

John Mellencamp, even at age 67, is still kind of a punk.

Not a punk in the mohawk, slam-dancing, Sex Pistols way, but in the way old-timers used to eyeball a certain sort of long-haired, cigarette-smoking loudmouth and mutter "damn punk" at what he saw as a harbinger of society's collapse.

At his packed concert at Spokane's First Interstate Center for the Arts Saturday night, Mellencamp proved to still be the kind of guy who revels in stirring shit up. Whether it was calling the folks screaming during the show's quieter moments "motherf—-ers," or including point-blank political commentary in favor of Black Lives Matter (including taking a knee) and the working poor in his between-song banter and videos, Mellencamp still loves to fight authority, as one of his biggest hits says, and he comes out grinnin'.

So did the fans after an excellent show of roughly 20 songs delivered over nearly two hours after a 20-minute video introducing Mellencamp's personal philosophy as illustrated by painters, piano players and the like.

Adorned in a dark jumpsuit that would look at home on a Jiffy Lube mechanic, and surrounded by his stellar six-piece band, Mellencamp took the stage and immediately started to go back and forth between songs dissecting the hard times and confusion in the country and songs evoking the good old days. "Lawless Times" and "Troubled Land" made way for the damn near perfect "Minutes to Memories" from his Scarecrow album, followed by the first of his biggest hits to arrive, "Small Town."

Mellencamp has no problem evoking wistful nostalgia through stories about his grandmother's deathbed lessons and or tales about longtime band member Mike Wanchic's popularity with the ladies when Mellencamp was first touring back in the '70s. Of course, he did the same with songs like "Jack & Diane," this night delivered solo on acoustic guitar, with the audience all too happy to do most of the heavy lifting on vocals.

Mellencamp brings a theatrical flair to his shows, as does his band. "Easy Target" was borderline performance art as he delivered lines about vast sections of American society who are little more than what the title suggests, and his a cappella take on Louis Armstrong's "Long Gone (from the Bowlin' Green)" connected him and audience through a call-and-response section so well it made another appearance as he left the stage at the end of the night. His violinist Miriam Sturm was part-cheerleader, part-foil for her fellow instrumentalists, and guitarists Wanchic and Andy York traded tough guitar licks all evening, joined by Mellencamp on guitar as well when he wasn't dancing.

Of course, what most in attendance were there for were the monster hits, and Mellencamp has a lot of them. It's remarkable looking back at the '80s when Mellencamp's songs of struggling farmers ("Rain on the Scarecrow") and economic struggle ("Pink Houses") were huge pop hits played on Top 40 radio alongside Madonna or Michael Jackson. Judging by their continued potency Saturday, I'd certainly argue Mellencamp's songs aged better than "Like A Virgin" or "Beat It." 

The show-closing rush of hits — "Rain on the Scarecrow," "Paper in Fire," "Crumblin' Down," "Authority Song," "Pink Houses" and "Cherry Bomb" — is one hell of a way to end a show.

John Mellencamp's Saturday setlist:
Lawless Times
Troubled Land
Minutes to Memories
Small Town
Long Gone (from Bowlin' Green)
Stones in My Passway
We Are The People
Lonely Ol' Night
Check It Out
Longest Days
Jack & Diane
Easy Target
Overture
Rain on the Scarecrow
Paper in Fire
Crumblin' Down
Authority Song/Land of 1,000 Dances
Pink Houses
Cherry Bomb
Long Gone (from Bowlin' Green) reprise

https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/11-features/425815-331840-longtime-rockers-still-honor-rural-roots-pwoff

John Mellencamp and his bandmates have never forgotten their Indiana roots, and it remains true today.

"In 1986 we stopped making records anywhere but Bloomington," guitarist Mike Wanchic says. "People drifted off, and we added members, but they all had Indiana roots. It's the reason we've stayed unique, and developed at our own pace without outside elements."

Mellencamp, Wanchic and the band come to Portland to play at Keller Auditorium, Tuesday, April 23.

Wanchic, who has known Mellencamp since the days just after each left college, says they have stayed Midwest folks because they never moved west or east and became influenced by Los Angeles and New York types.

"We never succumbed and moved to the coast," Wanchic says. "We stayed in Bloomington, Indiana, and we were the biggest band in the county, man. We weren't cognizant of it at the time, but in hindsight, we weren't hanging out at the Rainbow Room or Roxy Theatre on Sunset Boulevard, and didn't get into the glam scene."

It's the band that gave us the 1980s hits "Hurts So Good," "Jack & Diane," "Pink Houses," "Small Town" "R.O.C.K. in the USA," "Authority Song" and more.

It all began in the late 1970s with "I Need a Lover," when Mellencamp went by the name John Cougar. (He changed to John Cougar Mellencamp in 1983 and then dropped the Cougar). He and Wanchic had met in 1976 at a recording studio when Wanchic was fresh out of DePauw University and Mellencamp from Vincennes University.

Their status as a band was tenuous until the hits started coming, such as "Ain't Even Done With the Night." Nicknamed "Chief," Wanchic says: "We made four albums before we had any success at all. When we made 'American Fool,' we thought it was our last shot." Instead, the album that produced "Hurts So Good" and "Jack & Diane" skyrocketed them to fame, thanks in part to MTV.

"Since that point, nobody has said 'boo' to us about how to make a record, not a single word," Wanchic says.

They have never rested on their laurels, as 23 albums proves, the latest being "Sad Clowns and Hillbillies." Mellencamp, who's also an avid painter, also has earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among many other honors.

"This is a machine out here," Wanchic says. "The great part of this band (is), when you over-rehearse, you don't have to do anything on stage except your performance. Everything is really well-rehearsed.

"What makes it difficult is with 23 albums ... what do you play? You have to play hits, but we're also satisfying ourselves artistically. You have to find a balance of albums. We put together a really good show."

Indeed, "a band that plays existing material has no new material. We're continuing to make new records," he adds. "(John's) still a vital writer, better than ever. When you turn 60 (Mellencamp is 67), who says talent falls off? The band is better. Everything has never been better."

"The John Mellencamp Show" stops at the Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St., 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 23. Tickets are $39.50-$129.50 and available at www.portland5.com.

https://www.omaha.com/go/music/rock_candy/farm-aid-rock-n-roll-and-avoiding-la-how-john/article_76b7ef78-39f9-5021-8d01-da47d9558ea6.html?fbclid=IwAR3NSc68S5SJ9zhtbuPxUcNAUrkicagE3S1p7IZcpjTmzq8qCHxL_ZFrTd8

Great old photos in this article!

Johnny Cash called him one of the best songwriters of all time. Bob Dylan counts his output among the best around. Today’s country stars worship his brand of heartland rock.
John Mellencamp is adored by some of the music industry’s best and by fans who still pay to put “Jack & Diane” on the jukebox or crank up “Play Guitar” whenever it comes on the radio.
Mellencamp, who plays Omaha’s Orpheum Theater on Monday, is the progenitor of Americana rock, distilling folk and rock ’n’ roll and blues and country into something distinctly Midwestern. His 1985 album, “Scarecrow,” not only left us with memorable hits — “Small Town” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” among them — it also made Mellencamp popular with rock stars and regular Midwesterners alike, cementing him as a once-in-a-generation voice who, in turn, gave voice to us here in the heartland.
Hall of Famers like Mellencamp routinely perform around here — Phil Collins, Diana Ross and Ringo Starr are all on the way soon — but few of them, if any, are as inherently middle-of-the-country as Mellencamp. He’s like us.
We were born in small towns. We live in small towns. We’ll probably die in small towns.
Ditto for Mellencamp.
“I’m not leaving Indiana. I’m going to die here,” he told Rolling Stone, echoing his own lyrics.
And Mellencamp has walked the walk in other ways. He helped create Farm Aid to help family farmers during the farm crisis of the 1980s. He physically joined farmers in grassroots protests, and showed for hearings on Capitol Hill.
Along the way, he surged past the everyman rock of Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty to become the heartland rocker.
The year after his concert at a protest in Chillicothe, Missouri, John Mellencamp spoke in front of the Senate’s agriculture committee, calling attention to farmers who were losing their land.
Mellencamp remained in Indiana because it was important to stay true to his roots, said Mike Wanchic, Mellencamp’s collaborator and guitarist of more than 40 years.
“You weren’t being influenced by the people at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go or the Rainbow Room. You’re not faced by those trends,” Wanchic told The World-Herald earlier this month. “That’s one of the things that has allowed us to maintain a long career and maintain autonomy. ... Living in isolation was an important part of it.”
Mellencamp has always been an outsider, and that, he says, helped him create alt-country and Americana.
“I had to create my own job and create my own genre and, consequently, do what I think they now call Americana,” Mellencamp told CBS.
But it’s not like he woke up one day and decided to create a genre of music. He was just doing what he knew.
During his speech at his 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Mellencamp said he found his voice with “Scarecrow,” an album that painted a bleak picture of the Midwest. It was his fifth album, and he knew what he wanted it to sound like — classic American writers such as Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck and William Faulkner.
“I think people, particularly in the Midwest, really identified with these characters. I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘I’m Jack and I’m Diane. You wrote about my life.’ To me, that’s a successful song,” he told Rolling Stone.
And Mellencamp’s songs resonated with other artists, too, particularly those in country.
“About 99 percent of modern country music, I think, is about small-town life and about growing up in the heartland,” country star Jake Owen told Billboard. “There’s a part of us that all want to be kind of like him. We want to be that all-American, white-T-shirt-wearin’, roll-your-sleeves-up center and grit of America.”
Mellencamp decided to pursue music after graduating from Vincennes University, a junior college in Indiana.
He met Wanchic when both were just out of school. Wanchic was an intern at a recording studio in Indiana. Mellencamp came to record some demos. They’ve been making music together ever since.
Not all of their songs were hits. Not at first. And the responses Mellencamp and Wanchic got from producers, record executives and others were just another thing that kept them in Indiana.
“We had been making dud after dud record,” Wanchic said. “Then, all of the sudden, it happened. ‘Why don’t you move to L.A.?’ Well, we’re not moving to L.A. We remember every one of you people who thought we were absolutely horrible.”
His allegiance to small towns and regular folks is the reason Mellencamp co-founded Farm Aid alongside Willie Nelson and Neil Young. The concert series has been held every year since the first show in Champaign, Illinois, in 1985.
Two years later, Farm Aid III came to Lincoln.
The original idea was that they’d put on one massive concert to benefit family farmers and raise awareness for their plight. If they did that, the federal government would have to take notice and do something.
“Why are all these small towns going out of business? Because everybody went to live in the city? No. It was because corporate farming had moved in and run the small family farmer out of business. Which is why we started Farm Aid,” Mellencamp told CBS.
“Every time I fly on an airplane,” Wanchic said, “you look out of that window, and what do you see? You see rural America. That is really the backbone and fabric of what America really is. We want to make sure that tradition carries on for many generations.”
Farm Aid concerts continue each September. The shows have raised more than $53 million to date.
About 70,000 people attended the 1987 show in Lincoln, which featured Mellencamp, Nelson and Young as well as Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Steppenwolf, Lyle Lovett, John Denver, Lou Reed, Joe Walsh and others.
Broadcast live around the country, it was the biggest concert ever held in Nebraska, netting $1.9 million to help farmers.
Nelson kicked things off. Mellencamp played “Small Town.” Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge did a duet. John Denver did “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Nelson and others gathered to close the show, singing “This Land Is Your Land” while fireworks exploded in the background.
“We were kind of the host band,” Wanchic said. “We’d play five or six times a day. I can’t remember who all we played with that day. But I do remember Lou Reed. It seemed like such a juxtaposition. There I am onstage, playing some of the most incredibly oddball songs to play in Lincoln. It was a remarkable event.”
A year earlier, Mellencamp had played a three-song set and joined 10,000 farmers for a protest in Chillicothe, Missouri. The next year, just three months before the Lincoln show, he testified in front of the Senate’s agriculture committee, calling attention to farmers who were losing their land.
“This isn’t new for me to be worried about farmers,” Mellencamp said at the time. “I grew up in a farm community of 15,000. My friends are all farmers.”

John Mellencamp has often tried to call attention to the plight of America’s farmers, including in 1986, when he played a three-song set in a parking lot as part of a protest in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Despite the risk of alienating some fans, Mellencamp, Nelson and Young continue to rally around their favorite causes, especially Farm Aid.
In a 2014 interview, Nelson told The World-Herald he believes calling attention to a problem is the best way to get people in power to act.
“People with a voice should use it,” Nelson said. “Everyone has a voice of one kind or another. ... If we keep telling them about it over and over again, maybe they will (take notice).”
Mellencamp has certainly never stopped trying. That’s likely one reason he’ll be playing the Orpheum — a more intimate setting — instead of one of Nebraska’s two large arenas.
But Mellencamp wouldn’t be Mellencamp if he did it any other way.
“Oh, I’ve been booed,” he told CBS. “And I remember Neil Young walked up to me after it was over, and he goes, ‘Whatever you said, keep saying it.’ ”

During John's time in New York City performing his three sold out shows at The Beacon Theater on The John Mellencamp Show Tour, he met with Elizabeth Quinn Brown of Architectural Digest for a tour of his SoHo loft.  “To live an artist’s life, you have to create every day,” he says. “When I was there, there was no place for me to paint, no place for me to write, so I bought this little place.” Read this exclusive interview and view photos of the loft taken by William Abranowicz HERE. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/john-mellencamp-soho-loft?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HERE&utm_campaign=tour2weeksaway

The Sarasota Post: The John Mellencamp Show Brings Middle America to Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL
04.01.2019 - The Sarasota Post - By Vicky Sullivan

Indiana’s musical son John Mellencamp played two sold-out shows on Friday & Saturday night in Clearwater. The Midwest native brought the hits and then some. Starting off the show with a 24-minute film excerpt about his life and career from his 2017 full-length film “Plain Spoken”.You can catch the entire film on Netflix. It is a well-done film, part documentary, part live music with John narrating and telling the stories of his life.

Mellencamp came to the stage with “Lawless Times”, a song about the current state of life in the U.S. from streaming music to the Catholic church. John has always been regarded as a musical spokesman for the Midwest, but the reason his music resonates across the nation is that he writes about the human condition in America. His experience in the music business from being named “John Cougar” to sell records to fighting his way to being the real Mellencamp has given him a unique view. He is the quintessential rebel who does it his way whether writing music or painting artwork which is now being shown in museums.

The first hit on the setlist was 1985’s “Small Town” which brought the audience to its feet. Many people are from the big cities but most of our country is made up of small towns from east to west which is why people relate to it. Everyone knows the story of John coming from small town Seymour, Indiana and making it big in music and on MTV. 1985 also brought the advent of the “Farm Aid” concert. John, Neil Young and Willie Nelson organized the first show and today are on the board of directors along with Dave Matthews, still putting their money where their mouths are helping the American farmer! Check out the website for Farm Aid

John Mellencamp played at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FLAnother thought-provoking tune was “Easy Target”, from his critically acclaimed album “Sad Clowns and Cowboys”. Lyrics telling the real-time story about all of us being easy targets of the random shooter to the struggle of Black Lives Matter. Mellencamp has never minced his words and sings for the downtrodden. He makes a huge statement at the end of the emotional song by taking a knee! The audience was extremely quiet with the exception of a few people clapping.

John Mellencamp brought his great band with him to Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FLMid-show John does a tribute to his grandmother, who always called him “Buddy”, with a story of a spiritual experience he had with her. Touching and humorous it takes him into his tune about life with “Longest Days” from his 2008 album Life, Death, Love, Freedom. The second half of the show starts a laundry list of hits with “Crumblin’ Down” and the audience is up on their feet for the majority of the rest of the show. The band leaves the stage with John alone on acoustic guitar for a sing-along of one of his biggest hits, “Jack & Diane”, where the audience is really doing most of the singing, knowing every word and every clap! It is a fun, youthful moment for the mostly boomer audience, including Mellencamp with a smile on his face.

John’s band is one of the best in the business. Guitarist Mike Wanchic has been around since the beginning. John tells a hilarious story about the band coming here in the 70’s and Mike getting arrested with John going to the jail to bail him out. Andy York on guitar and drummer Dane Clark have been in the band since the 90’s. John Gunnell is on bass and Troye Kinnett on keyboard and accordion. Kinnett and the amazing violinist Miriam Sturm perform a duet of accordion and violin that includes a nod to John’s first hit “I Need a Lover”.

John Mellencamp plays his guitar at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL“Authority Song” has the audience singing with fists in the air in agreement “Authority always wins!” “Pink Houses” is the anthem for middle America. Of course, John’s line of “Working in some high rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico” was not lost on the Tampa Bay audience who were yelling and howling at the line. The #1 hit “Cherry Bomb”, a tribute to the 60’s nightclub scene, closed the show. John is one of our most prolific songwriters writing about life during this era in the U.S.A. He has come a long way from the days of “John Cougar”, but we are glad he will still sing the songs about them.

You can find tour dates and info at mellencamp.com

https://www.tampabay.com/music/review-john-mellencamp-cranks-the-volume-gets-righteous-at-ruth-eckerd-hall-in-clearwater-20190330/
For a few minutes after the house lights went dark Friday night at Ruth Eckerd Hall, some 2,100 fans could’ve been forgiven for wondering: Wait, where is John Mellencamp going?

Before Mellencamp took the stage in Clearwater, he screened a cinematic 24-minute film looking back at his career and philosophy on music, replete with sweeping shots of combines, cornfields and slo-mo brush strokes on canvas – a Koyaanisqatsian tone poem on artistic expression in America.

“I don’t think that anybody in 1975 imagined that we would still be doing this today,” Mellencamp said in a voice-over. “The longevity of this is surprising.”

It all felt a bit like the start of a farewell, something more than a few of Mellencamp’s peers are doing these days.

But then the 67-year-old songwriter ambled out in a dark mechanic’s jumpsuit, surrounded by a band in suits and gowns. And like the Indiana farm boy he is, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

In the first of two sold-out nights in Clearwater, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer relied less on the nostalgic pull of his can’t-miss heartland hits, and more on grit, spittle and riff after riff after riff. Forget dusty farewells and dabs with a monogrammed hankie. Mellencamp and his band seem out to prove they can still R-O-C-K in the USA.

“People love to talk about old times,” he said. “The only problem when you talk about old times is you gotta be old to talk about them.”

True, Mellencamp does move gingerly at times, unlike the spry Johnny Cougar of the '70s. But he does in fact still move, especially on some old favorite soul and blues numbers. On the Louis Armstrong song Long Gone (From Bowling Green), he led an impassioned call and response with the crowd. And on Robert Johnson’s Stones In My Passway, he shimmied, shuffled and screamed atop a randy slide guitar, busting out his best James Brown or Charles Bradley.

His voice, while weathered as whiskey-soaked boot leather, isn’t dead by a long shot. Instead he’s steering into the gravelly growl of his age, channeling Tom Waits or the best parts of Dylan on the stompy Troubled Land and accordion-buoyed Longest Days. Even Jack and Diane, delivered as an acoustic campfire strum-along, saw him swapping impassioned verses with the audience.

And on nearly every plugged-in song -- Lonely Ol’ Night, Crumblin’ Down, Paper In Fire -- Mellencamp punched and poked and snapped his wrists as his band, particularly guitarists Mike Wanchic and Andy York and violinist Mirium Sturm, muscled out righteous, furious chords across the stage.

At times, the message fit the music. Ever the rabble-rouser, Mellencamp railed against authority on Lawless Times and We Are the People, and worked overtime for the working man on the raging Rain on the Scarecrow. His most overtly activist song by far was 2017’s Easy Target, which touched on living wages and Black Lives Matter, and ended with Mellencamp, that hero of flyover country, bending to a knee at center stage.

If it bothered the Hoosiers in the house, they didn’t let it show on beloved singles like the inviting, communal Check It Out; the stir-'em-up rocker Authority Song; or the forever-timeless Pink Houses, still anthemic after all these years, especially when the Clearwater crowd belted out the line about vacationing down at the Gulf of Mexico.

Much earlier on, he jolted fans to their feet with perhaps his best-known hit, Small Town. And when he got to the last verse, and he sang the line "That’s probably where they’ll bury me," he took a step back, and milked that pause as the whole house sustained their applause.

In that moment, the crowd had to imagine an America without John Mellencamp. Someday he’ll stop for good, and that’ll be that. The retirement will be real, and the film will fade to black.

But then he and the band kicked back in, and the crowd pumped their fists and stomped along. Life goes on, as Jackie once sang to Diane. And for a little while longer, so does Johnny Cougar.