Why do you not like this song?

Open to anyones opinions on the NBTT

What makes it special?

yeah I agree, no one cares about me is maybe the albums only weak point.  Right behind me is awesome!!

On the eve of Mellencamps new release "Nothing Better Then This" I think its clear to see this album is being reviewed in positive light by many critics.  I think between this and an effort of ourselves to review his new album online we can get this album heard by music lovers who are either new to Mellencamp or haven't listened to him in awhile.  So tomorrow when you pick up his album, go to amazon.com, itunes, or any site that sells music and give this album a review.   

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/7155843.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle/entertainment+(HoustonChronicle.com+--+Entertainment)

Getting back to the basics
John Mellencamp's latest CD was recorded at three historic locations
By JIM BEAL JR. MUSIC WRITER
Aug. 16, 2010, 4:53PM
 
Jim Beal Jr. San Antonio Express-News
John Mellencamp says he wrote Right Behind Me specifically for recording at the Gunter Hotel.

A year ago, John Mellencamp was holed up in Room 414 of the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in downtown San Antonio.
Accompanied by fiddler Miriam Sturm and guitarist Andy York and surrounded by a crew that included sound engineers, photographer Kurt Marcus and record producer T-Bone Burnett, Mellencamp sat in a chair atop a piece of borrowed ballroom dance floor. He hit chords on an acoustic guitar while singing Right Behind Me into a vintage RCA microphone in the place where, in November 1936, Robert Johnson recorded what became 16 legendary blues songs.
Last summer, while touring with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Mellencamp and his troupe did something similar across the country. They also set up the vintage recording gear in Sun Studio in Memphis, Tenn., and in the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga.
The result is No Better Than This, 13 new songs released today, in mono, on the Rounder label.
"I've made 25 albums, three-quarters of them at Belmont (Mellencamp's home studio, Belmont Mall in Bloomington, Ind.). I've done that. I didn't want to go to a traditional studio, and I didn't want to make a record that sounds like every other record," Mellencamp said. "I listen to Triple A radio, and it's all the same sound, different people but the same sound. So I said, 'Let's use a mike and a reel-to-reel tape recorder.' We found a bunch of early ' 50s Ampex tape machines and ' 40s microphones, and it became very exciting."
The Americana-music godfather studied his tour schedule and found days off near historical locations.
"I knew we had a couple days off in Savannah, I knew we had to go to Memphis, and I knew we had to go to San Antonio," he said. "We also looked at Dallas (where Robert Johnson also recorded), but they wouldn't let us record in that building, the Brunswick Building. We kept trying, but the answer was no."
During a break in the Gunter session, Burnett, a Fort Worth native, talked about the allure of recording in historic rooms.
"John is a really great singer, and I'm always happy working with him in any environment," he said. "The fact he chose these historic locations is a big plus. The stories that have come out of the sessions are extraordinary. The First African Baptist Church was started in 1775. It was an important stop on the Underground Railroad and central to the civil rights movement. Sun Studio, from a completely different angle, was also important to the civil rights movement and, from another angle, so were Robert Johnson's recordings at the Gunter."
Since his career started more than three decades ago, Mellencamp has racked up millions of album sales, earned shelves full of awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the 58-year-old singing songwriter is nothing if not realistic about the business end of music.
"These records by guys like me are just calling cards," he said. "I don't intend to sell any of them. I was at a mall recently. There's no record stores at malls anymore. There's Barnes & Nobles. The Apple store is the new record store. The place was packed. The records I make are just calling cards. But that's the way I started."
The 13 tracks on No Better Than This range from rockabilly to folk-rock to haunting heartland folk, but Mellencamp wrote Right Behind Me specifically for the Gunter.
"It just seemed like it should have been recorded in San Antonio," he said. "In Savannah, I was playing where they preach from and below where they baptize people. My wife, Elaine, and I got baptized there during the sessions.
"We went down to Memphis and recorded with a trio at Sun. We didn't really know what to expect from that room, but Sam Phillips had made it easy. He left Xs on the floor. We stood on the Xs. The minute we started to play and heard the playback, we said, 'There's that sound.' "
Mellencamp didn't set out to write a bunch of songs for an album.
"I wasn't in the songwriting mood, but sometimes songs are like monkeys on your back," he said. "Finally I wrote the first song, Save Some Time to Dream. It was simple and to the point and had a beautiful melody. After that, I had to get busy.
"With these songs, I just let them write themselves. I let the songs present themselves and present themselves in an honest, sincere fashion. So I wanted to record them in an honest fashion, and quickly."
The No Better Than This tour, featuring a Kurt Marcus documentary, It's About You, as an opener, kicks off in October and is expected to run through spring 2011. No Texas dates have been announced.
"I'm in it for the music and the fun now," Mellencamp said. "I missed that when I was a kid. I was climbing the mountain when I was a kid. I didn't care about money, but I wanted to get paid. I didn't care about radio, but I loved to hear my songs on the radio. As a grown man, I'm happy and proud to have been part of that era, but it's over, and we're all waiting for what's next."

http://www.avclub.com/articles/john-mellencamp-no-better-than-this,44217/?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=channel_music

By Keith Phipps August 17, 2010

John Mellencamp
No Better Than This
Rounder

A- av club rating
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John Mellencamp: Life Death Love And Freedom
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The approach John Mellencamp took for No Better Than This, his 21st studio album, sounds gimmicky: Traveling America with a vintage portable recorder, a single microphone, and a crew that included producer T-Bone Burnett and guitarist Marc Ribot, Mellencamp recorded at historic sites like Sun Studios, Savannah’s First African Baptist Church, and the San Antonio hotel where Robert Johnson cut some of his most famous sides. It’s as if Mellencamp expected any residual magic hanging around those locations to rub off on his own music. Thing is, he might have been onto something. The direct, spare No Better Than This—Mellencamp even eschews stereo—has a timeless sound and songs that do right by their classic blues, rock, and country inspirations.
The advantage of being a big star unburdened by any obligations to produce hits is that you can get away with making any sort of record you want. But while No Better Than This finds Mellencamp paying tribute to his influences, it’s also very much a Mellencamp album at heart, drawing inspiration and a little political fire from everyday hopes, dreams, and setbacks. “The West End” traces the decline of a neglected side of town, and the chugging “No One Cares About Me” comes from the perspective of one of life’s forgotten men. It isn’t all darkness, however: “Love At First Sight” imagines the course of potential love that realistically will be plagued by disappointment and disillusion, but might deserve a chance anyway, and a pair of poignant tracks, “Save Some Time To Dream” and “Clumsy Ol’ World,” bookend the set. Tracks like the latter, which weds an unaccompanied acoustic guitar to wistful reflections about the awkward way life and love work out, find Mellencamp not just aspiring to sound like the classics that made him love music, but matching them.

[When it comes to Americana, he’s a Mellen-champ]

When it comes to Americana, he’s a Mellen-champ

JOHN MELLENCAMP “No Better Than This”
4 stars
John Mellencamp’s new album sounds old — not like John Cougar “Jack and Diane” old, but more like Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly old. The record’s aged quality lies in Mellencamp’s grit ’n’ gravel vocals and his lyrics, which seem to have built-in workingman folk wisdom. Tunes like “Save Some Time to Dream,” the record’s opener, and “Don’t Forget About Me” are smart songs presented in timeless acoustic arrangements produced by T Bone Burnett. He set dials at lo-fidelity and recorded all 13 songs in mono with a single microphone and a vintage 50-year-old Apex tape recorder. Mellencamp recorded at three historically important locations: Memphis’ Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash first forged rock ’n’ roll; the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., America’s oldest African-American congregation; and Room 414 at San Antonio’s Gunter Hotel, where Robert Johnson was first recorded in 1936. It may sound like a gimmick, but these old-fashioned songs and the retro recording treatment — not to mention all the ghosts — give this disc a vibe of Americana authenticity.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/music/when_it_comes_to_americana_he_mellen_6SaUxK6Nwj9eqdBNtEnSKI#ixzz0wqNdlQzZ

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/129607-john-mellencamp-no-better-than-this/

John Mellencamp: No Better Than This
By Rod Lockwood 17 August 2010
Mellencamp's new release an old-school masterpiece

John Mellencamp calls No Better Than This his “most rebellious record ever” and who are we to argue? No disrespect to Mellencamp, but it’s not like his long career has been filled with crazy detours into free form jazz and electronica. He’s never gone Christian, never done anything like his pal Lou Reed and set an entire album to Edgar Allen Poe’s writing, never fully challenged his audience. About the most risky thing he’s done is offer up one of his better late career songs, “Our Country”, to a truck commercial, which probably paid off handsomely in his bank account, but soured a lot of people on his music because of the tune’s ubiquity and jingoistic vibe.

All that said, No Better Than This is something for which Mellencamp was long overdue: a defining album that resets his creative clock and reminds everyone how great a songwriter and musician that he really is. Because this, his 19th studio album, is truly brilliant and it’s as good as anything he’s ever released, which is saying a lot. Dylan had Time Out of Mind, Springsteen had The Rising, and any number of Mellencamp’s less popular peers—John Hiatt, Graham Parker, Greg Brown—have all made albums that reinvigorated their relevancy and made us return to their newer work hungry for more.

What makes No Better Than This so great is its consistency and artistic commitment. Mellencamp recorded it in a creative burst while on tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. With T-Bone Burnett as his producer, he’d take quick breaks from the road and visit iconic studios across the country, recording where blues legend Robert Johnson did in San Antonio or in the historic Sun Studios. U2 tried something like this with Rattle and Hum in the late ‘80s and it came across pretentious and gimmicky. In Mellencamp’s hands the recording process is not only a tribute to the masters, but also the ideal way to bring these 13 songs to life. It makes sense that music this personal and intimate be recorded this way, with a group of musicians standing together in a room, playing at the same time without the benefit of overdubs and studio trickery.

The fact that it’s in mono could come across as a silly reach for lo-fi cred, sort of a “fuck you” to the heavily compressed, over-produced music that’s on the radio now. Instead, the decision is logical for these songs and feels less like a statement and more like a commonsense artistic decision. You don’t want to hear something as dark and spooky as “The West End” in pristine stereo, just as you can’t imagine the gentle “Thinking About You” spruced up and blasting out of the speakers.

These are songs that are meant to sound like they have some dust on them. Mellencamp sings in a relaxed voice, never shouting and while some of the songs have an anthemic quality lingering in the background, he doesn’t jack up the energy. Thank goodness, because something like the bluesy cautionary tale “Right Behind Me” with its declaration, “This ain’t no picnic I’m living, just a resting place before I go” would sound mighty strange in any other format. Recording on a 55-year-old Ampex mono tape machine, the musicians—acoustic guitar, fiddle, bass, mandolin, drums and a few electric guitars on the rockers—cut them after a few takes, giving the songs a fresh feeling and nothing’s over cooked.

Finally, “No Better Than This” feels deeply personal, from the lyrics to the way Mellencamp chooses to present the music. He’s working in classic idioms –- rockabilly on the title cut, Johnny Cash-like vintage rocking on “Coming Down the Road”, John Prine folk on the sly, funny “Love at First Sight” and the closer “Clumsy Ol’ World”—that are familiar and comfortable. At the same time, he has something to say and while it seems clear he’s often singing about himself (although one never knows), it feels an awful like he’s singing to all of us.

The first track, “Save Some Time to Dream” is an open-hearted call to take care of yourself and everyone around you. Lyrics like “Try to keep your mind open and accept your mistakes / Save some time for livin’ and always question your faith / Could it be that this is all there is? / Could it be that there’s nothin’ more? / Save some time to dream, ‘cos your dream might save us all” have a nakedness that feels like an old friend calling up to check in and give you a pep talk.

Dream references pop up in various songs, along with ruminations on mortality. There’s a timeless vibe throughout, with the country tune “A Graceful Fall” sounding like something that would come out of an old radio in the 1950s. “Easter Eve” is a strange, Dylan-like story song in which the protagonist’s 14-year-old son ends up getting in a fight with some guy in a bar the night before Easter and the events in the tune could be taking place now or 40 years ago. “Thinking About You” starts out with the singer saying he’s not nostalgic before spending the rest of the song addressing an old girlfriend who he’s dying to check in on just to see how she’s doing.

These kind of images—personal, intimate, timeless—pop up all over No Better Than This. It’s mature without being boring and anyone of a certain age, say over 40, can’t help but relate to Mellencamp’s message. The album’s closest relation among his previous albums is “Big Daddy”, the pensive 1989 release that finalized his transition from pop star to crafty singer/songwriter. But No Better Than This is a step beyond his best work, revelatory and free, the sound of a man who’s unshackled from commercial considerations or outside influences. And ironically, it’s a record that could’ve been made in 1954, which means it comes out of the speakers sounding remarkably fresh and new.

What could be more rebellious than that?
Rating: 9 of 10

http://indianapolis.metromix.com/music/cd_review/indiana-album-review/2129434/content

Indiana album review

John Mellencamp, "No Better Than This"

David Lindquist
Metromix
August 15, 2010

John Mellencamp will perform Nov. 8 at Clowes Hall and Nov. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse. (Credit: Rounder Records.)
In a nutshell: After struggling in recent years to match lyrical messages to complementary music and produce an engaging listening experience, John Mellencamp solves his puzzle on this 13-song collection of folk, blues and rockabilly sounds. While his 2008 album carried the title of "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," death smothered all competing themes. "No Better Than This" -- scheduled to arrive in stores Tuesday -- deftly addresses good times, bad times and the intervening range of hope and despair.

Fan finder: Long-running comparisons between Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen frequently are misguided, but "No Better Than This" may enter history as the Hoosier rock star's answer to "Nebraska" -- Springsteen's stripped-down masterpiece of 1982. People who don't like to hear ProTools or AutoTune technology in their music might give a thumbs up to "No Better Than This." It was recorded in mono to quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape, the sonic equivalent of making photos with a pinhole camera in a megapixel world.

That's a keeper: An inspired experiment devised by Mellencamp and producer T-Bone Burnett dictated the album's primitive production. Recording sessions happened at three historic sites: Sun Studio in Memphis, Tenn., First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., and the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Blues icon Robert Johnson cut 16 songs at the Gunter in 1936. Mellencamp tune "Right Behind Me" wakes up eerie echoes of the man responsible for "Cross Road Blues." Accompanied by Hot Club jazz licks played by violin player Miriam Sturm, Mellencamp sings, "I know Jesus, and I know the Devil. They're both inside me, all the time."

Didn't see it coming: Mellencamp attacks vintage microphones (one per session for him and all accompanying instruments) with impressive vocal flexibility. He's a coy Casanova on "Love at First Sight," a hiccuping hillbilly on the album's title track, a relaxed balladeer on "A Graceful Fall" and a sturdy folkie on "No One Cares About Me.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/50095148-81/album-mellencamp-recorded-414.html.csp

Grade: B+

On his 25th album “No Better Than This,” John Mellencamp proves that he’s getting better and better, stripping away the cliches that marred his earlier lyrics.

This haunting Americana album — filled with rockabilly, blues and gospel — was recorded on a 55-year-old tape recorder.

Mellencamp’s band recorded original songs about hope, family and faith at culturally significant places such as room 414 of San Antonio’s Gunter Hotel, where Robert Johnson recorded “Stones in My Passway” in 1936.

— David Burger

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_reviews/articles/2010/08/16/on_new_mellencamp_cd_the_title_says_it_all/

ALBUM REVIEW
For Mellencamp, the title says it all
August 16, 2010

The tale of John Mellencamp’s new album, “No Better Than This,’’ is a tantalizing one for both the Indiana rocker’s fans specifically and roots music enthusiasts in general. The 13 tracks, produced by spare music maestro T Bone Burnett with one microphone and vintage equipment, were recorded over 13 days in “historically significant’’ locations during Mellencamp’s tour with Bob Dylan. Those places included Sun Studios in Memphis and the San Antonio hotel room where Robert Johnson bared his soul. But backstory is meaningless unless there are songs to back it up, and, like Mellencamp’s other recent releases, “Better’’ more than walks the walk. From the grimy, soot-stained tale of the price of progress in “The West End’’ to the reflective and emotionally expansive message to an old flame in “Thinking About You,’’ Mellencamp’s voice is as remarkably gritty as his observations are crystal clear. The funny and imaginative “Love at First Sight’’ envisions an entire relationship — from giddy new love to recrimination and betrayal — in the space of a first meeting. And the incongruously jaunty “No One Cares About Me’’ paints a vivid tale of a lost man (wife gone, job lost, child dead) who still hopes angels are around the corner. Country, folk, rock, and blues commingle like old friends enjoying a living-room song pull. The album concludes with “Clumsy Ol’ World,’’ one of the finest love songs Mellencamp has written, capped with a wry little laugh that lets you know he knows it. He earns it. (Out tomorrow) SARAH RODMAN

ESSENTIAL “Clumsy Ol’ World’’

http://thatnashvillesound.blogspot.com/2010/08/cd-reviews-john-mellencamp-no-better.html

CD Reviews- John Mellencamp- No Better Than This
The Background:
In an age of auto-tuned, computerized recordings, John Mellencamp's approach on his Rounder debut, No Better Than This, is very different. The entire album was recorded with Mellencamp and his band all playing live in one room using a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder and just one vintage microphone. Legendary producer T Bone Burnett captured the thirteen new Mellencamp originals at three historically important locations: Sun Studio in Memphis, TN (where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all first recorded); the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA (the oldest Black church in North America, dating to 1775); and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX (where Robert Johnson made his first recordings in 1936). The songs on No Better Than This reflect classic American musical traditions including blues, folk, gospel, rockabilly, and country, while addressing such themes as the need for hope, the nature of relationships, and narratives that recount extraordinary occurrences in everyday life. Mellencamp says of the album, "It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had making a record in my life. It was about making music - organic music made by real musicians - that's heartfelt and written from the best place it can come from."

The Review:
Going back to the John Cougar days, Mellencamp always flirted back and forth across rock and roll, Americana, folk and country- walking across genres fairly seamlessly. He probably did it better and more seamlessly than any other artist of his time- always being and feeling authentic along the way. No Better Than This is much more acoustic and much more country than anything he’s released previously. He’s also much more mellow on this album. And while there’s some great tracks on the album, this reviewer isn’t ready for Mellencamp to give up his rocking ways quite yet. He’s not quite sixty. And while artists before him have gone to a stripped down acoustic direction- think Cash’s American Series, Kristofferson’s most recent or even Tom Jones’ latest album- they’re much older artists with deeper lyrics that deal with legacy, death and God. Mellencamp’s just too young to completely give up his rock and roll side. What we love about him as much as anything is his ability to get his groove on with such classics as “Paper In Fire”, “Jack and Diane” and more recently, his duet with Me'shell Ndegeocello on “Wild Night.” Those are all great tracks- and a side that’s missing on this album. Ironically, and perhaps a bit counter-intuitive to that last comment, two of the better songs one the album are acoustic guitar only without even any percussion. “Thinking About You” finds Mellencamp looking back fondly on that first childhood relationship and now, several decades later, wondering what she’s doing now. In the form of a phone call, he reaches out to her. The song is at once philosophical, romantic and contemplative. “Love at First Sight” on the other hand is a two-sided comical take on the perils of falling in love at first sight- particularly since Mellencamp has been married three times. The first half of the song is all lovey-dovey and roses with the perfect sequence of events: romance, love, marriage and kids. After the bridge, things begin falling apart with arguments, getting hit with a frying pan and finally being whacked by his wife- doing him in. It is definitely a humorous take on the dating scene. Slightly fuller on the instrumentation depth scale is the opening track, “Save Some Time to Dream.” Mellencamp has been long been a crusader for the working man (25 years of Farm Aid probably tell that tale better than any other stat) and the lyrics preach the importance of saving some time to dream, for those dreams might save us all. An additional powerful song is “Easter Eve” It tells the story of John and his fourteen year-old-son who are eating dinner when a strange man sitting with his wife comes over and threatens them. A fight ensues and his son narrowly escapes death but with a beer bottle across the jaw, subdues the attacker. They all go to jail. But that only stands as a surface story. Behind the scenes, the wife of the crazed husband has been too fearful to leave her spouse. Now jailed, she has the opportunity for her own rebirth of personal freedom. The symbolism and comparison on this Easter- with Jesus’ own rebirth- is a powerful one. Through a fight, trials and tribulations, she is able to have a rebirth of her own- similar to a Phoenix. It’s a great analogy and a great story song- easily the favorite track on the album.

Sounds Like:
Classic gravel-voiced Mellencamp set to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand

Track Highlights (suggested iPod adds):
Save Some Time To Dream
Thinking about You
Love at First Sight
Easter Eve

The Verdict:
Three Stars Out Of Fiv

http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/no-better-than-this/2211

John Mellencamp
No Better Than This
***½
BY JONATHAN KEEFE ON AUGUST 16, 2010
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Over the last 10 years, John Mellencamp has moved steadily away from the studio-slick punch of his heyday in the late '80s and early '90s, and the rootsier approach he has taken of late has served him well. His songs have always conveyed a rural-minded brand of populism, and his latest album, No Better Than This, continues his evolution into a modern-day folk hero. The record also happens to be one of the most focused, tightly written sets of Mellencamp's career.
For No Better Than This, Mellencamp drew inspiration from some off-the-beaten-path recording locales, including the basement of the First African Baptist Church in Savannah (a noted stop along the Underground Railroad) and the room at San Antonio's Gunter Hotel where Robert Johnson first recorded. He even put in some time in Sun Studios, where Sam Phillips worked with Elvis. Producer T Bone Burnett has said that the album was "haunted" by the spirits of these makeshift studios, and it's an apt description. With heavy reverb on both the guitars and vocal tracks of standout tracks like "A Graceful Fall" and "The West End," Mellencamp sounds like he's the frontman for a ghost band.
What's most striking about the writing on these tracks is their economy. Throughout his career, Mellencamp has shown a weakness for ambling digressions and overworked metaphors. Here, he doesn't mince words. The title track, which turns on lines like "Give me back my youth/And don't let me waste it this time," is both wistful and self-deprecating, while "Right Behind Me" cleverly punctuates its heady spiritual questions with a simple answer of "No." Even the lengthy narrative of "Easter Eve" is focused on driving forward its plot about the repercussions of a bar fight.
The minimalism of these songs fits perfectly with this acoustic blues style that Mellencamp began to explore on Life Death Love and Freedom, and he and Burnett lean more heavily on those blues tropes here. While the overall aesthetic of the record isn't revolutionary by any means, it works for Mellencamp's trademark chain smoker's rasp. The country-inflected "Don't Forget About Me" is one of the most effective vocal turns of his career. "Thinking About You," on which Mellencamp seems to be doing an impression of Bob Dylan's affected warble, is less successful, but it's one of the few missteps on the album.
No Better Than This works as well as it does because it plays to Mellencamp's strengths. His genuine empathy for rural living and his occasional hell-raising both come through in equal measure. And despite the heavy blues influence that Burnett brings to the project, it's still obvious that Mellencamp has the heart of a folk singer. It's the tension and the cooperation among those competing forces that makes Mellencamp's 25th album one of his finest.

Kind of stunning this article calls "love at first sight" a second rate story, and "save some time to dream" supposedly is a hodgepodge of trite advice.

http://www.countryweekly.com/john_mellencamp_no_better_than_this/reviews/867

John Mellencamp
No Better Than This     
published August 13, 2010 by Ken Tucker

Partially recorded at the historic Sun Studio in Memphis, John Mellencamp’s latest album trades his signature heartland rockers for mellow, acoustic songs that tip the proverbial hat to rock/country pioneers Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Standout tracks like “No Better Than This,” “Coming Down the Road” and “Each Day of Sorrow” feature a classic, rocking boom-chuck bass line and were recorded with a process similar to the one used by Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. Though the sparse production here is a pleasant throwback, John’s weathered voice loses some of its clarity in this production style, and the lyrics are a bit clunky at times. “Save Some Time to Dream” is a hodgepodge of sometimes-trite advice such as Take some time to think before you speak your mind, while “Love at First Sight,” which begins with a man’s romantic musings on love and marriage with a stranger, quickly turns into a morbid, second-rate story of adultery and murder. Still, procurers of classic country-rock and rockabilly should find some gems in this set.