Mellencamp and King's 'Ghost Brothers' comes to the MerriamBy A.D. Amorosi, For The Inquirer
John Mellencamp is having a busy autumn.
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the Southern Gothic musical he wrote with novelist Stephen King, is playing Thursday night at the Merriam Theater. And he also has a new album out:
Plain Spoken, his first studio album in four years.
Missed opportunities, confused identity, the disintegration of the self and the land, wronged romance - these elements define what Mellencamp, 63, calls his "fragile little folk songs" and his signature bittersweet disillusionment, whether in
Ghost Brothers or in his new album.
There's some talk that
Plain Spoken is about Mellencamp's personal life, and it annoys him. Still, "Tears in Vain" does speak of divorce (which he knows about, having concluded his third in 2011), and "Lawless Times" seems to be about the frustrations of being a professional musician in an era of download piracy. "My songs are never about me," Mellencamp says. "Songs must be universal. I'm not that interesting." If a lyric like "too late came too early" (from "Troubled Man") sounds like it springs from personal frustration, Mellencamp says it's a human constant: "I have to write so that everyone feels as if I'm reading their diary.
On the other hand,
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County does stem from a tale near to Mellencamp, a true story he told to his pal King more than 16 years ago. Mellencamp bought a piece of property in Indiana that included an old log cabin. Soon after purchase, he received a letter from previous owners saying, as he tells it, " 'By the way, the house is haunted,' which was followed by articles clipped from newspapers from the late '30s stating someone was killed in that house."
Does he believe in spooks? "No." But did he experience the haunting? "Uhm, yeah. There was something strange in there. We got rid of [the cabin], and the guy who bought it gutted it. I drove by it a couple of years ago, and it was gone."
Sounds like perfect fodder for King, the man behind horror classics such as The Shining and Misery. Their chat turned into a story with songs. King turned Mellencamp's story into a tale of two brothers in love with the same woman, and how that triangle took them - and their ancestors - into what sounds like a ring of Hell. Mellencamp wrote dusky, very un-Broadwaylike songs, played not by a full orchestra but by one or two singers with guitars. Famed producer T Bone Burnett provided the show's musical direction.
"Stephen and I decided that the songs would not move the story forward in traditional Broadway fashion," Mellencamp says. "We used them as character development. It's not" - he sings - "Jesus Christ Superstar."
The production, now touring, is still in process, with King and Mellencamp changing lines and readings with actors/singers Gina Gershon, Carlene Carter, and Billy Burke - who form the present production's cast - right up until showtime.
"Art is never done," Mellencamp says, "just abandoned."
Each song, he says, had to meet specific criteria: "Is it answering the emotion of the moment - and can it be taken out of the show and played by itself, by me? I wanted Ghost Brothers to sound as if each tune came out of my songbook."
As for
Plain Spoken, it was a "whole different job," one he feels he's gotten better at doing: "I've been doing this long enough that I'm finally able to get out of my own way, allow songs to come to me and through me."
In the past, Mellencamp often merely "directed traffic," forcing lyrics where they might not go organically. He points to 1983's "Pink Houses" and its last verse:
Well, there's people and more people
What do they know, know, know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
And there's winners and there's losers
But they ain't no big deal
'Cause the simple man, baby
Pays for thrills
The bills the pills that kill"Those lines are phony-baloney to me," he now says. "I directed traffic. If I had to rewrite that now, it would have a different outcome."
Mellencamp may change that song and other hits when he plays the Merriam June 16, as part of a long tour behind
Plain Spoken. "Can't say, because I change lyrics all the time. What I can guarantee is that all of the songs will sound as if they come from Plain Spoken and not the 22-year-old me."
Whether for
Ghost Brothers or for
Plain Spoken, Mellencamp's lyrics are taut and economical. Telling stories starkly, in Hemingwayesque fashion ("Now, that's a compliment," he says), is all a part of what he calls "age-appropriate songwriting."
In his hitmaking past, Mellencamp says, he filled fragile little folk songs ("even something like 'Hurt So Good'") with a big rocking band, because he wanted the song to be on the radio. "Now I'm not ball-and-chained to that," he says, matter-of-factly, "because I'm not going to be on the radio. They don't play people my age. There's no format for me or something like Ghost Brothers, and that's just fine."
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