duggup

As I write this I have John Mellencamp’s new album “Freedom’s Road” playing in the headphones and it is a ripper. So I am suspending the regularly scheduled Chill piece for an important message.

LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. Go to www.mellencamp.com/and check out the samples, go on do it now… I’ll wait…

{time passes}

Good you’re back, let’s have a look at what’s here. We have guitarists channeling Roger McGuinn and the Byrds, songs where Mellencamp is channelling Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie, and trust me this is a really good thing. And to cap it all off “Freedom’s Road” was recorded in a garage (albeit a very well equipped garage). The thing about this album is the feel, it just sounds like a bunch of guy’s sitting around and having a great time, and this is just so bloody hard to do (as a wise man once said “I don’t know? Fly casual).

Did I mention it has guitars by the bucket load (probably), “Our Country” starts playing and that over abused “Americana” word pops up in your brain, but you will have the sneaky suspicion that this time it’s the real article. In case you think that this is a “America Love it or Leave It”, flag waving, “my country right or wrong” Ra Ra Ra… nothing could be further from the truth, “Rural Route” is the story murder in which the victim’s body was found at the edge of his parents? property. Mellencamp doesn’t have too many illusions about America.

Indeed in an Interview with Alan Light in The New York Times last week (which is what piqued my curiosity about the album) Mellencamp said

“About halfway through the record I didn’t really know what it was supposed to be about, I had so many political songs akin to ‘Masters of War’, that kind of stuff. But then I recorded a song called ‘Ghost Towns Along the Highway’, and I said that’s what this record is about.”

The album opens with “Someday” and by the time the guitar intro has finished, the Hammond and vocals kick in and the first verse heads into the chorus with the great backing vocals you will be hooked (thatch was). “Ghost Towns” is a song about the urbanisation of the country (we have the same problem here in Australia), “Jim Crow” has Joan Baez helping out on the vocals, “Forgiveness” has the Byrdesque guitars and attitudes… probably one of the standout tracks for me and the album also has an unlisted track called Rodeo Clown. It has some wonderfully direct lines about “blood on the hands of the rich politicians” and “blood on the hands of an arrogant nation”. Lets just say that it’s a safe bet that John Mellencamp isn’t a big fan of the Bush administration.

Here is a video clip for “Freedom’s Road” it’s just Mellencamp and a guitar …

If that one gets nailed try www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0HTff63E0I for the “official” (you aren’t allowed to embed) video of “Our Country.

You are going to love the guitars (Mike Wanchic and longtime band member Andy York) and this album is already on my MP3 favourites playlist and will be there for a while I suspect, I put it in the same playlist as Neil Young’s “Living With War” album.

thatch is fascinated by guitars, music, guitars, production, silly noises, guitars and used to be a musician. Did I mention the thing about the guitars?
Email this author | All posts by thatch |