John Mellencamp’s New Album Features His Now-Familiar Roots Sound With A Twist

John Mellencamp today released his new previously announced 24th studio album Other People’s Stuff. Fans of his transformation from straight rock to a roots-oriented sound, which has been gradual and begun with the excellent The Lonesome Jubilee from 1987, are going to dig what they hear – count me as one of them! Whether Other People’s Stuff will gain Mellencamp new fans is perhaps less certain. Something tells me the fiercely independent-minded Indiana rocker, who clearly is comfortable with the place to which his long musical journey has taken him, won’t be losing any sleep over it!

According to an announcement accompanying its release, Other People’s Stuff presents a collection of covers Mellencamp has recorded throughout his long career. It also includes a new version of Eyes On The Prize, a song he originally performed at The White House during a 2010 Obama Administration celebration of music from the civil rights movement, as I previously covered here. Yes, it still is hard to believe that not long ago America had a leader who truly cared about these issues – and the arts I might add. Eyes On The Prize also became the album’s lead single in early November, coinciding with the record’s initial announcement.

“Most, if not all, of the songs on Other People’s Stuff come from The Great American Songbook,” Mellencamp reiterated. “These are songs that have been recorded over the last 40 years of my career, but had never been put together as one piece of work. Now, they have.”

So there’s your little twist – rather than your traditional covers album an artist typically records at given time period, here you have recordings Mellencamp initially captured at different times during his career and subsequently put a collection of thesm on one record. The other commonality of all these tunes are lyrics that are clearly on the darker side – probably a reflection of Mellencamp’s sentiments about the current state of the country. Let’s get to some music.

Here’s Teardrops Will Fall, which Mellencamp first recorded for the Trouble No More album from June 2003. His great take, which prominently features accordion and violin, would have been a perfect fit for The Lonesome Jubilee. The song was co-written by singer and record producer Gerry Granaham and Marion Smith. Granaham had a string of charting singles in the late 1950s and early ’60s, performing as Dickey Doo & The Don’ts.

Next up: Stones In My Passway, a great Robert Johnson blues tune Mellencamp also first recorded for Trouble No More. It features some nice slide guitar-playing – I assume by multi-instrumentalist Andy York, who has been part of Mellencamp’s band for some 20 years.

Wreck Of The Old ’97 is a song Mellencamp initially recorded for a 2004 compilation album titled The Rose & The Briar: Death, Love And Liberty In The American Ballad. Credited to Fred Lewey, Henry Whitter and Charles Noell, the old country song was inspired by a bad rail accident in September 1903 when a Southern Railway mail train derailed near Danville, Va. The accident, which became known as the Wreck of the Old ’97, killed seven on-board personnel, injured seven others and destroyed a bridge as the train careened off the side of the structure.

The last track I’d like to highlight is I Don’t Know Why I Love You. Interestingly, it’s a Stevie Wonder tune from his ninth studio album For Once In My Life, which was released in December 1968. I didn’t think Wonder, one of my favorite artists, was on Mellencamp’s radar screen, so I was surprised about this pick. Mellencamp’s cover first appeared on a sampler from June 2003 called Conception – An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s Songs. The tribute to the soul legend also featured Eric Clapton, Mary J. Blige and Brian McKnight, among other artists.

Mellencamp will support his new album with The John Mellencamp Show (see tour poster above). Appropriately, the 2019 tour is scheduled to kick off on February 7 in South Bend, Ind. The dense 40-date schedule among others includes Cincinnati (Feb 10), Baltimore, Md. (Feb 20), New York (Feb 25-27), Kansas City, MO (Mar 14), Nashville, Tenn. (Mar 19-20) and Wichita (Apr 16), before it concludes on Apr 20 in Albuquerque, N.M.

One of the other stops is right in my backyard in New Brunswick, NJ (Feb 23) at a great theatre. The thought of seeing Mellencamp for what would be my third time is certainly appealing. I guess I just need to find another reason to justify buying a ticket – and hope by the time I do remaining seats will be reasonably affordable!

Sources: Wikipedia, John Mellencamp website, YouTube