John Mellencamp

Related Content

• Thanksgiving Mixtape: 13 Songs That Say Thank You
  November 23, 2011
• Sound Off: DJ Dana on Courtney Marie Andrews, Source Victoria, and Sun Ghost
  November 9, 2011
• Merle Haggard Is Long Past His Angry-American Phase
  May 6, 2010
• Bob Dylan Opens White House Concert Series
  February 10, 2010
• Leonard Cohen and the Most Overlooked Live Album of 2009
  January 8, 2010

More About

• Joan Baez
• Racial Issues
• Rodeo

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Universal revived the Republic logo — last seen in the '30s and '40s for a series of B-movie Westerns — for Mellencamp's new album, and it ain't a bad match. Like the cowboy heroes of yesteryear, Mellencamp still believes that hardworking, honest people can eventually triumph over the forces of evil. He paints a realistic portrait of modern America with hard-hitting, guitar-heavy tunes and lyrics bristling with righteous anger. "Ghost Towns Along the Highway" is a bleak picture of the cities destroyed by globalization; "Jim Crow," a duet with Joan Baez, is a tune about the subtle racism that still plagues us; and "Our Country" is a soaring anthem for everyone who still believes in the American dream. The climax comes in the track hidden at the end of the album. "Rodeo Clown" may be the angriest song yet written about Bush's Iraq adventure, with a lyric that indicts the "blood on the mouths of all lies and liars."