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January 10, 2007

B-Sides: John Mellencamp returns to garage for new album

Mark Bennett

Garages are the grapevines of rock ’n’ roll.

With just the right spirit, guitars and drums, big ideas grow while the bass player taps his foot on the oil-stained, concrete floor.

Even after four decades in the music business, a couple of Grammys and stardom, John Mellencamp obviously hasn’t forgotten that. When it came time to record his first album of all new material since 2001, Mellencamp could’ve comfortably done it all inside his own studio, known as Bellmont Mall, near his home in Bloomington. Instead, he and his band set up in the adjoining garage.

The resulting sound is fresh, yet retro. The album “Freedom’s Road” finds the 55-year Seymour native spirited and gracefully aged in this garage-grown vintage, which will be released Jan. 23 on Universal Republic Records.

Through its 11 songs, Mellencamp appears to cross into a territory he stubbornly avoided during his chart-topping days — maturity.

In the 1984 hit “The Authority Song,” a preacher tells John, “You need to grow up, son,” to which Mellencamp responds, “Growin’ up leads to growin’ old and then to dying, and dying to me don’t sound like all that much fun.”

Time does funny things to wine and people.

On the song “Heaven is a Lonely Place” from the new album, Mellencamp reminds us of our preoccupation with harmful vices and dishonesty, while wondering if we’ve lost sight of the gates of heaven. He admits “I am just another case who cannot see the light; I guess I can’t take a hint of what was said and what was meant; somehow we always come out blind when it comes to our hearts.”

And on “Forgiveness,” Mellencamp sings, “I’d like to say I’m sorry now; I hope this message is not too late; I bet the same goes for you.”

Fans of Mellencamp’s old sneer-at-the-bossman style can rest assured, though, that “Freedom’s Road” has plenty of spunk, too. He gives authority in Washington some pretty direct hits on the title track (“You can drop your bombs, you can beat the people senseless, but that won’t get you anywhere”), a duet with Joan Baez called “Jim Crow” that hints at old prejudices alive and well in 21st-century disguises, and “Rodeo Clown” (“There’s blood on the hands of the rich politicians”).

It may seem ironic to hear songs of faith and protest surrounding one of Mellencamp’s most commercial ventures ever, the song “Our Country.” But in the context of this album, it fits.

In a bold move, Mellencamp made the rare step of allowing Chevrolet to use a new recording as the theme song for the advertising campaign for its Silverado SUV months before the album containing “Our Country” would be released. If his diehard fans feared Mellencamp had sold out, they should think again, says an Indiana University professor internationally recognized as a rock history … uh, well, authority.

“There’s a school of thought that you’ve lost your credibility once you’ve done that,” IU prof Glenn Gass said by telephone from Bloomington. “But I just don’t think that applies anymore, except for some cranky old critic from the New York Times.”

Instead, Gass figures Mellencamp — who has occasionally spoken to his IU classes — saw the Chevy ads as a chance to get a song with a message to millions of listeners. “That’s a pretty canny move for a guy from Seymour,” Gass said.

With music by everyone from U2 to the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, The Who, Jewel and Led Zeppelin used as the advertising soundtracks for everything from jeans to TV dramas, credit cards and Cadillacs, car radios and home stereos are no longer the only places to hear recorded music.

“Now the idea is to find the best way to get your message out, especially a positive one,” Gass explained.

But “Our Country” merits a full listen, rather than the snippet on a 30-second commercial. Mellencamp unveiled it in its entirety during a performance last fall at the World Series. It has a patriotic feel, but like the Woody Guthrie song “This Land,” there’s an open-eyed element to it also. Mixed in with the images of the East and West Coast life and the Dixie Highway are hopes of a day when science and religion can co-exist peacefully, and bigotry and poverty disappear.

That wistful plea to keep on hoping helps tie the album together with the spiritual and anger songs. All get a striking delivery by Mellencamp’s longtime band with guitar, drums and keyboards that echoes — literally — the garage-band sound of the 1960s. You can dance to it.

Could that Mellencamp lineup, vintage 2007, be heard again on stage at Hulman Center, just as it was on April 11, 2005, before 7,500 cheering fans? Well, Mellencamp indeed plans to tour in support of “Freedom’s Road,” but no dates or details have been determined. And any talk of him returning for a Terre Haute show would be pure speculation. After all, the last rock concert in Hulman Center was his.

Still, the facility’s director, Charlie Potts said, “Mellencamp’s an Indiana icon, and we’d love to have him.”

His icon status dates back, at least, to the era when Mellencamp at last earned critical acclaim for the social commentary on his 1985 “Scarecrow” album. People started listening to what Mellencamp had to say, album after album.

This new album shows Mellencamp has done some listening, too. On “Someday,” its strongest cut, he sings, “Good fortune will come to those who create peace, for those are the ones that will walk in heaven.”

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

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