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On The Rural Route 7609 Reviews

Here are some excerpts from what the press is saying about John's box set On The Rural Route 7609. Click the headline to read the full article. Use the following links for more information about the project:


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Four Stars For 7609 from Rolling Stone: "This Is A Study In Storytelling.."
On The Rural Route 7609 Review - Handsome four-CD box set spans the Indiana rocker's career, from "Jack and Diane" to Woody Guthrie.

These four CDs come in a hardcover book with the heft and texture of a Dust Bowl-family photo album. The setting suits the purpose. This is a study in storytelling - Mellencamp's drive to probe and capture, with folk grit and a great rock band, the gross injustices and precious victories of American life. The hits come with context: "Jack and Diane" appears with two formative demos. But there is more emphasis on honoring, in songs like "Rural Route" and "Ghost Towns Along the Highway," " the Woody Guthrie ideal": a melody and truth to move the world.

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Bloomington Herald Times: Mellencamp’s New 4-CD Collection Offers Something For Old Fans And New
It's a rare thing in the music world for an artist to release a four CD career retrospective that could be called ambitious.

All too often, retrospective means rehash.

But John Mellencamp worked assiduously to avoid that with “On the Rural Route 7609,” which is set for release Tuesday and covers territory from the beginning of his recording career in 1976 to the most recent tracks from 2009.

“I was really struck by how fresh all of this stuff sounded,” writer Anthony DeCurtis said in a phone interview last week. “I really do think it puts a new frame around what John has done over more than 30 years of making records.

“He’s found a voice over his last few records, and he’s gone back and I think traced that voice through all of his earlier work,” he went on. “So the stuff is familiar. It’s not like you hear it and say it doesn’t sound like him. But it really is a different angle and a different take on what his music has been and what his perspective is. I found it very powerful to listen to and to speak to him about it all...”

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antiMusic.com: On The Rural Route 7609 Review
John Mellencamp has been among the best singer-songwriters the American landscape has ever produced. He appears to have found his muse and instead of chasing the tails of radio programmers, he has looked within and in 2008 created what may be possibly his greatest record, Life, Death, Love & Freedom...

Godfather to the alternative country movement and in truth, country radio today wouldn't be the same without records like The Lonesome Jubilee or Scarecrow. For every radio hit he had, there were two other songs just as remarkable on the respective records...

On the Rural Route 7609 helps pull Mellencamp's entire career into focus through interweaving themes and stories prevalent throughout Mellencamp's career...

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Rolling Stone Magazine: John Mellencamp Digs Through His Archives for New Box Set
John Mellencamp admits he wasn't stoked about compiling On the Rural Route 7609, his new four-disc retrospective. "I didn't have any interest in doing a box set - I know what happens with them," he says, "You go to the hits and you skip the rest." But the rocker saw an opportunity to turn casual fans on to his deep cuts - so each disc intersperses hits with lesser-known album tracks in non-chronological order...

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Medleyville.us: On The Rural Route 7609 Review
If there's any doubt remaining whether John Mellencamp is one of rock’s best singer/songwriters of the past 30 years, then On the Rural Route 7609 (due June 15) should take care of that...

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All Music Guide: On The Rural Route 7609 Review
Only John Mellencamp, whose career began with a series of wrong turns, raw determination, and the audaciousness to demand he be taken seriously could create a box set as strange, representative, and labyrinthine as On the Rural Route 7609. In the era of the track, Mellencamp has issued a massive, beautifully packaged, and exhaustively annotated four-disc career retrospective that doesn't lean on his hits...

The box isn't structured chronologically, but as four free standing albums, each with its own flavor and themes...Mellencamp reveals American darkness and violence, followed by Mellencamp's themes of personal accountability and consequence...Musically, there are no missteps; for all its winding paths and circles within circles, On Rural Route 7609 makes its case and perhaps sets a new standard for career retrospectives. Mellencamp is undoubtedly among the best rock & roll American singer/songwriters -- on or off the charts...

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San Antonio Express: On The Rural Route 7609 Review
With 54 tracks, lyrics and essays about each entry, On the Rural Route 7609 is a heavy-duty, but nowhere near ponderous, look at Mellencamp as a songwriter. If you hit the rural route with John Mellencamp, it's not a short ride, but there are rewards, lots of 'em, along the way...

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Springfield, MA The Republican: John Mellencamp's American Journey Comes To Life On Box Set
"he is a perfect example of a guy who not satisfied with his early taste of stardom and decided to be something more..." (four stars)

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The Cape Cod Times: Mellencamp's Memorable Journey Down "Route 7609"
"Mellencamp’s transformation from a generic, industry built rocker into one of the most eloquent and sharp-eyed chroniclers of the hopes and failures of America is one of rock music’s great stories... "

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Critics At Large "On The Rural Route 7609" Review
"Mellencamp's songs are often a little subversive: on the outside they appear nostalgic and idealistic; but on the inside it's a much darker story. All told, they are compositions that lament a bruised and battered people and a worn-out countryside... If the intent of this box set is to present John Mellencamp strictly as a songwriter rather than a rock star, then it succeeds majestically...

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Southern New Hampshire's "Let's Go" Guide 5 Star Review Of "On The Rural Route 7609"
"..he’s captured the American experience in ways that make his work a vital part of our musical canon — in any genre... "

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John's Upcoming Projects:


NO BETTER THAN THIS - A 55-year-old reel-to-reel Ampex tape recorder, a single microphone and three historic recording sites were John's tools for making his new album.

Recording took place during days off from last summer's The Bob Dylan Show tour with Dylan and Willie Nelson, at three historic locations: The First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA., which was the first African-American church in America and a major stop for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad; the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX, in Room 414, where Robert Johnson recorded his classic blues songs in 1936; and the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN, where everything was likewise set up to match the environment where Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash cut their landmark hits.

T Bone Burnett, who produced Life, Death, Love and Freedom, reprises his role as producer on No Better Than This. Click HERE
to read the official Press Release.

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TOURING PLANS - So far John and band will head out on the road this summer for a few shows in Canada and a visit to Rock Fest 2010 in Cadott, WI on July 17th. There remains a chance John might do some more minor league baseball stadium dates with Dylan later this summer. Stayed tuned for Tour Updates!

John plans to tour extensively in the fall behind his new album No Better Than This. An interview by Billboard Magazine relays that filmmaker Kurt Markus' documentary about the No Better Than This sessions will be shown before John's run of theater shows that's slated to begin in October 2010. The concerts will also include a stripped-down acoustic set with his band, a solo segment and then a fully electrified rock set. "You'll get three different types of John Mellencamp, and you'll get a movie," says Mellencamp. To read the entire Billboard.com article click HERE

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GHOST BROTHERS - Work continues on John's hugely ambitious “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” musical theater collaboration with Stephen King--a project that has been in the works for 10 years.

To recap, the story, which involves domestic turmoil will reach the public in two forms. It will be released as an innovative three-disc package featuring a two disc radio play style performance, a disc containing only performances of the songs and a book version of the script. The set is being produced by T-Bone Burnett. The story also will be featured as a Broadway style stage production. There is currently no timeline for when the CD package or when the stage production will be released to the public.

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Recent Events of Note:

WHITE HOUSE PERFORMANCE - John sang the civil rights anthem "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize at the Feb. 10 taping of  PBS's “In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.” The event, which was hosted by President and Mrs. Obama in the White House East Room, brought together invited dignitaries and other distinguished participants including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Smokey Robinson in commemorating the historic music of the civil rights era.

Accompanied by Andy York on electric guitar, John, who played his vintage 1932 Martin acoustic guitar, prefaced his performance with a personal anecdote about his first band, the Crepe Soul, which was interracial. He recalled the hurt that his 16 year-old African-American bandmate must have felt at the prejudice he had to face during gigs--and the lasting effect it had on John himself, who was 14 at the time.

Here is John's performance as it aired on PBS:


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KENNEDY CENTER HONORS - John was "very proud and humbled" to have performed "Born in the U.S.A" in the musical tribute to Bruce Springsteen at the Kennedy Center Honors program in December.

John turned in a more folk-blues take on Springsteen's anthem in bringing out the typically overlooked protest song nature of the lyric. Click HERE for our full coverage including video of John's complete performance.

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NCIS 2 INCLUDES NEW SONG - The second specially-produced soundtrack CD for the hit CBS TV series “NCIS” features "Someday The Rains Will Fall" from John's "No Better Than This" sessions.

It's the second "NCIS" album cut from John, as the first “NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack” included "Troubled Land." Click HERE for more details.

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SEEGER DVD INCLUDES JOHN - John is prominently featured in the DVD version of “Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration--The Clearwater Concert.”

The two-disc set includes his solo acoustic guitar rendition of Seeger's classic anthem of justice and brotherly love “If I Had a Hammer,” which opened the extraordinary program after a brief introduction by the Native American Indian Cultural Alliance. He then sang his own “A Ride Back Home,” which he claimed to have written “after listening to a bunch of Pete Seeger songs.”

John also participated in the star-studded grand finale, singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" next to Kris Kristofferson and then dancing off with Joan Baez and Guthrie’s daughter Nora Guthrie. Click HERE for our complete coverage including links to buy the DVD.

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SPECTACLE DVD INCLUDES JOHN - John's performance last year on “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with...” is available on DVD as well as download via the iTunes Store.

He appeared in an all-star installment of the acclaimed Sundance Channel music TV series, joining forces with Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash and Norah Jones--and host Costello. The informal "guitar pull" nature of the set-up made for memorable music moments and friendly banter--especially the exchange between John and Costello over the fact that both emerged in the 1970s under stage names. John later called the experience "an honor and a joy." Click HERE for full details and purchase links.

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JOHN INCLUDED ON ROCK HALL DVD SET - John has four tracks on the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live" DVD box set from Time Life in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Released last year in different configurations, John is represented by "Pink Houses," "Small Town" (performed acoustically), and "ROCK In The USA"--all from his 2008 induction ceremony. He and his band (with able assists from previous inductees John Fogerty and Billy Joel) also backed up Joan Jett as she sang "Glad All Over" in honor of John's fellow inductee the Dave Clark 5. Click HERE for more information and purchase links.
 

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