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07/17/2010 - Here is an excerpt from Terre Haute's Tribune Star Newspaper No Better Than This review by Mark Bennett:
"if you’re intrigued by dark, desperate, contemplative music, performed in
iconic settings by a emotive singer and his crack band, then you’ve struck gold
with this disc. Mellencamp and producer T Bone Burnett recorded this batch of
new songs in an old way. They used a 55-year-old, monophonic tape recorder and a
single, vintage RCA ribbon microphone to capture the songs, Read More
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07/03/2010 - By Martin Bandyke
And if you think that the new John Mellencamp single "No Better Than This"
(****) sounds like early Johnny Cash mixed with a little Elvis Presley, it's no
coincidence. The title track from Mellencamp's forthcoming album on Rounder,
this one was recorded in Memphis at the historic Sun Studio, the very same place
where the King and the Man in Black recorded their first songs in the mid-'50s.
A blistering workout done boom-chicka-boom style and featuring Marc Ribot and
album producer T-Bone Burnett on guitars, "No Better Than This" was captured in
glorious mono on vintage equipment with no overdubs.
This song is a tantalizing appetizer for Mellencamp's new full-length album, out
Aug. 17. Read More
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07/03/2010 - And if you think that the new John Mellencamp single "No Better Than This" (****) sounds like early Johnny Cash mixed with a little Elvis Presley, it's no coincidence. Read More
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06/19/2010 - Rounder Records will release No Better Than This, an album from
John Mellencamp of all new original songs that was recorded at a variety of
historically significant locations around the South. The album, set for release
August 17, was produced by T Bone Burnett who earlier collaborated with
Mellencamp on the much-lauded Life Death Love and Freedom. Time Magazine
called it “his best in a decade” and Rolling Stone ranked it #5 in its listing
of the 50 best albums of the year.
No Better Than This was recorded over the course of a few break days
afforded Mellencamp when he was on a tour of minor league ball parks last year,
sharing the bill with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. The album was recorded on
vintage equipment – a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder with just one microphone
-- in Savannah at the First African Baptist Church, in Memphis at Sun Studios
and in San Antonio in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel.
Mellencamp wrote the thirteen songs i Read More
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06/19/2010 - St. Louis rock station KSHE95 has run a pair of stories featuring quotes from John about what he learned on the 2009 Bob Dylan tour and about the experience of recording his new album No Better Than This.
John Mellencamp says that he learned invaluable lessons on the road last summer while performing at a slew of the nation's minor league ballparks. Mellencamp, who just released his career-spanning four-CD box set On The Rural Route 7609, explained that the Dylan tour left an indelible mark on him: "Y'know, it's pretty loose. It's not really a 'rock show' -- y'know what I'm saying? It's about songwriting and it's a lot looser than shows I had done in the past when it was me in an arena, or me in a shed where it's, like, people expect a performance. I've learned a lot by doing so many shows with Dylan, because Bob is pretty much. . . he's really in the moment."
On August 17th John will release his Read More
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06/18/2010 - From the AOL Radio Blog: 'No Better Than This' is the first single from John Mellencamp's upcoming studio album of the same name. The album was recorded in a variety of historically significant locations in the south while Mellencamp was on tour last summer.
Appropriately, the song 'No Better Than This' features a prominent rockabilly beat and lively, uncomplicated production. The lyrics portray a pretty happy guy reveling in the simple pleasures of romance and music: "Give me good loving / And seal it with a kiss / Drop me off where the music sounds / It can get no better than this."
Rather than shacking up in one studio to produce every song, Mellencamp found inspiration by moving to different locations and recording in quick, uncomplicated methods. The famous Sun Studios in Memphis and the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio -- reportedly the site of Robert Johnson's f Read More
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05/14/2010 - So maybe you've seen the photo of John and Elaine walking the streets of New York, John with a silver-knobbed walking stick in one hand, in the other a more expected, three inch stick that was burning at one end.
So here's why they were in town:
He and Elaine greeted a dozen or so Rounder Records executives who had bused in from their Boston headquarters to listen to "No Better Than This," which Rounder will release on August 3. They gathered at The Magic Shop, a tiny Soho studio where any number of great records have been cut, mixed and/or restored, including albums by Sam Cooke, Woody Guthrie and the Rolling Stones.
It was John's first album-listening event for label brass in over a decade he said softly at the outset--something, he added not surprisingly, "I don't like to do."
But he bit the bullet--and enthralled his new marketing/promotional team with tales of the album's recording process, prior to leaving them alone to savor it via th Read More
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