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John Mellencamp
Freedom's Road
(UMe/Universal
Republic)
Rural Route: Memorable Song #9 for 2007
First Appeared in The Music Box, March 2007, Volume 14, #3
Written by John Metzger
Timing is everything. If John Mellencamp’s latest endeavor Freedom’s Road
had been issued 12 months ago, its strongest statements would have felt more
bold and daring. However, now that President Bush’s approval ratings are planted
firmly at embarrassingly low levels and countless artists are raising hell over
his policies, it’s hard to shake the feeling that he is an inordinately late
arrival to the party. Most problematic, though, is his lyrical approach. Though
his heart clearly is in the right place, Mellencamp’s songs falter whenever he
joins the feel-good, populist, flag-waving brigade. Lines like "I’m an
American/I respect you and your point of view" and "Thank God for forgiveness/I
don’t know how else we could get along" are as clumsy and simplistic as Toby
Keith’s "You’ll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A./’Cause we’ll put a
boot in your ass/It’s the American way." They merely lean in a different
direction.
Fortunately, this is only part of the story. The other side of Freedom’s
Road finds Mellencamp sounding better than ever. For starters, he and his
band holed up in his home recording studio, and together, they concocted one of
the more durable efforts in his canon. Clinging to a ’60s motif that is well
suited to his message, the songs shift from the headiness of Neil Young to the
swagger of the Rolling Stones and from the swampiness of Creedence Clearwater
Revival to the blues-y intonations of The Animals. The jingle-jangle guitars of
The Byrds lap at the edge of nearly every tune, and the gospel-imbued harmonies
provided by Little Big Town further support his anthems for the common man.
Better still, when Mellencamp does address a topic in more than just a
superficial fashion, the results are quite moving. Ghost Towns along the
Highway, for example, is a vivid depiction of the repercussions of
outsourcing in the new global economy; sung as a duet with Joan Baez, Jim
Crow is a haunting lament about the continued prevalence of racism; and
Rodeo Clown is a scathing, bilious indictment of the Bush administration.
Even Our Country proves to be better than its usage as a commercial
jingle otherwise might imply. The best track on Freedom’s Road, however,
is Rural Route. Moving beyond politics and taking the country-blues
refrains of Trouble No More to heart, Mellencamp relays the chilling tale
of a 5th-grade girl who was abducted, raped, and murdered near his
parents’ home in Indiana. It’s certainly not an easy song to digest, but it so
potently exposes the seedy underbelly of American life that one wishes
Mellencamp would take the road less traveled a tad more often.  ½
Freedom's Road is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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