John Mellencamp Tackles Race, Politics in New Album | Newsweek Entertainment: Music

MUSIC
The Happy Mellencampers
Kristi York Wooten 8/2/2008 12:00:00 AM
By now, John Mellencamp is used to hearing his songs on the Election 2008 soundtrack. McCain, Clinton and Edwards all used his patriotic "Our Country"—the one on the Chevy pickup ads—as whistle-stop walk-on music during the primaries. Clinton, Edwards and Obama also went for the iconic Mellencamp ditty "Small Town." Mike Huckabee tried to sell "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." while McCain picked "Pink Houses"—until he heard that Mellencamp is an ardent Democrat. Still, Mellencamp was surprised one day this June when he was watching Clinton on TV as she delivered her campaign farewell speech, which ended with a rocking number called "Thank You." "I thought, 'That's a pretty cool song.' Then I realized it was my song," Mellencamp says. "I called up one of the guys in my band, and I said, 'Did you hear that?' I put it on an album, never played it live and forgot about it."
MUSIC
What Do You Call That Stuff?
Malcolm Jones 12/7/2007 12:00:00 AM
Merle Haggard failed to receive a Grammy nomination for his gorgeous new album, "The Bluegrass Sessions," because the panel overseeing the nominations in that category said it wasn't bluegrass. Strictly speaking—that is to say, what would Bill Monroe say?—they're right. You can't call this bluegrass. It's got the right instrumental combination—acoustic guitars and bass, banjo, dobro, fiddle and mandolin. It features one of the greatest lead singers ever. Two songs, "Jimmie Rodgers Blues Medley" and "Blues Stay Away From Me," come straight from musical scenes that produced bluegrass: blues and early country. But what it lacks weighs heavy in the balance: nothing close to those warp-speed tempos—220 beats to the minute in the cruising lane—that supply the very DNA of bluegrass. There are no hard, high lonesome harmonies, no fiddle tune melodies, no up-hollow modal spookiness. The one thing that pushes this recording closest to bluegrass territory is the manner in which it was made, with the musicians sitting in a tight circle around a couple of microphones and recording live.
The Sounds of Summer
6/2/2006 12:00:00 AM
The Kid Stayed in the Picture
Lorraine Ali 3/24/2006 12:00:00 AM
MUSIC
Johnny B. Goody-Goody

In the past, such piety from a rock star might have seemed embarrassingly goody-goody. John Lennon may have declared the Beatles more popular than Jesus, but he never confused the two. But in 1991, piety - excessive, conspicuous piety - is rock's growth industry. From Don Henley to Phil Collins, from Sting to just about any rapper you'd care to name, pop stars are taking the weight of the world on their own padded shoulders and shooting it from arty angles in their videos. As Michael Hutchence of INXS puts it, "The people playing the music now are the upstanding citizens trying to save the world. And the straight businessmen are the evil guys."
The Wandering Soul
Lorraine Ali