John Mellencamp

A number of my liberal friends say they feel social pressure to like John Mellencamp. I don’t. I am a Hoosier by birth, proud of a guy who comes from where I come from. This album will please some of my discriminating pals; he forgoes original writing and instead covers the formidable work of American icons: Robert Johnson (“Stones in My Passway”), Son House (“Death Letter”), Woody Guthrie (“Johnny Hart”), fellow Hoosier Hoagy Carmichael, (“Baltimore Oriole”), Lucinda Williams (“Lafayette”) and Memphis Minnie (“Joliet Bound”). It is with the latter four writers that he succeeds, with heartfelt singing and organic arrangements. Johnson’s and House’s songs scare me, and as a Hoosier, I’m just not scared of Mellencamp. But don’t give him my phone number, just in case.