John Mellencamp, “Other People’s Stuff” (Republic Records)
In his youth John Mellencamp was known to be cocky. That brashness carried him to the big stage, where he became a stadium-scale rocker with an adventurous spirit.
He mostly fell short of the stature attained by contemporaries named Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, but he sometimes took bigger risks.
Mellencamp’s fearlessness is well-represented on his latest album, “Other People’s Stuff,” a collection of cover songs, some of them American classics, from four decades of work.
There’s a version of “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” the old civil rights anthem, which Mellencamp introduced at a White House event in 2010. Mellencamp’s gentle interpretation may surprise those not expecting such soulful notes out of a white man from the heartland.
There’s also a slowed-down take on “Wreck of the Old ’97,” the iconic train song, and a Merle Travis song called “Dark as a Dungeon” that Mellencamp originally performed for a documentary about coal mining. Mellencamp’s earthy, cigarette-shaped growl conveys working-class honesty on both.
There are cuts that would fit in neatly on “The Lonesome Jubilee,” Mellencamp’s finest album, with accordion and fiddle enhancing the hard-charging vibe. And there are hints throughout, in the range of songwriters he’s embraced — from Jimmie Rodgers to Robert Johnson to Stevie Wonder — that Mellencamp’s brashness sometimes takes him where others won’t go.
That’s an essential truth about Mellencamp’s career that this collection reinforces with gusto — that even when the songs are not his own, the man takes chances.
Other People’s Stuff TRACKLISTING:
1. “To The River” (originally from 1993’s Human Wheels)
2. “Gambling Bar Room Blues” (originally from 1997’s The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers – A Tribute)
3. “Teardrops Will Fall” (originally from 2003’s Trouble No More)
4. “In My Time of Dying” (originally from 1997’s Rough Harvest)
5. “Mobile Blue” (originally from 2017’s Sad Clowns & Hillbillies)
6. “Eyes on the Prize” (originally performed at The White House in 2010)
7. “Dark As A Dungeon (originally from the 2017 National Geographic Channel documentary From the Ashes)
8. “Stones in My Passway” (originally from 2003’s Trouble No More)
9. “Wreck of the Old 97” (originally from 2004’s The Rose and The Briar)
10. “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” (originally from 2003’s An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s Songs)
Mellencamp is embarking on a tour to support the album, but the closest he is coming to Texas is Oklahoma in March.
www.mellencamp.com/welcome.html
