Lafayette

A listening jumpstart, lwj, on the box set. All songs are full length.

http://www.myspace.com/johnmellencamp/music/albums/on-the-rural-route-7609-15969864

A hint was thrown out on Mellencamp’s website. A recent Billboard article stated JM would be out later this summer with Dylan. The forum more or less confirmed this with most shows west of the Mississippi and pretty far west, at that. Eeesh, these may be hard for me to make with all the anticipated fall shows of my top five artists.

The Dylan fans can now start semi officially groaning. 😈

Update. Tour dates are posted on dylan.com. I will have to live this tour through YouTube.

lwj, in response to your JM homework for Windsor, and what you can probably expect…

John, typically, does not pull out songs from early in his career. The last time we heard “I Need A Lover” was in 2005 (other than a special semi private show he did a few years ago) and that was shortened, at best.

Count on ‘Pink Houses,” “Small Town,” “Crumblin’ Down,” “Jack and Diane” (althought he did not perform this last year on Dylan ballpark tour), “Love and Happiness, “Paper In Fire” as staples of his shows. He was performing a few songs from the upcoming new record, including “Save Some Time To Dream” (he recently performed this at a Dalai Lama event and the Dalai Lama used lines from the song and incorporated them in his talk to 10,000 followers). I think he will throw in another new song or two. I’m also hopeful he will perform “If I Die Sudden” and “Troubled Land” both from 2008. “Authority Song,” “Rain On The Scarecrow,” “Check It Out” and “Cherry Bomb” are other favorites.

I am very familiar with the concert posted on Wolfgang. A totally different time and era from what John delivers now. He’s much older and not so much John Cougar as he was back then. Once again, the time period I started following him 8)

One thing with JM and his setlists. He re-arranges songs to keep them fresh and to keep him from getting so bored with performing them ( as mentioned in an old interview.) I’ll never forget the year he was rapping Jack and Diane (not exactly my favorite), with the assistance of a former keyboard player with rap roots. The keyboard player was actually a fan favorite for his stage energy.

Check out this video of “If I Die Sudden”, very different than the studio version, and it kicks butt as a live peformance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U3Xe32jS8M

Here is a great EPK interview featuring JM and TBone Burnett, along with various band members, discussing the 2008 making of “Life Death Love and Freedom.” TBone talks about his (code) process and bring fidelity back to recorded music.