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John Mellencamp: Freedoms Road |
Contributed By: Dan Schwartz
Created On: Sunday, 28 January 2007
Hits: 110
 Freedom's Road Balancing the desolate landscape of "Ghost Towns Along the Highway," the hell-on-earth of "Rural Route," and the tolls demanded on the title track's "Freedom's Road" are the embrace of brotherhood on "Someday," the Everyman populism of "The Americans," and the soaring transcendence of "My Aeroplane." Within the context of the album's song cycle, the "Our Country" centerpiece sounds richer and more powerful than it has as a truck commercial--like a roots-rocking sequel to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." Mellencamp enlists Joan Baez for a duet on the protest ballad "Jim Crow," while saving his most blistering political commentary for the unlisted bonus track, "Rodeo Clown."
John Mellencamp, "Freedom's Road" (Universal Republic Records): "Our Country," John Mellencamp's hit that's currently running in a television commercial for Chevy Trucks, sounds like a hallmark card to America — on the anthemic choruses, at least. But the middle stanzas question whether his country lives up to its democratic ideals.In that sense, the song adroitly represents the heartland rocker's 19th studio album, "Freedom Road's," which celebrates the American dream while pointing out darkening clouds on its political and social landscape.
"Jim Crow," a duet with Joan Baez, deals with modern bigotry, while "Heaven Is a Lonely Place" pricks religious narrow-mindedness. The title song, one of eight featuring harmonies by vocal quartet Little Big Town, suggests that with liberty comes responsibility and the potential for abuse. The angriest cut, a hidden track, refers to President Bush in its title, "Rodeo Clown," and describes America as "an arrogant nation" with "blood on her face." As usual, Mellencamp wraps his commentary in moody heartland rock, played with spare intensity by his longtime band and given plenty of bite by the twin guitars of Andy York and Mike Wanchic. Like classic Mellencamp tunes "Pink Houses" and "Rain on the Scarecrow,""Freedom's Road" thrusts a rocking fist in the air while putting Americans on alert about problems bedeviling their nation.
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