| Product Summary | | Label: Republic | | UPC: 00602517180062 | | Release Date: 1/23/2007 | | Buy.com Sku: 203482167 | | Item#: M3DFGK | Format:  CD |
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(P) 2007 John Mellencamp under exclusive license to Universal Music Enterprises, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
(C) 2007 John Mellencamp under exclusive license to Universal Music Enterprises, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
| Freedom's Road, Mellancamp's first new album of original material in five years, is the culmination of a year's worth of composing, arranging, recording and mixing, is a collection of songs that reflect the climate and concerns of present day America.
"His best album since The Lonesome Jubilee, Freedom's Road harnesses the infectious reverb-heavy surf guitar and psychedelic rock that came out of California in the 1960s—think the Byrds and Dick Dale—as a healing, unifying force for a country laid low by the war in Iraq and the vicious political gamesmanship of the last six years." Vanity Fair - Feb 2007
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: John Mellencamp (vocals, guitar); John Mellencamp; Joan Baez (vocals); John Gunnell (bass guitar); Scott Davis (percussion); Mike Wanchic, Andy York (vocals, guitar); Miriam Sturm (violin); Troye Kinnett (keyboards); Dane Clark (drums, percussion). | | Audio Mixer: Don Smith . | | Recording information: Belmont Mall (06/2006-08/2006); The Garage (06/2006-08/2006). | | Photographers: Elaine Mellencamp; Kurt Markus. | | John Mellencamp's heartland rock has attracted as many critics as fans, but regardless of the listener's stance, 2007's FREEDOM'S ROAD makes one thing abundantly clear: Mellencamp is very, very good at what he does. The artist has used the five years since his last album of all-new material to full effect, crafting the songs, sound, and themes of FREEDOM ROAD to perfection. | | Mellencamp's usual mixture of rock, folk, blues, and country is here in full force, but it feels refined to a sharp edge on both rousing, anthemic tracks ("The Americans") and haunting atmospheric ones (like "Jim Crow," which features Joan Baez on guest vocals). The song "Our Country," popularized in a truck commercial, is here, yet stands tall in the context of the album, taking on an unexpected vitality. The sound is bold and rootsy (thanks in part to the country quartet Little Big Town), and the songs paint on a large canvas their American tales of desperation, integrity, tragedy, and hope. But Mellencamp's vision, while broad, is rarely sentimental or contrived, resulting in one of his finest overall releases since UH-HUH and SCARECROW. |
Producer: John Mellencamp; John Mellencamp |
Engineer: Don Smith; Eddie Kramer; June Murakawa; Scott Davis; Mike Stucker; Paul Mahern |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | John Mellencamp - Freedom's Road - Music By: Glen Boyd - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 2/10/2007 3:31 PM | | If Bruce Springsteen represents the conscience of America to many, John Mellencamp is a prime candidate as it's illegitimate "little bastard" son. Poor old Johnny Cougar. You see that's what they used to call him way back in the day when he was first managed by Mainman's Tony DeFries, whose other big name client at the time was a guy named David Bowie. Cougar's problem at the time was respect, or more specifically the lack thereof....read the full review |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 01/23/2007 | | Original Release Date : 2007 | | Catalog ID : 8249 | | Label : Universal Republic | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00602517180062 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.74)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "FREEDOM'S ROAD finds Mellencamp sounding more at ease than he has in years....A minimalist, relaxed album that harkens back to his SCARECROW days."Rolling Stone 7 of 10
When John Mellencamp finished recording his last batch of original songs, the Twin Towers were standing and Iraq was just some country we had beaten up in the Nineties. Freedom's Road has the lifelong Indiana resident attempting to find his place in an America he has trouble recognizing: The small-town life he romanticized in the 1980s is still close to his heart, but he now paints a disturbing rural portrait of racism, unrealized dreams and crystal-meth addiction. "Jim Crow" is a lovely Joan Baez duet with a dark message on the modern state of race relations (and perhaps hip-hop: "You can call it what you want/But it's still a minstrel show"). Recorded in loose jam sessions in the garage of his Indiana studio, Freedom's Road finds Mellencamp sounding more at ease than he has in years -- gone is the choir from 2001's Cuttin' Heads, and in its place is a minimalist, relaxed album that harkens back to his Scarecrow days.
The weak link is "Our Country" -- a ham-fisted "Born in the USA" rewrite in which he sings, "There's room enough here for religion to forgive." Forgiveness is a more convincing theme elsewhere: Mellencamp returns to it in songs about his very red home state and in "Forgiveness." "Rural Route," the album's most haunting moment and one of the finest of Mellencamp's career, is a true story about the rape and murder of a young girl who lived near his parents. Lines like "Father traded his daughter for favors" sound jarring from the mouth of Mr. Jack & Diane -- but they're delivered with such delicate compassion and measured anger that it completely works. Mellencamp reserves the bile for the only political screed on the album, "Rodeo Clown," in which he furiously refers to the president as having the "bloody-red eyes of a rodeo clown." Forgiveness can only go so far.
- Andy Greene
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| | Bio | | | Throughout his career, John Mellencamp has had to fight, whether it was for the right to record under his own name or for respect as an artist. Of course, he never made it easy on himself. Mellencamp began his career in the late '70s as a Bruce Springsteen clone called Johnny Cougar. As his career progressed, his music became more distinctive, developing into a Stonesy blend of hard rock and folk-rock. His musical development coincided with his growth in popularity -- by the time "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane" became hits in 1982, Mellencamp had created his own variation of the heartland rock of Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Bob Seger. While he had the record sales, it took several years before rock critics took him seriously. For some artists, this would be easy to ignore, but Mellencamp had the desire to be a serious social commentator, chronicling the times and trials of Midwestern baby boomers. Scarecrow, released in 1985, fulfilled his wish of being taken serious, and every record he released after it was greeted warmly by critics. Furthermore, he sustained his popularity into the late '90s, only occasionally experiencing dips in record sales.
A prolonged, acclaimed career seemed an impossibility when Mellencamp released his first album under the name Johnny Cougar in 1976. As a child in Seymour, IN, Mellencamp had suffered a number of setbacks, including being born with a neural tube defect called spina bifida that necessitated a lengthy hospitalization as a baby. As a teenager, he was rebellious, often getting in trouble with the law. He formed his first band at the age of 14, and continued to play throughout his teens. When he was 17, he eloped with Pricilla Esterline, his pregnant girlfriend, and proceeded to try to support his family by working a series of blue-collar jobs. By the time he was 24, he had decided to move to New York City to attempt to break into the music industry.
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