After attending numerous John Mellencamp concerts over the last 21 years, one thing i can never get over - and am astonished at how it continues to this day - is his audience's reticence toward new material. It's not the active "head for the bathroom or beer line" during the new material that occurs at his shows, but a new song seems to be a signal for people to start talking about the last tune played or their drive to the theater or how the seats are uncomfortable.
I remember a show he did at the Forum in '91 or '92 at which he attempted to unveil a new, acoustic song. He had to stop after losing his place, I swear because the volume of the chatter had reached a point at which it was drowning him out.
It has been chronicled that few performers face the dilemma Mellencamp faces - his politics don't jibe with the bulk of the audience and he wants to keep moving forward as a writer while they want nostalgia. He  delivers the oldies regardless of how well they are aging, which plays a part in why Mellencamp sits squarely in the middle on a scale that has Billy Joel at one end and Bruce Springsteen at other when it comes to making each night a significant for fans in a particular city.
Mellencamp's latest album is full of ballads played in stark sonic atmospheres. Not one of the dozen hits he played Thursday at the Greek Theater shares a tempo or a harmony with the material, and the lyrics are largely an affecting discourse on unsteady relationships and pending death. (Talk about authority winning).
Kudos to Mellencamp for getting four of the songs into the set and surrounding himself with interesting visuals. But too many of fans fail him, choosing instead to yuk it up and holler and act like they're at a ballgame. Too many are trying to be 16 forever and not enough are heeding his latest words: "Nothing lasts forever/and your best efforts don't always pay/Sometimes you get sick/and you don't get better/that's when life is short/even in the longest days."    

The Stephen King-John Mellencamp musical "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" will premiere in the spring of 2009 at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the musical is set in 1957 and centers on a  legend about the strange deaths of two brothers and a beautiful young girl 40 years earlier in the fictional town of Lake Belle Reve, Miss.
Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth calls it "a theatrical piece with music." Peter Askin, who helmed John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" off-Broadway, will direct.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has sent out its ballots with Madonna, the Beastie Boys and John Mellencamp leading the way. Returning to the ballot are the previously overlooked  Leonard Cohen, Africa Bambatta, the Ventures, Donna Summer, Chic and Dave Clark 5.
The cutoff point for eligibility is now 1982, which doesn't seem all that long ago.

John Mellencamp unveiled two new songs at the Farm Aid concert on Randall’s Island in New York on Saturday. “Troubled Land” is one of 18 new songs he has recorded with T Bone Burnett; the other was “If I Die Sudden.”
His set list: Troubled Land / Rain On The Scarecrow / If I Die Sudden (with Derek Trucks) / Paper In Fire / Our Country (solo acoustic) / To Washington (Woody Guthrie tune done solo acoustic) / Small Town / Pink Houses (with Susan Tedeschi)
Los Lobos will be opening shows for Mellencamp on his forthcoming tour of the Midwest.

John Mellencamp has begun recording his 22nd album, this time working with producer T Bone Burnett. Recording is taking place at Belmont Mall, Mellencamp's studio outside Bloomington, Ind.
Mellencamp has self-produced his last four albums. He brought in Junior Vasquez to assist in the production of 1996's "Mr. Happy Go Lucky."
Mellencamp is using his touring band for the sessions: guitarists Mike Wanchic and Andy York, bassist John Gunnell, drummer Dane Clark, violinist Miriam Sturm and keyboardist Troye Kinnett. Most of the musicians were in Mellencamp's band on his highly successful 2005 tour in support of the hits compilation "Words and Music."

First he got a musical, now rootsy pop star John Mellencamp is getting the bio treatment this fall with the release of Born In A Small Town: The John Mellencamp Story on November 1.

Omnibus Press is releaseing Heather Johnson's book on the singer-songwriter.

Mellencamp's latest studio album, Freedom's Road, is out now, and he is set to perform at Willie Nelson's 2007 Farm Aid concert in New York City on September 9.

  The John Mellencamp-Stephen King "play with music" received some workshop performances last week in New York, which appear to have led to the securing of some seed money for a production.
"The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" involves two bickering brothers and their father who visit a cabin where the father's brothers had killed each other. The dead brothers' ghosts are part of the story as well.
Mellencamp also paid a visit to  Comedy Central’s "Colbert Report," where things got out of hand and Stephen Colbert challenged Mellencamp to a fight.
“That New York trip last week was very productive," Mellencamp said upon his return to Indiana. "The play went well and so did the visit to 'The Colbert Report.'  I got to work with two guys named Stephen and nobody got hurt ... but it was touch and go with one of them.”
Mellencamp returns to New York on Sept. 9 for  Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival on Randall’s Island.