Cuttin' Heads (2001)
After a three-year absence, Mellencamp returned with, Cuttin' Heads, an effort more rooted in his strengths and in many ways is a back-to-basics recording for him even if the landscape isn't as wide and vast musically. He doesn't gain any new ground here, but this is easily his most consistent batch of songs since Dance Naked. "Cuttin' Heads" is a racially provocative lead off track which features Chuck D of Public Enemy and while Mellencamp has always been an advocate of civil rights he blew the doors wide open here with stark, lyrical and controversial depictions. The racial gloom turns into sensual ecstasy with "Peaceful World", a single isn't just a home run but a grand slam. I'm surprised that in the wake of 9/11 people did not embrace this song more profoundly but the truth may have stung a bit too much for them. I still believe this is one of his greatest achievements as a songwriter and producer. "Deep Blue Heart" wouldn't be out of place on Big Daddy with its restrained instrumentation while "Crazy Island" is the other greatest non-single of his career (next to 1993's "The Family"). I can't believe that Sony didn't jump all over this one and send it soaring over the airwaves but alas, since the album was released in the weeks following September 11th, this may have proven too difficult of a track to push to conservative FM dials. The pop flavored acoustic ditty "Women Seem" is possibly art imitating life and once again, the cockiness is hidden in the lyrics, but it feels completely sincere while the reggae flavored "Shy" is as groovy as it is sexual. The album's final track, "In Our Lives" is a return to form and it's impressive and convincing. His final tracks on his last few albums felt rushed with archaic and incomplete lyrics, but here Mellencamp delivers.

After a few musical detours, Mellencamp once again embraces the pastoral sounds of his past and expanding on the themes that formed the basis of his catalog in an uplifting fashion. Cuttin' Heads isn't a masterpiece, but it's a vastly ignored and underappreciated album in the Mellencamp cannon that paints a sometimes harsh picture of the contradictions of the American dream.

Trouble No More (2003)
In June of 2002, Mellencamp's longtime friend and writer, Timothy White died unexpectedly. White had always been Mellencamp's biggest advocate in the press and was a widely admired man in the music industry filled with unsavory characters. At a memorial service he performed Robert Johnson's "Stones In My Passway" that left most in attendance jaws on the floor. It's important to note that at this point, a mere nine-months after the release of Cuttin' Heads, Mellencamp felt he was divorced from Sony and that no further recordings would be made for them. Sony let Cuttin' Heads die an undeserving death and what was his best record in quite some time was unceremoniously sent to the cut out racks. However, someone at Sony saw the White tribute performance and approached Mellencamp about recording a roots flavored blues drenched album. Mellencamp's music has always been synonymous with music largely inspired by American soul, rhythm and blues. On Trouble No More, he's peeling the layers off to the core and going back to the original folk and blues influences that were the seeds of rock n' roll. He mixes the raw gusto of rock n' roll performed in Delta-style renderings with Dixie land jazz and soulful flavors added into a wrapped up package that is distinctively Americana and definitively John Mellencamp.

Ironically, when you hear songs like "Diamond Joe" it sounds implausibly fresh and wouldn't be out of place on any Mellencamp album. Then there's "John The Revelator" which finds Mellencamp unleashing his inner bluesman. Embracing the political spirit of Woody Guthrie, Mellencamp condenses moral enigma that is America into "To Washington" a scathing attack on the Bush administration and regardless of what one thinks, you have to admire his passion. Most surprisingly, was the inclusion of a Lucinda Williams track, the yearning Appalachian influenced "Lafayette" which may be one of the most shadowy tunes in both Mellencamp's and Lucinda's catalog. Once again, it revealed itself to me this time around and I now have to go out and find her 1980 album, Happy Woman Blues. The most archetypal song on the album is "Teardrops Will Fall" which, for the first time since Human Wheels, evokes the model John Mellencamp sound with accordion and all. He finds a perfect balance with one foot steeped in tradition and another taking this music into the 21st Century for everyone to value.

During this time, Mellencamp had all but given up on the music industry and was not actively writing or recording. Ironically, in a twist of fate, these songs helped him fill a void. They reinvigorated him and you can hear it in the bucolic performances, I only wish he had launched a proper tour in support of this album. It is a fundamental lesson in the history of rock & roll to always dig deeper than those who influenced you, because even though the forefathers of rhythm, blues and soul may be gone, they continue to inspire and transform. What Mellencamp did so successfully with this collection is he found a way to effectively transmute and relate the experience of these songs to the current generation. These twelve songs embody a type of secular testifying not found on today's pop records and even though dozens of albums have sold more copies than Trouble No More, this is an album that will be listened to centuries from now and as a result, someone will page back to the true origins of rock n' roll and discover something profound and real.

Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits (2004)
Greatest Hits records usually don't get included in comprehensive discographies, but I am mentioning this one for two specific reasons. The first being that after the underwhelming The Best That I Could Do, Words & Music does "Greatest Hits" albums proud. Every single Top-40 hit of Mellencamp's career is here along with all of the essential album tracks. Only "Minutes To Memories" (a hit on Mainstream Rock Radio and in concert) is missing. It encompasses thirty-five classic hits and is one of the definitive "Hits" collections available by any act of the last thirty years. However, what pushes this collection over the top is the inclusion of two stellar new tracks, the eye opening tolerance based "Walk Tall" and the virtuous "Thank You". Both songs are entrenched with the acoustic guitar but surprisingly producer Babyface provides a wonderful wall of organic sounds that is definitively John Mellencamp with maybe his strongest one-two punch of original songs in over a decade. If you are reading this Idiot Guide and are not sure where to start with your collection, this is the perfect album to wet your appetite.

Freedom's Road (2007)
Released in January 2007, Freedom's Road is a dark, bleak and desolate tale of the American landscape. This is an album I find myself enjoying when forcing myself to listen to it, but one I ultimately never think about after I have listened to it. Those who paid attention to this album could be divided into two camps; those who hated it based on hearing "Our Country" a million times and those who were only aware of it because they had heard "Our Country" a million times. The album only sold a few hundred thousand copies, so I'm not sure if the extensive campaign for "Our Country" worked, but sadly, for some, it hindered their ability to listen to this album with open eyes and ears. Most of the songs are innocuous, which is the album's downfall. The rich pastoral production should be heralded even if the individual songs do not resonate. "Forgiveness" harkens back to 1998's "Positively Crazy" which has elements I enjoy, but ultimately while it's close it doesn't quite light the cigar. His vernacular on songs like "Our Country", "Someday" and "My Aeroplane" is anemic and is missing the peek-a-boo vibrancy his 80's classics had where even though a lyric may have been clichéd we fell for it hook, line and sinker. The music is raw and real, but the lyrics appear to me as first draft renderings lacking zealous delivery.

With all that being said, the album does have some devastatingly intense songs. "Ghost Towns Along The Highway" never leaped out at me, but after seeing it performed live recently, it suddenly speaks volumes to me. On record I have a new appreciation for the faint and layered instrumentation which goes to prove how vital the live performance is to helping people not just discover records but it forces them to view the songs in entirely different light. "Rural Route", like "The Family" from 1993's Human Wheels is a deep album cut that has a terse intensity in its southern swamp drenched hand-clapping tale that may be the album's definitive cut. The albums final track, "Heaven Is A Lonely Place" is an anticlimactic ending, until you realize it's a twelve minute track. After a few minutes of silence and right before the eight-minute mark another song appears, a hidden track; "Rodeo Clown" which is a overpowering revelation. Mellencamp intentionally included it as a bonus track so to not warrant extra attention from rightwing conservatives, but ironically, this is the most preeminent song on Freedom's Road. Obviously Mellencamp is passionate about politics and here his emotion is brewing and boiling- something missing from the delivery on most of Freedom's Road. The fervent delivery of "Rodeo Clown" demonstrates that Mellencamp isn't retiring any time soon, it's just a shame the most crashing and affecting song is hidden.

The Company We Keep (2008)
Despite my disappointment in Freedom's Road, in November of 2007 I witnessed Mellencamp in concert where he performed four new songs from his upcoming 2008 disc, The Company We Keep, produced by T-Bone Burnett. It will hopefully see release around the same time he gets inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. "If I Die Sudden" reminds me of the type of song Dylan would have performed a few decades back with the Band…but only better. "Young Without Lovers" had the crowd singing along, while the acoustic "Ride Back Home (Hey Jesus)" proves he still is a great lyricist who appears to have rediscovered his muse. "Jena", which has soared across You Tube, finds Mellencamp at his best and most provocative in fifteen-years. Mellencamp is pissed, provoked and passionate in his delivery of these new songs, just like he is on "Rodeo Clown", and if these performances are any indication, it may lead to his best record in well over a decade. He's questioning the events of our world and wondering if sanity will prevail. He doesn't have an answer but what he does have is a passion for these songs which were harrowing and chock full of incendiary discharge. If the studio versions are half as determined, we are in for one hell of an album and more importantly, it'll continue our ride with the artist John Mellencamp through American stories of morally conflicted individuals who hide out in ghost towns, lost highways, small towns and behind ideals we hope aren't an illusion but all too often are.