I'm excited to hear John Mellencamp's new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, which is coming out in July. It was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who - with all due respect to Danger Mouse - is the producer of the moment in my opinion. Other than John's album, T-Bone also produced Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand, will probably do Plant's next one, and is also working on new albums by The Who and B.B. King. And he has a solo album due out this week I think. Anyway, back to John: I thought his 2003 album of covers of mostly old blues and country songs, Trouble No More, was an absolute classic. And his unlikely collaboration with Babyface, "Walk Tall," from his 2004 best-of, is one of the greatest songs he's ever written. He's had a few other great ones in the past decade, like "Peaceful World" and "Your Life Is Now." But it's been a long time since he's put out a truly great album of originals. Maybe this will be that album.
I'm hoping to catch him on his tour: Lucinda Williams - John covered her song "Layayette" on Trouble No More - is opening, and I think I'm ready to listen to her again. We needed some time apart. As for John, the last two times I saw him were at Farm Aid concerts, and he and his band were incredible both times.
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