"The veteran chiseller of blue-collar songs goes back to basics...And Mellencamp enjoys his role as a grizzled storyteller steeped in the 'roots' traditions of rural Southern America" - Q Magazine on new album 'Better Than This'.
For the first time in 19 years, John Mellencamp is embarking on a European tour, which will take him to Italy, where he has never played in his entire career, for three concerts: 9 July at the Castle of Vigevano as part of the "10 Giorni Suonati" festival, 10 July in Rome, in the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, and 12 July at the Castle of Udine, as part of Folkest. Tickets for the Vigevano concert will be on sale from Friday 18 March, while those for Udine and Rome from Monday 21 and Tuesday 22.
The 'No Better Than This Tour' will be a series - short, at the moment only 13 concerts throughout Europe - of special evenings in the company of one of the most representative icons of American singer-songwriter rock, who with the expertise of a consummate performer, in an intimate and polished show, retraces all the stages of an almost 40-year career worthy of the 'Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame'. In addition, John Mellencamp's live performance will be preceded by the documentary film 'It's About You', which narrates the particular genesis and recording of 'No Better Than This', an album produced by T Bone Burnett and published in Italy by Universal.
The album, in fact, was recorded in three locations in the southern US: in Savannah, at the First African Baptist Church, at Sun Studio in Memphis and finally in Room 414 of the Gunther Hotel in San Antonio, the one in which Robert Johnson recorded in 1936. The particularity is that the sessions were collected from an original 1960s mono recorder and that only one 'vintage' microphone was used in each location, elements that according to Rolling Stone magazine showed Mellencamp as loose and at ease as ever on past albums, capable of 'channeling his moods and ghosts into period styles that the artist embodies to perfection'.
The variety of styles and material that has always characterised Mellencamp's eclectic career is reflected in the concert, which is structured in three segments. Two of these see John Mellencamp perform both acoustically with a small combo that takes him back to his country-blues and rockabilly roots, and with his historic rock band, consisting of Michael Wanchic (guitar), Andy York (guitar), Miriam Sturm (fiddle), John Gunnell (bass), Dane Clark (drums) and Troye Kinnett (keyboards and accordion).
The first segment is reserved for 'It's About You', the documentary film shot by Kurt Markus in Super 8 during the 2009 tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson in small stadiums. The film not only documents the creation of No Better Than This, but also offers a cinematic cue to meditate on the state of the American Dream at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.
Mellencamp, who says he is 'truly thrilled to have the opportunity, at this point in my life, to go on tour presenting my songs in the way I love', has in his 35-year career gone from being a prepackaged pop idol to becoming one of the most respected songwriters and performers giving voice to his generation, such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, John Fogerty and a few others. Born in Indiana in 1951, John Mellencamp married music at the age of 14 and has since released 26 albums, selling over 40 million copies in the US alone. He has collected 22 songs in the Top 40 and holds the record for having placed the most songs on the 'Hot Records' chart in the rock world. He has received 13 Grammy Award nominations, won the Billboard Century Award and the Woodie Guthrie Award among others, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The social activism that exudes from his songs was the driving force behind Farm Aid, the series of concerts and initiatives that for 25 years have flanked the social struggles of rural American families. His sonic style and his band's distinctive composition undoubtedly makes him the forerunner of the 'Americana' country music genre.
As if that weren't enough, Mellencamp is also an acclaimed painter, whose exhibitions - alone or even in a joint production with Miles Davis - have met with wide acclaim. Finally, not to leave out future projects, John Mellencamp recently collaborated with Stephen King on a musical comedy entitled 'Ghost Brothers of Darkland Country', which will be staged at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in spring 2012
In the meantime, we await John Mellencamp in Italy for three exclusive evenings in the name of rock history.
SATURDAY 9 JULY 2011 - 10 DAYS PLAYED AT VIGEVANO CASTLE
Single seat 45 euro + pres. on sale from 18/3 onwww.ticketone.it
SUNDAY 10 JULY - AUDITORIUM PARCO DELLA MUSICA CAVEA, ROME
Tickets: 40/45/55/60/65 euros + pres. on sale from 22/3 on www.listicket.it and at the Auditorium box office
TUESDAY 12 JULY - FOLKEST at UDINE CASTLE Info +39 0427 51230
Single seat 40 euro + pres. on sale from 21/3
