Mellencamp Hits the Road with Dylan, Plans Fall

Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp kicked off their summer tour in Lincoln, Nebraska, August 8th, delivering two sets of spirited Americana nicely suited to Haymarket Park and its Midwestern surroundings. Mellencamp last played the venue as part of a Farm Aid benefit "100 years ago," he joked to the crowd. (The concert, for the record, was actually in 1987.) While his set favored crowd favorites and enduring deep cuts like "Pink Houses" and "Paper In Fire," Mellencamp also brought the crowd into the here-and-now, unveiling songs from his new T Bone Burnett-produced disc No Better Than This. One, "Save Some Time to Dream," was a gorgeously spare, Neil Young-ish country tune featuring tight rhythmic backup from his six-piece band. Meanwhile, Mellencamp reinvigorated classic tunes like "Cherry Bomb," which he freshened with an off-the-cuff a capella arrangement.
Dylan, sporting his trademark black suit and white cowboy hat, had nothing new to play. But he delivered an energetic set of classics, some with striking new arrangements. Soaring pedal steel guitar lent "Lay Lady Lay" a newfound vulnerability, "Just Like a Woman," became soft and reflective, and "Cold Irons Bound" sounded bold and jammy. The latter two showcased Dylan’s inimitable balance of the meditative and aggressive.
Dylan and Mellencamp's tour wraps in September, but Mellencamp will continue on this fall with sixteen Midwestern dates in support of No Better Than This. Unlike his immaculately produced '80s albums, Mellencamp wrote this record quickly, on acoustic guitar, and recorded it in mono on a 55-year-old Ampex tape recorder. "I looked at T Bone and I said, 'What the fuck were we doing in the '80s?'" Mellencamp told RS. "I made a record once that took almost a year. I spent millions of dollars dicking around with songs, and in the long run it paid off because it sold millions of copies. But I go back and I listen to the record today, and it was...more of a craftsman thing."
No Better may be stripped down, but Mellencamp plans an ambitious fall tour. There will be three different sections: a 30-minute "Sun Studio" set, a 30-minute acoustic set, and an hour of plugged-in tunes. And each show will start with a screening of Kurt Markus' It's About You, which chronicles the making of the record. "On those early tours [in the ‘50s], you went to see Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and the show started with a movie called The Girl Can't Help It," said Mellencamp, explaining his inspiration for showing the documentary. "It's not an original idea, but it's an idea that hasn't been done in decades."