John Mellencamp
Trouble No More

This album represents an extremely important artistic milestone in John Mellencamp's career. "Trouble No More" is a coherent collection of twelve reinterpretations of well-known and lesser-known tracks drawn from the American folk and blues tradition. "12 Authentic American Songs" reads the sticker on the CD cover. Twelve songs that can be defined as ancient and distant in time. Songs that are indissolubly linked to the development of contemporary music and on whose shoulders rests the weight of high historical and cultural value. "Trouble No More" is yet another winning idea by John Mellencamp. At a time when his country seems to have lost the path of reason, common sense, and democracy, the former Cougar makes an act of true patriotism by going back in time, rediscovering through the power of real music, the old roots and fundamental values forgotten and hidden by blind fanaticism. He does not fear criticism or boycotts and thus decides to delve deep in search of that archaic sound that has shaped his nation, a face that is constantly changing. Naturally, given his unique and peculiar temperament, Little Bastard chooses an uncomfortable position by offering an unpredictable, authentic album, always balancing between earth and roots with a strong political connotation.

Although the initial idea is ambitious, the structure of "Trouble No More" is quite bare, and its recovery of the black and white roots of his country's popular music ultimately proves to be an absolutely winning idea. Mellencamp gives us an authentic work where the critique is not hidden behind useless metaphors but is clearly visible and directed at the lords of power and war. Those same petty individuals that a certain Bob Dylan had harshly criticized in his "Masters Of War" about forty years earlier. A track that in recent years we have also found in the live repertoire of Pearl Jam, just to close the circle. Nothing in this precious album goes unnoticed. John Mellencamp interprets these tracks with boldness, updating them with great skill and mastery. His voice, ruined by millions of cigarettes, is black, tied to the blues, dirty and sincere. Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Son House, Willie Dixon, and some traditionals with revised lyrics are tackled and reinterpreted decisively, authentically, without frills, and with few instruments. John is not afraid to get his hands dirty with the mud of the Mississippi.

The blues of the opening "Stones In My Passway" by the diabolical Robert Johnson, thanks to the masterful guitar of Andy York, seems to come from an old and dingy Chicago basement. The atmosphere in which this track is immersed is already priceless and takes us on a musical journey back in time with a tangible feeling of déjà vu that miraculously pervades, like an ancient spirit, the entire album. The same applies to Son House’s "Death Letter", Willie Dixon’s "Down In the Bottom", and the angry blues of the traditional "John The Revelator". The interpretations of the Guthrie-like "Johnny Heart" and Hoagy Carmichael's "Baltimore Oriole" are masterful, while the acoustic guitars create an intriguing sound carpet for the apocalyptic folk ballad "The End Of The World". The reinterpretation of the album's youngest track, "Lafayette" by the brilliant Lucinda Williams, is curious and unexpected. While remarkable are the versions of "Teardrops Will Fall" and the folk lament of "Diamond Joe" performed with a notable roots flair and a beautiful female counterpoint as a backdrop.

"Trouble No More" is thus a work that possesses a dual value. A socio-cultural one linked to the rediscovery of the roots of American music and another strongly political one that clearly emerges in the final "To Washington", a traditional song to which Mellencamp adds a new text where he calls for a reckoning of corrupt politicians and President George W. Bush, whom the majority of the nation no longer recognizes. We are indeed in 2003 on the eve of the famous "Vote For Change Tour" of which "To Washington" would become the slogan and the anthem.

Recorded between February 10 and 29, 2003 at Belmont Hall in Indiana, "Trouble No More" is a half miracle. Very few artists would have been capable of producing an album of such value without risking falling into the banal or the trap of cheap rhetoric. However, this does not happen to John Mellencamp because, fortunately, music has always flowed in his veins. It is thanks to his immense artistic sensitivity and that of his excellent musicians that "Trouble No More" turns out to be in the end a committed, political, populist, uncomfortable, harsh, tough, spontaneous, direct and essential album. An album that is immortal in its own way, like the songs it contains. A work that deserves a prestigious place among the classics of the genre.