Product Description
In an age of auto-tuned, computerized recordings, John Mellencamp's approach on his Rounder debut, No Better Than This, is refreshing. The entire album was recorded with Mellencamp and his band all playing live in one room using a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder and just one vintage microphone. Legendary producer T Bone Burnett captured the stunning thirteen new Mellencamp originals at three historically important locations: Sun Studio in Memphis, TN (where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all first recorded); the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA (the oldest Black church in North America, dating to 1775); and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX (where Robert Johnson made his first recordings in 1936). The songs on No Better Than This reflect classic American musical traditions including blues, folk, gospel, rockabilly, and country, while addressing such themes as the need for hope, the nature of relationships, and narratives that recount extraordinary occurrences in everyday life. Mellencamp says of the album, "It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had making a record in my life. It was about making music - organic music made by real musicians - that's heartfelt and written from the best place it can come from."

1. Save Some Time To Dream
2. The West End
3. Right Behind Me
4. A Graceful Fall
5. No Better Than This
6. Thinking About You
7. Coming Down The Road
8. No One Cares About Me
9. Love At First Sight
10. Don't Forget About Me
11. Each Day Of Sorrow
12. Easter Eve
13. Clumsy Ol' World

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003NWS5DQ/?tag=imwan-20

From johnmellencamp.com

John Introduces Himself--And "No Better Than This"--To His New Label
May 14th, 2010 - So maybe you've seen the photo of John and Elaine walking the streets of New York, John with a silver-knobbed walking stick in one hand, in the other a more expected, three inch stick that was burning at one end.

So here's why they were in town:

He and Elaine greeted a dozen or so Rounder Records executives who had bused in from their Boston headquarters to listen to "No Better Than This," which Rounder will release on August 3. They gathered at The Magic Shop, a tiny Soho studio where any number of great records have been cut, mixed and/or restored, including albums by Sam Cooke, Woody Guthrie and the Rolling Stones.

It was John's first album-listening event for label brass in over a decade he said softly at the outset--something, he added not surprisingly, "I don't like to do."

But he bit the bullet--and enthralled his new marketing/promotional team with tales of the album's recording process, prior to leaving them alone to savor it via the reel-to-reel master tapes.

"I made it because T Bone Burnett and I had such good success with 'Life, Death, Love & Freedom,'" he explained. But the concept, he noted, came last year when "Bob Dylan called up and said, 'Do you want to tour?' And I looked at the places Bob and I and Willie Nelson were playing and realized I had an opportunity to do something that no one really ever does: record in different locations."

The locations, of course, were the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia; historic Sun Studio in Memphis; and the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio--Room 414, specifically, where Robert Johnson recorded his classic blues songs in 1936.

John and Elaine have a place near Savannah, and were knowledgeable about The First African Baptist Church, which was the first African-American church in America.

"It was built by slaves and is across the street from the 'flogging square,' where they publicly humiliated the slaves," he said. "But everything else in town is covered by Spanish moss, and there's a certain magic that you feel."

John related that all of the sessions--in the church, at Sun and in the hotel--were done using a single microphone and a vintage 1955 Ampex Model 601 one-track machine that served as a portable recording studio. This was the case even at the legendary Sun Studios, as the equipment currently installed there has been updated over time.

Regarding his experience at Sun, John marveled, "Everything was still marked out where all the great rock 'n' roll pioneers were supposed to stand! They were actual musicians singing and playing--without worry about technology at all."

Likewise, he added, his session "was all organic recording--all old mono gear. No modern stuff."

The final "studio" was Room 414 of the Gunter in San Antonio.

"I'd done lot of research and it was almost exactly the same layout as it was when Robert Johnson recorded there," said John. "But I walked in and my engineer set it up wrong! There was a carpet, so we had to cover it with a wooden dance floor and also take the curtains down. Then I faced into the corner the same way Johnson did. I sat in exactly the same place Robert Johnson sat. What an experience!"

He laughed in noting that while Johnson's recordings there proved immortal, "ours turned out OK," then noted that Burnett mastered the tapes in Los Angeles "in a way that made them coherent."

John revealed that the entire album had been written in an intense 10- to 13-day creative spurt, during which he wrote all day long.

"I was tightly focused," he said. "I got up every day and wrote and wrote and wrote." He said he recorded three days at Sun, one at Gunter and three in Savannah; of the 16 songs recorded he kept 13.

He told the Rounder staffers about acclaimed fashion/western photographer Kurt Markus's documentary of the album production. "He's obtuse to say the least!" he said of Markus, pointing out that the title of the film is "It's About You." "It's not about me but about Kurt being with me--which is a whole different slant than these kinds of movies usually have."

He suggested that a novel promotional strategy is in the works for "No Better Than This," and confirmed that he'll commence a world tour at the end of October.

"We'll let people try to discover this music in a natural way," he said, then turned reflective: "I've had a record deal since I was 22 and I'm now 58. During the '90s I got tired of the business, of having to put out a record every 18 months and being asked 'How many singles do you have?' I wanted to kill myself! I will not have a permanent record deal of any sort, now, but I'm glad to be with you folks."

He acknowledged his "reputation for being quite brutal with people sometimes," then laughed in assuring his listeners that "I haven't had to be that way in a while." He also singled out Burnett for special praise: "T Bone's a genius. I never allowed anyone to touch my records ever in any fashion until I met T Bone. Now when I think he's out of ideas, he has the greatest idea I've ever heard in my life!"

And then he announced "That's about as much John Mellencamp as I can stand!" and took a few questions before exiting the studio to let his new label mates listen to "No Better Than This" without him breathing down their necks.

"We could have had George Martin and The Beatles and it wouldn’t have been put together any better," he stated, then added, "It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had making a record in my life, because it was about making music--not 'what's the single?' And it's organic music made by musicians, that's heartfelt and written from the best place music can come from."

He concluded: "Every now and then I reach into myself and hit that blues point--and it even has a couple pop songs."

He kept tapping his cane on the floor for emphasis, much to Elaine's chagrin. She was worried he'd hit someone, and sure enough, he came dangerously close--unknowingly--to my broken big toe.

As for the listening session, the Rounder people were enrapt--and more than happy to tell John so when he returned to say goodbye at the end. What they heard was indeed what John had told me a year or so ago when he was conceiving the stripped-down, blues-inflected project: It's John Mellencamp like we've never heard before.

--jim bessman

Sounds like an intimate album. It'll probably be excellent. I'm concerned this may be a lot like "Big Daddy" which I thought was a snoozefest. For me, his last few have left me kinda cold. The last album of John's I truly enjoyed was "John Mellencamp" (which sadly tanked in sales).

Personally, at this stage, I'd rather see John trying to swing for the fences and do something big and diverse again like "Lonesome Jubilee" but I'm afraid those days may have passed. I don't doubt he's got an amazing record left in him that could have wide commercial appeal but he may be more concerned with making artistic statements and political views than making music that people can sing along with and shake their booties to.

I heard "Pink Houses" today on the radio and it felt sad to me that he may be known for that song, to this and future generations, rather than the great body of work he's created.

wait til you all get a load of this packaging.

if this what japanese mini lp's are like i want nothing to do with them.

an accident just waiting to happen.

where, oh where are the jewel cases of old.

OK

john mellencamp, what were you thinking????

1 - shitty packaging, if you tilt the thing the disc falls out.

2 - lyric sheet and credits are too small and hard to read

3 - plastic bag it came in is cheap ( imean really cheap), at least give me a little quality somewhere.

4 - I HATE MONO - always did always will.

5 - he recorded this on vintage ( definition of vintage - old and decrepit) and it sounds like it, actually and in all honesty, it sounds like shit.

6 - the saddest thing is the songs aren't bad, if they would have only been done in stereo and with good equipment this could have been a hell of an album. as it is, a couple tunes will go on a comp for the car and the CD will, sadly, probably never get played again. glad i only paid $7.99

this is three stinkers in a row for johnny cougar, time to rock and roll again....i hope.

I haven't liked an album from Mellencamp since the mid-late 1980s. But I really have enjoyed "No Better Than This" from start to finish. I thought it sounded great, but then I do like mono recordings.

The packaging was pretty bad. Was the plastic meant to stay with the album? I put the cd inside the first inner fold of the lyric sheet and folding the rest of the lyric sheet over it. It makes the album package thing thicker & this way it won't slide out.

I thought Mellencamp's last album, "Life, Death, Love And Freedom" was terrific. I too am a big fan of his 80s work, not so much a lot of the 90s or 00s stuff. But, "Life, Death, Love And Freedom" was a minor masterpiece, one of his best albums ever. I'm still listening to the "No Better Than This," but it hasn't hit me as hard as "LDL&F."

uniqueness of the recording aside, this album is just not very good at all.

it sounds like a 50's recording ( basically like shit) and the mix is so loud the vocals are hard to understand.

i would love to hear it in stereo and on recorded on modern equipment, it would have to be an improvement.

his last album was waaaaay better. IMHO.

I'm a big fan of Mellencamp. I don't why he chose to do something like this. The songs
are pretty decent. You just can hear what's he's singing! I appreciate John's way of
doing things the way he wants. Its frustrating because I believe he's got another "
Jack & Diane" or "Pink Houses" in him, but he's so contrary!

Maybe he should hook-up with Rick Rubin and do something like Neil Diamond did on his first album with Rubin? Strip it down to what John does best and challenge him like he hasn't been in years. John might kill him, but we could get an
incredible album.

In other words, the album could indeed have been "better than this"?

John Mellencamp takes back-to-basics approach on his new CD

By Martin Bandyke
Free Press Special Writer
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... ullarticle

John Mellencamp long ago dropped his Johnny Cougar pop persona to become a far more complex and substantial musician. His album from earlier this year, "No Better Than This," is a beautifully realized collection of deeply felt songs recorded at three historic sites in the U.S. and produced by T Bone Burnett. Using vintage equipment, Mellencamp and his band rolled tape in Memphis' legendary Sun Studio; the San Antonio, Texas, hotel room where blues pioneer Robert Johnson once recorded; and First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga.

On his way to a show in Indianapolis, only some 60-plus miles from his hometown of Seymour, Ind., Mellencamp spoke to the Free Press about his new album, his philosophy about playing gigs and his upcoming multimedia collaboration with Stephen King. Mellencamp and his band perform Friday at Detroit's Fox Theatre, with the film "It's About You" kicking off the evening at 6:45 p.m. Directed by Kurt Markus, the documentary chronicles the making of "No Better Than This."

Question: How did you come up with the idea of recording "No Better Than This" in such historic venues?

Answer: I was on tour with Dylan (last year) and had written "Save Some Time To Dream," started writing more songs, then got to the point where I needed to record this stuff. So while playing all these shows with Dylan and Willie Nelson I looked at the schedule, saw we'd be close to Sun (Studio), close to the church in Savannah and in (San Antonio) Texas, and realized we had days off there. So I thought, "Let's try and make a record."

Q: What was it like to record at Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins had their first sessions?

A: First of all, we couldn't record during the day because they have tours of the studio. It wasn't until 7 o'clock at night that we could get started. It was pretty interesting to walk out of there at 3 in the morning, walk out when all the rest of Memphis was asleep. We usually worked from 7 p.m. to 6 in the morning. Sam Phillips (Sun Studio founder and record producer) made it quite easy; we saw the X's on the floor and knew that's where the drums and guitars went, and that's where I should sing from. He messed around with the sound in that crazy little room and long ago decided what was best, and we followed along.

Q: Your very first band was Crepe Soul, which you started when you were all of 14. That would've been during the heyday of Motown Records. Was Motown a big influence on you?

A: You know when I first started writing songs I realized that what I wanted to do or try to do was be Woody Guthrie on one hand and Smokey Robinson on the other; he wrote all those Motown hits. As for other Detroit artists, I was influenced by (Bob) Seger and Mitch Ryder for sure.

Q: What was the thinking behind recording your new album with a single microphone on a vintage 1955 Ampex recorder, and in mono to boot?

A: Recorded music in the beginning was made to capture a moment, capture a performance. Now there's no performance to capture, there's only the building of a song from separate parts. What I wanted was to go back to the days of no overdubs, no tweaking, no Auto-Tuning or pitch control like we have now. I said to T Bone, "Let's make this about music, not production. If we're going to go into these old places, let's set up a single mic and do it that way." He said, "That's taking a big chance."

Q: With no overdubs, that meant that every song on the album is a complete performance. Were there endless takes before you got what you wanted?

A: No, not really ... we had some good players. Nobody had ever heard any of the songs until I played them 5 minutes before we recorded; only T Bone and I knew the songs; I gave him a demo tape of me playing them on acoustic (guitar). But the musicians never heard the songs beforehand and that was all on purpose; I wanted to get people's first reactions.

The most we took a song was three or four takes, which was quite different than something like "Hurts So Good" (Mellencamp's hit single from 1982). We cut that song something like 123 times. It was just stupid; we made the same mistakes (every time), we were kids and couldn't play at all. "Easter Eve" (from the new album) is 7 minutes long and that song is the first take.

Q: What's the status of this multimedia collaboration between you and author Stephen King, "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County?"

A: We've made a recording of all the songs, including ones sung by Kris Kristofferson, who plays the father; Elvis Costello, who plays the Devil; Rosanne Cash, who's the mother, and Sheryl Crow, who plays a ghost. They sang all the songs and T Bone produced the music.

It's the "Sgt. Pepper's" of Americana music. We did the dialogue and that includes Meg Ryan and Matthew McConaughey. We're putting it all together and are trying to get this staged in Atlanta during the spring or fall of next year. Liv Ullman, who was Ingmar Bergman's muse, will be directing. ...

This is a hell of an undertaking; just getting everybody together to read and sing is like putting kitties in a bag. Steve and I started working on it 10 years ago.

Q: How difficult is it for you to structure a concert? I'm sure you've got fans who would be more than happy with a show of familiar hits.

A: Well I have to tell you there is a lot of new material in the show. It's 2 hours and 20 minutes long and we play almost every song off the new album and try to cover the hits. ... T Bone said to me, "John, you had the misfortune to be a rock star in the '80s and '90s, and now what are you going to do?"

You're a fool to think you can keep the same intensity level or always have the same level of popularity in your career. I already have a measure of longevity, I've got 20-some albums, but you look to Dylan and Willie and John Cash and see how they did it. In any career that long there's going to be ups and downs. If I did only hits I'd be playing at Pine Knob, so the fact I'm playing at the Fox should show that this is not going to be only a greatest hits thing. All the shows (so far) have been good, reviews seem to be good, and the audience responds well. It's a balancing act; you can't just do only the hits and try to be something you were 30 years ago; you look silly.