Track Listing
1. Fruit Trader
2. Your Life Is Now
3. Positively Crazy
4. I'm Not Running Anymore
5. It All Comes True
6. Eden Is Burning
7. Where the World Began
8. Miss Missy
9. Chance Meeting at the Tarantula
10. Break Me Off Some
11. Summer of Love
12. Days of Farewell
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Izzy Stradlin, Lisa Germano | | Producer: | John Mellencamp | | Distributor: | Sony Music Distribution ( | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: John Mellencamp (vocals, guitar); Andy York (vocals, guitar, Indian instruments, keyboards); Janas Hoyt, Killa, Pat Peterson, Jimmy Ryser (vocals); Mike Wanchic (guitar, background vocals); Izzy Stradlin (guitar); Miriam Sturm (violin, keyboards, background vocals); Lisa Germano (violin, harmonica); Moe Z. MD (keyboards, loops, background vocals); Toby Myers (bass, background vocals); Vess "Elvis" Ruhtenberg (bass); Dane Clark (drums, percussion); Stan Lynch (drums).
Recorded at Belmont Mall Studio, Belmont, Indiana.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
"Your Life Is Now" was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
John Mellencamp reinvents himself on this self-titled album as a fresh start on a new label after spending 20 years signed to Mercury Records. Like his last record MR. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, Mellencamp's musical wanderlust has led him beyond the standard instrumental lineup of guitar, bass & drums. The carefree "I'm Not Running Anymore" finds him using vocal and rhythmic loops whereas the lo-fi aesthetics and hip-hop vocals of "Break Me Off Some" bring to mind Beck's sensibilities crossed with the Mitchell Froom/Tchad Blake production techniques usually employed by Los Lobos.
Befitting the elder statesmanhood worn by this cantankerous Hoosier, the topics he writes about go beyond the girl-meets-boy scenarios of his youth. Some of the personal and biblical imagery Mellencamp deals with includes raising children ("Your Life Is Now"), our collective origins ("Where The World Began"), karmic philosophy ("It All Comes True") and a fictional argument between Cain and Abel ("Fruit Trader"). Pretty heady stuff coming from the gritty and uncompromising package that is John Mellencamp.
Editorial Reviews
...a sharp, coherent summary of musical strengths and lyrical themes....a rock-solid peice of work from a feisty heartland artiste who is not merely coasting on the past.
Rolling Stone (11/12/1998)
...Mellencamp has stripped the sound down to predominantly acoustic instrumentation, with plaintive violin to the fore, and focused his writing to create a striking journey through roots America...
Mojo (04/01/1999)
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