The Midwest's rock 'n' roll champion of the common man and his millieu, John Mellencamp, will be making his first Louisville concert appearance in six years when he brings his Words & Music Tour to Freedom Hall for an 8 p.m. show on Sunday, April 17. And to make sure the promo catches the attention of all segments of the baby boom ( as well as retro-minded "youngsters"), the Seymour, Ind., native is bringing along 1960s hippie-pop king Donovan, the Scottish-born troubabour who wrote and sang such psychedelic classics as "Sunshine Superman," "Mellow Yellow," "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Atlantis."
Mellencamp, who broadened his interests after suffering a heart attack in 1994 at age 42 - he's quite an accomplished painter and has been collaborating with writer Stephen King on an eerie and somber stage musical - says he's been a Donavan fan since his mid-teens. "When I started messing around with the guitar in the early '60s," he says, "there were two really popular singer-songwriters, and one was Dylan and the other was Donovan. About a year ago I saw that he'd released a new record and it dawned on me; I though if this guy's still making music, who doesn't he come to the United States and go on tour with me."
Here's how Mellencamp perceives the show working: "I'm gonna come out and play, like, an hour. I'll open the show, and then I'll bring him out and he and I will sing a song together, and then he'll play some of his songs with my band, and then I'll come out and close the show." The seven-piece crackerjack combo backing the singers includes longtime Mellancamp guitarists Andy York and Mike Manchic (who played on albums as far back as "Johnny Cougar's" 1976 release Chestnut Street Incident), violinist Miriam Sturm and veteran backing vocalist Pat Peterson.
Words & Music, the two-disc, 37-song greatest hits CD released last October, holds a sparkling array of songs you might hear at the concert, from "I Need A Lover" to "Pink Houses" to "Cherry Bomb" to "Peaceful World." Mellencamp may even do, although under proetest from his larynx, his first big radio hit, "Hurts Go Good." "But I have to tell you," he says, "that the young John Mellencamp didn't give a damn about the old John Mellencamp, because he wrote 'Hurts So Good' in such a high key. He didn't care if the old John Mellencamp could sing that high or not."
Advance tickets purchased at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center ticket office are $35 and $45, or you can call Ticketmaster at 361-3100 and pay an added $6.90 per ticket fee.
