John Mellencamp Freedom's Road released

Freedom’s Road John Mellencamp

Released: January 23, 2007 Peak: 5 US, -- UK, 145 CN, -- AU, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.30 US, -- UK, 0.43 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock/Americana

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Someday Ghost Towns Along the Highway The Americans Forgiveness Freedom’s Road Jim Crow Our Country Rural Route My Aeroplane Heaven Is a Lonely Place Rodeo Clown * * unlisted track Total Running Time: 48:46

Rating: 3.494 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings) Quotable: “Heart-worn, ragged roots rock tomes about struggle, determination, and the possibility of redemption.” – Thom Jurek, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album “Something has been lacking in Mellencamp efforts…since Human Wheels (which never got a fair hearing). Artists get to experiment, and willingly populist artists – which he most certainly is – can get trapped. He tried to bring his audience along to where he was musically, but seemingly never solidified that place himself.” AM With Freedom’s Road, Mellencamp finds a new identity – that of a grizzled, contemplative folk-rock hero for the 21st century – a modern day Woody Guthrie. Freedom’s Road “is perhaps the darker side of Lonesome Jubilee, and takes the small-town vision of Scarecrow and Big Daddy and fans it out. The music is a rootsy, excellent blend of electric and acoustic guitars, fiddle, big fat drums, and lots of space.” AM The country band Little Big Town serves up backing vocals on eight of the songs on the album. The album is about “pleasure, desire, …love, disillusionment, big drums, rollicking guitars, and above all an accessible kind of passion.” AM “Freedom’s Road is not merely a new (or another) John Mellencamp album, but the work of a populist artist at his very best; he’s spinning his heart-worn, ragged roots rock tomes about struggle, determination, and the possibility of redemption. He’s not promising anything like a foregone conclusion at this point, but it’s there if we want it bad enough. Song-wise, this is a stronger album from Mellencamp than we had any right to expect, and an excellent from-the-cradle album when we need it most.” AM Mellencamp wanted the album “to have a 1960s rock sound while still remaining contemporary, and he feels that goal was achieved.” WK He said, “We wanted to make sure that it had the same feeling of some of the great songs from the '60s but also had the message of today and had the backbeat of today. I think we came up with a pretty timeless sounding album.” WK The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Someday John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 2/25/2007 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 15 AA, 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.21 streaming About the Song: Mellencamp gets help from “country superstar quartet Little Big Town (who really are to their genre what Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac was to rock and pop – and look to cross over to that side, too) on backing vocals throughout. They add a depth of field on cuts like Someday, with its staggered, layered harmonies, ringing electric guitars, and lost-in-America vision.” AM

Ghost Towns Along the Highway John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.26 streaming About the Song: On “Ghost Towns Along the Highway” “Mellencamp is looking far outside Indiana here, and when he sings ‘Well, our love keeps on movin’/ To the nearest faraway place/ I guess no one believes it’s/ Ghost towns along the highway/ Ghost towns along the main highway,’ a forlorn fiddle glides ragged above the electric six-strings and the drums shuffle to keep up in the void.” AM

The Americans John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 4/21/2007 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 55 CW, 29 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.19 streaming About the Song: “The Americans and ‘Our Country’… are the natural extensions of ‘Little Pink Houses.’ These are songs of determination, of definition of what it means to be an American from the Midwest in an era when America seems to be losing sight of itself. These two tracks have easily identifiable hooks and refrains, and with those big choruses, one can see the video footage from all across the country rolling by on a TV screen, or feel the vibe out on your neighborhood street, that this is the way it should be: open, honest, willing, and, above all, tolerant. There is no Ugly American syndrome in either of these songs: ‘If you ever need some help, come and look my way/ ‘Cause I try to be here for everyone/ I’m an American/ And I respect your point of view...and I wish you good fortune with whatever you do.’ This is no rallying cry, it’s a simply declaration and exhortation to be the citizens of the world this country has always seen itself as (and was seen as by so many) – at least until 9/11.” AM

Forgiveness John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.17 streaming

Freedom’s Road John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.15 streaming About the Song: “The collision of spooky old-time folk, country, and blues that meet in rock drenches the title cut with its double-time snare, edgy Rickenbacker guitars, funky middle-eight bass break, and infectious group chorus. Mellencamp sings it straight: he doesn’t have to shout or growl: ‘Sometimes there’ll be rape/ Sometimes there’s murder/ Sometimes there’s darkness everywhere.../ There’s information, but no one cares.../ Freedom’s road can get narrow.../ If you’re looking for the devil/ He’s out there, on freedom’s road.’” AM

Jim Crow John Mellencamp & Joan Baez

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.14 streaming About the Song: Mellencamp “digs for accountability in Jim Crow, with Joan Baez on duet vocals. With a spooky string section echoing in the background, a lone electric, and layered acoustics, he sings ‘Look what Jim Crow’s done/ Gone and changed his name/ Don’t know what he’s calling himself these days/ But he’s still acting the same,’ and Baez counters ‘You can call it what you want/ But it’s still a minstrel show.’ The guitars get angrier, rising as do the strings countering them; it’s a cut full of drama, shame, and an indictment to repentance with the blind weight of the history of America’s injustice to its own.” AM

Our Country John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 11/11/2006 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 88 BB, 16 AC, 39 CW, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.32 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Our Country” was the most high-profile song from Freedom’s Road due to its use in ads for Chevrolet trucks. It’s “the best hook Mellencamp has written in ages.” AM While the song may be “overly optimistic and idealistic” AM “the TV commercial makes the track seem more romantic than it is.” AM The song is “a statement of not just rights and dreams, but responsibilities.” AM It deals with “protectionism and paranoia” AM and “the frightening ambiguity that comes from…becoming the melting pot of the world.” AM The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Solo Male Performance.

Rural Route John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.17 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: John Mellencamp told Rolling Stone’s Anthony DeCurtis that “Rural Route” came about after “a phone call from my mother, who said that the body of a 10-year-old girl who’d been raped and killed had been found not far from where my parents live.” SF Mellencamp said the last verse “prays for forgiveness, because nobody could have done such a gruesome thing if they had been in their right mind. When you live out here in the middle of nowhere, it's easy to get lost.” SF The song title became the basis of the name for Mellencamp’s 2009 box set On the Rural Route 7609.

My Aeroplane John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.12 streaming

Heaven Is a Lonely Place John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.06 streaming About the Song: “Heaven Is a Lonely Place” is a “scorcher that intersects American music at the crossroads of Johnny Rivers, J.B. Lenoir, Gene Vincent, the Staple Singers, and Mellencamp’s own ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’” AM

Rodeo Clown John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.11 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: This is an unlisted track that ends Freedom’s Road. The song is a seething attack on George Bush and the part he played in initiating the Iraq War. While the country band Little Big Town sang backing vocals on eight other songs from the album, they opted to skip this song because, according to John Mellencamp, “They were afraid that country radio would hear about it, and that would be the end of it for them.” SF Mike Wanchic and Elaine, Mellencamp’s guitarist and then-wife respectively, sang the chorus along with others in the room at the time. SF

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Thom Jurek SF Songfacts.com page for “Rural Route” SF Songfacts.com page for “Rodeo Clown” AM Wikipedia page for Freedom’s Road Related DMDB Pages: First posted 6/20/2010; last updated 2/15/2026.