Sad Clowns & Hillbillies

Songs

Mellencamp and Carter gave the first glimpse into the project by debuting two songs ("Indigo Sunset" and "My Soul's Got Wings") live during their 2016 concerts, and Mellencamp released "Easy Target," his "reflection on the state of our country", on January 19, 2017 – the eve of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration. "My Soul's Got Wings" features music written by Mellencamp and lyrics written by folk legend Woody Guthrie, one of Mellencamp's heroes and primary influences.

Although initially billed as a duets album, Sad Clowns & Hillbillies does not strictly consist of duets. Mellencamp and Carter sing together on only five of the album's 13 songs. "Sad Clowns and Hillbillies is a wonderful conglomeration of [John's] songs and my songs", Carter told Pacific University. "Some are duets and some are by themselves – it's different, but really kind of the way John and I roll. We are very like-minded and on musical ground that really feels right. It's been quite a wonderful ride".

In 2016, Mellencamp told USA Today: "We wrote a couple of songs together, and she wrote some and I wrote some."

The album contains several songs Mellencamp originally wrote for other projects, including "Sugar Hill Mountain", which was originally written for Ithaca, and a pair of songs ("What Kind of Man Am I" and "You Are Blind") from Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. The album's second single, "Grandview", was written in the early 1990s by Mellencamp's cousin, Bobby Clark (Mellencamp has a co-writing credit – he contributed to the melody and the arrangement), who plays in a band in Indiana. Country star Martina McBride sings the song's bridge. McBride said of her involvement: "At that time... the head of both of our labels was Scott Borchetta and he just put it together. I was just thrilled to do it because [Mellencamp] has been a part of the soundtrack of my life".

"All Night Talk Radio" was originally recorded for potential inclusion on Mellencamp's 1996 album Mr. Happy Go Lucky but didn't make the final track listing. The version included on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies is from the mid-1990s Mr. Happy Go Lucky recording sessions, but Mellencamp added a few new elements to the recording, such as backing vocals from Carter.

There are also two covers songs on the album – the first is "Mobile Blue" from Mickey Newbury's 1971 album Frisco Mabel Joy, the second is the little-known 1970 Jerry Hahn Brotherhood folk song "Early Bird Cafe," which Mellencamp has covered at various times throughout his career on solo acoustic guitar. Mellencamp saw the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood open for Frank Zappa in the early 1970s at Middle Earth in Indianapolis and has had an affinity for "Early Bird Cafe" ever since. In 2009, he performed "Early Bird Cafe" solo acoustic on the NPR show Fresh Air and told host Teri Gross that it is his "party song."

Song insights

Grandview: This ode to life in a trailer park was originally recorded by Mellencamp during the 1992/93 sessions for his Human Wheels album. The version on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies was recorded in late 1993, when Mellencamp held recording sessions for 6-8 new songs to be included on a box set that was going to be titled "Nothing Like We Planned" but was later scrapped. At the time, David Grissom, Mellencamp's guitar player on Whenever We Wanted and Human Wheels, had recently left the band. Mellencamp temporarily filled the void with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who was featured on "Grandview" and "Miss Missy", another song from the late 1993 sessions that ultimately wound up on Mellencamp's 1998 self-titled album. Also featured on "Grandview" and "Miss Missy" was former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch, who at the time had recently parted ways with Petty and was called on to temporarily replace Kenny Aronoff, Mellencamp's primary drummer. Aronoff and Mellencamp were at odds at the time over Mellencamp's belief that Aronoff was taking on too much session work outside the band. Aronoff would later return to record two more albums with Mellencamp, 1994's Dance Naked and 1996's Mr. Happy Go Lucky, before leaving the band for good.

"That song was written many, many years ago by myself and my cousin, Bobby Clark", Mellencamp told American Songwriter magazine. "It's been hanging around the vault since forever. I'd pull it out and work on it now and then, but it never really worked. Finally on this record it seemed to gel". Mellencamp said during his iHeart Radio release party for Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, prior to duetting on the song with Clark: "Bob wrote the song, and it didn't really have a very good arrangement on it. The arrangement was not very good [laughs]. We tried to work on it... it took 25 years to get the song playable [laughs]. To give [Bobby] credit, the idea of the song was great. It was very humbling... like a guy said, 'It's the only time I've ever heard a song that makes living in a house trailer sound sexy.'"

Indigo Sunset: The only song on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies that Mellencamp and Carter wrote together, "Indigo Sunset" was started by Carter and finished by Mellencamp: "It was called 'I See You,' which, John goes, 'It sounds like the f---ing emergency room,'" Carter told the Bend Bulletin. "And I said, 'You're right, and I've known that.' And I knew I needed to change it, but I just thought – in fact, I didn't even think he was gonna even like the song 'Indigo Sunset.' So he titled it, and he changed it; he made it better. That's what I love about collaboration, is you can start with something and then carry it around for a long time, and you can't see your way to finishing it the way that it deserves to be finished. And so it became ours instead of just mine".

Background

Mellencamp said Sad Clowns & Hillbillies was borne out of his collaboration with Carter on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County and Ithaca. He said through those two projects and their time on tour together that the two became "singing buddies". Mellencamp gave insight into the genesis of the project to Yahoo's Katie Couric when debuting "Easy Target" on January 19, 2017, saying: "It's crazy the way it started – it was going to be a religious record. It started out like 'Look, lets go back and do an old country religious record. We'll try to write songs that sound like those songs, but they'll be new.' And then it just kept evolving and evolving and evolving, and the songs that she was bringing and the songs that I was bringing – they weren't so religious. I write a lot of sad songs, so it's like Sad Clowns & Hillbillies – that's where it came from".

Artwork

The artwork on the front cover of Sad Clowns & Hillbillies was taken from a 2005 Mellencamp painting called "Twelve Dreams". Mellencamp said he saw an article that reviewed of one of his painting exhibits where "Twelve Dreams" was "stripped" and he then thought it would work as the album's cover art. He told Jim Kerr of iHeart Radio: "It never really dawned on me to use it for an album cover, but I saw a review of one of my painting shows and they had stripped it like that – you know, just that stripe – and I thought, 'That looks good for the album cover.' Because they were talking to me about doing a photo session and I went, 'I don't want to do that.'"

This marks the first time since 1991's Whenever We Wanted that Mellencamp has displayed one of his paintings on an album cover.

Tour

Mellencamp launched his Sad Clowns & Hillbillies Tour on June 5, 2017 in Denver, CO. The 2017 leg of the tour concluded on September 3 in Canfield, OH. Carter, Emmylou Harris, Jewel, and Lily & Madeleine served as supporting acts on the 2017 leg of the tour. Mellencamp finished the Sad Clowns & Hillbillies Tour with a run of Canadian shows that began September 26, 2018 in Moncton, New Brunswick and wrapped up on November 14 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Carter did not accompany Mellencamp on the Canadian portion of the tour.

Personnel

John Mellencamp – lead vocals, background vocals, guitar

Carlene Carter – duet vocals, background vocals

Andy York – acoustic guitar, electric guitar

Mike Wanchic – acoustic guitar, electric guitar

John Gunnell – bass

Dane Clark – drums

Miriam Sturm – violin

Troye Kinnett – keyboards, harmonica

Additional musicians

Lily & Madeleine – background vocals ("What Kind of Man Am I")

Christie Brinkley – background vocals ("What Kind of Man Am I")

Toby Myers – electric bass ("Grandview" and "All Night Talk Radio")

Stan Lynch – drums ("Grandview")

Izzy Stradlin – electric guitar ("Grandview")

Kenny Aronoff – drums and percussion ("All Night Talk Radio")