On August 30th, John Mellencamp will become the fifth recipient of the prestigious Woody Guthrie Prize at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Woody Guthrie Center. The annual award is given to an artist “who best exemplifies Guthrie’s spirit and life work by speaking for the less fortunate and serving as a positive force for social change.” Last month, Guthrie’s daughter Nora inducted Mellencamp into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City.
NewsOK.com posted the day after the event, the Guthrie Center will present the show “Mellencamp,” which has been curated by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and presented in Tulsa by the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. The exhibit includes Mellencamp’s beloved 1966 Silver Honda Scrambler 305 motorcycle; his legendary Gibson Dove acoustic guitar used throughout his career; and paintings such as “The Stardust Sisters,” which depicts actresses Meg Ryan and Laura Dern.”
Newly released is John Mellencamp‘s latest multi-media collection, Plain Spoken: From The Chicago Theatre. The live set is available on DVD/CD, Blu-ray/CD, and digital formats. The disc includes Mellencamp’s highly personal voice-overs, which “offer fresh insights into his Midwestern upbringing, career, and his outlook on life.” The concert film was directed by Barry Ehrmann and filmed in October 2016 during the final leg of Mellencamp’s 120-date “Plain Spoken Tour.”
Plain Spoken: From The Chicago Theatre features special guest Carlene Carter, and includes Mellencamp performing such classics as “Small Town,” “Minutes To Memories,” “Pop Singer,” “Cherry Bomb,” “Longest Days,” “Authority Song,” and “Pink Houses” — along with recent cuts from his latest album,Sad Clowns And Hillbillies.
The tracklisting to Plain Spoken: From The Chicago Theatre is: “Lawless Times,” “Troubled Man,” “Minutes To Memories,” “Small Town,” “Stones In My Passway,” “Pop Singer,” “Check It Out,” “Longest Days,” “The Full Catastrophe,” “My Soul’s Got Wings,” “Overture,” “Rain On The Scarecrow,” “Paper In Fire,” “Authority Song,” “Pink Houses,” and “Cherry Bomb.”
