Performs Trouble No More Live At Town Hall

John Mellencamp has gone from heartland rocker to a folk hero reviving classic folk, country, and blues. His 2003 album Trouble No More was a quickly assembled set of covers. Eleven years later comes this live representation of the tour that supported the album’s release. His performance at New York City’s Town Hall on July 31, 2003, includes 11 of the album’s 12 songs (Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” replaces Skeeter Davis’ “The End of the World”). “Small Town,” “Paper in Fire,” and “Pink Houses” round out the track selection and are performed as reinvented Americana folk songs and dirty electric blues. The studio album had been solid, but these live performances loosen things up appropriately. Mellencamp is in fine voice, and whether it’s Robert Johnson’s “Stones in My Passway,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Baltimore Oriole,” or Lucinda Williams’ “Lafayette,” he and his band—strong on accordion and stand-up bass—make it nearly sound like it’s the '50s in a juke joint down South. Except Mellencamp has a carefully planned setlist.