Trouble No More

1	Stones in My Passway 3:17
2	Death Letter 6:14
3	Johnny Hart 4:31
4	Baltimore Oriole 3:54
5	Teardrops Will Fall 4:24
6	Diamond Joe 4:37
7	The End of the World 3:24
8	Down in the Bottom 3:31
9	Lafayette 3:55
10	Joliet Bound 3:34
11	John the Revelator 3:19
12	To Washington 2:39

Barnes & Noble

John Mellencamp has always worn his heartland roots as a badge of pride, rarely straying far from the rich Indiana soil that helped spawn such classic albums as Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee. This covers-based collection shares a sonic clarity with those Mellencamp favorites, not to mention a political -- or, at the very least, socially conscious -- dexterity all too often absent from the doctrinaire world of issue-oriented rock. On Trouble No More, Mellencamp dips deep into the blues lexicon, concentrating on the darkest, most brooding aspects, evident in covers of Memphis Minnie's mournful "Joliet Bound" and Son House's haunting "Death Letter." The grit in the singer's voice is matched by the spare arrangements, most of which focus on Andy York's Delta-derived slide guitar playing. As most folks do when delving in this direction, Mellencamp takes a crack at interpreting Robert Johnson, and he deserves credit for sidestepping the blues legend's staples for a credible take on "Stones in my Passway." The disc's sole original, "To Washington," leans toward the country side of the country-blues spectrum, taking a stark, Guthrie-styled look at the nation's leaders, who come up sorely wanting. The surface of Trouble No More may seem quite new, but beneath it all, the album shows that John Mellencamp -- irascible and ready to brawl -- hasn't changed a whit. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Trouble No More, John Mellencamp's first covers album, came together rather quickly, following his performance of Robert Johnson's "Stones in My Passway" at a tribute concert for the late Billboard editor Timothy White. From all accounts, it was one of the highlights of the show, and it lead to this quickly recorded collection of covers. In a little over two weeks, Mellencamp and his band cut a bunch classic blues and folk songs, mixing in a Lucinda Williams song, a Hoagy Carmichael tune, Skeeter Davis' "End of the World," and "Teardrops Will Fall," recorded by Wilson Pickett, for good measure. All this suggests that Trouble No More is a loose, rather unorthodox affair, sometimes playing it fairly traditional and sometimes not, which is precisely what this record is. While there are no radical re-inventions here, even with him penning new lyrics to the traditional folk tune "To Washington," all the music sounds distinctly Mellencamp, since it has the same Appalachian-tinged classic rock foundation that he's been trafficking since The Lonesome Jubilee. The arrangements go back and forth between spare, bluesy cuts featuring no more than one guitar to a full-blown band, so big it nearly sounds ornate. Mellencamp takes this music seriously, so he gives committed performances, even if he takes it serious enough to really loosen up and give the music a little grit and unpredictability. So, Trouble No More is a fairly somber affair, but that's really no different than Mellencamp's other albums. What gives it some distinction is that there's a freshness to the music, largely derived from its quick recording, a quality that has been lacking in his records for many years now, arguably since Big Daddy. That freshness makes Trouble No More a cut above the average covers record of the late '90s/early 2000s, and a cut above many recent Mellencamp albums, as well. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone

Mellencamp injects real grit into his readings of... old blues and string-band tunes. Parke Puterbaugh

Entertainment Weekly

Bursts with old-time voodoo bluster. (B+) Jim Farber

Billboard

With this thoroughly pleasing covers set, it becomes readily apparent that Mellencamp is deserving of much more respect than he has been paid.