2017’s Sad Clowns & Hillbillies is another album from Mellencamp’s very strong late career run. It is also a bit of a detour in that the album is billed to John Mellencamp featuring Carlene Carter, a noted country musician in her own right and the daughter of June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash. Carlene Carter contributes co-lead vocals to five of the thirteen songs here on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies and prominent backing vocals on several others (with country star Martina McBride singing on one more). This female presence and dynamic lends Sad Clowns & Hillbillies a sound and dynamic that sets it apart from most of Mellencamp’s other albums, although it never really feels like the work of anyone other than him either.
Sad Clowns & Hillbillies opens with the song “Mobile Blue”, a song that we have already covered as Mellencamp would also include it on his covers record Other People’s Stuff a year later (and we covered that album already). That said, “Mobile Blue” is an excellent way to open this record, a rootsy update to the delta blues that sets the tone for Sad Clowns & Hillbillies wonderfully. Even better is the rambling and yearning “Battle Of Angels”, which finds Carter showing up on the album for the first time with perfectly placed backing vocals. “Battle Of Angels” feels like a song that could have been a massive hit for Mellencamp in the late 80s just written thirty years too late.
Across the album Carlene Carter serves as a perfect foil and balance to Mellencamp and she is given co-lead vocal credits on “Indigo Sunset”, “What Kind Of Man Am I”, “Damascus Road”, and “My Soul’s Got Wings”, as well as a solo lead vocal turn on “Sugar Hill Mountain”. “Indigo Sunset”, largely written by Carter, is a warm, lovely ballad that sounds like modern alt-country or roots rock like Jason Isbell or The Wallflowers. “What Kind Of Man Am I” is a dark ballad about a man at a crucial turning point in his life. “Damascus Road” was written entirely by Carter and is one of a handful of songs here that show the roots of the album as a gospel album. Mellencamp had originally approached Carter to make an album of new songs that felt like traditional religious and gospel songs.
The album ultimately moved in a different direction, but echoes of that original intent can be heard here. Those same religious/gospel roots can be heard as well in “My Soul’s Got Wings”, a poem by Woody Guthrie that Mellencamp set to music and sang a co-lead with Carter on.
The final Carter lead vocal is “Sugar Hill Mountain”, a song Mellencamp wrote for the Meg Ryan film Ithaca and that Carter sang for the soundtrack originally. Because Mellencamp and Carter were working together on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies including “Sugar Hill Mountain” made sense. The song is a fun, modern version of a 1920’s styled song that adds a touch of levity and a sense of history to Sad Clowns & Hillbillies and one of the best things on a strong record, in my opinion. As mentioned before, Carter would also sing backup on several other songs, but these are her prime contributions on Sad Clowns & Hillbillies and they are key to the album’s greatness.
“Grandview” is a delightful, humorous rocker about wanting to live a simple life with his girlfriend in a trailer home placed in Grandview trailer park. The woman agrees to live with him (sung with a perfect twang by Martina McBride), but only if he will buy her a brick house like her mama. The narrator gives in but never gives up his trailer park dream and the song ends with his youngest daughter moving out and him getting ready to move his brand new trailer home down to Grandview, no matter what his wife (ex-wife?) wants any more. It is a fun, rootsy rocker with a sense of humour that not only features Martina McBride but former Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin and former Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker drummer Stan Lynch, as well.
The more Mellencamp centered songs include the first two – “Mobile Blue” and “Battle Of Angels” – as well as “All Night Talk Radio”, “You Are Blind”, “Early Bird Cafe”, “Sad Clowns”, and “Easy Target”.
“All Night Talk Radio” points out how many people are lonely and desperate that they stay up all night to share their problems and feel connection with an unknown DJ who doesn’t really know them, just to feel a sense of community with those in a similar situation. The song makes an insightful point that perhaps helps to explain modern America and is a pretty strong song musically as well. “You Are Blind” is a traditional sounding folk/country ballad about loving a chaotic and difficult woman. Mellencamp rarely writes such direct love songs as this, but this one really works. “Early Bird Cafe” is a good song, but more pleasant album filler than a major song. Still, it fits the album’s sound and tone well and is good while playing. “Sad Clowns” is a vintage throwback that is even recorded to sound like it was made in the 30’s or 40’s. It is a short and humorous song that adds to the vibe more than anything, but I like it.
The record ends with “Easy Target”, a moody piece of social commentary that calls out the racism and poverty still felt by too many directly and allowed by those who could do something about it. It ends the album with a sense of purpose, but it isn’t the best song here musically. It hardly matters though as Sad Clowns & Hillbillies proves to still be a very strong and very interesting album.
The Fat Angel Sings 