The collection consists of a total of 19 CDs originally released over a recording career that spans 35 years.
For the first time, albums Mellencamp recorded as John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp and John Mellencamp for Polygram, Universal, Sony and Concord-affiliated labels are all in one package.
The set contains 223 tracks and 13 of the albums in this collection were certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum, while 10 of them went Top Ten on Billboard’s Top 100 Album Chart.
Of special note is the fact that the collection includes the out-of-print original soundtrack album to Falling From Grace, the Mellencamp-directed film that was a collaboration with noted author Larry McMurty. That disc includes tracks by Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Nanci Griffith, Joe Ely, James McMurtry and John Prine.
There are bonus tracks concluding twelve of the albums, sourced from the 2005 re-mastered versions of Mellencamp’s Mercury releases.
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, his collaboration with author Stephen King and T Bone Burnett, is a touring theatrical entity with dates throughout the Midwest this fall. An accomplished painter, Mellencamp has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his work; the latest, his first museum exhibition, is set to open next month at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.
In recent years Mellencamp was the recipient of Billboard’s Century Award, the Woody Guthrie Award, The ASCAP Foundation’s Champion Award, The John Steinbeck Award as well as induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This past week it was announced that John Mellencamp is a candidate for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Mellencamp holds the record for the most tracks (7) by a solo artist to hit the top position on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart, all of which are included in the new box set collection.
Mellencamp has been writing new songs for an album he plans to record early in 2014 with T Bone Burnett slated to produce.
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