by Christine

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

The long-awaited and highly anticipated release of Freedom's Road was well worth the five-year wait. Freedom's Road is pure unparalleled John Mellencamp. Always evolving to reflect the joy and sorrow of our day-to-day lives, and the often turbulent and changing times of the world we live in, Freedom's Road goes a step further and is perhaps one of John Mellencamp's best and most personal albums to date.

John Mellencamp is one of the greatest storytellers of our time. From the landscapes of the mid-west, to a peek into the back windows of pink houses across the US, to the sweltering heat of the political climate, John Mellencamp's music always paints a picture, an image at times breathtakingly beautiful and other times heartbreakingly sad. With an unrepentant candor, John Mellencamp's music reflects the triumphs and struggles of society in an ever-changing world.
Freedom's Road is perhaps the greatest story John Mellencamp has ever told. With music complex and rich with emotion, this album is a long and winding journey as personal and unique as the individual listening. The strains of an achingly beautiful violin can bring tears to the eye, the funky bass line and old-school drumbeat inspires the free-spirited carefree desire to dance, and the echo of a haunting guitar resonates through the mind and body to settle upon the soul where its imprint will remain long after the last note fades. Freedom's Road is an introspective journey into the truths of our personal perception and pride as individuals, and as Americans.
With "Someday", the album's first track, John continues to strengthen that thread of hope for humanity, one tightly woven into every album since "Scarecrow".
"Ghost Towns Along the Highway", the violin exacting the lonely haunting images of desolate towns boarded up and abandoned along the highways, speaks on a deeper, more profoundly personal level to the choices we make in our lives. This song is about the Ghost Towns we all leave behind in our lives. We are free to choose the direction of our own lives, but how do we deal with the regret for the things we should have done and the people we might have been? Our hearts still yearn for that lost destination, as John says, "Our love keeps on moving to that nearest faraway place". Let this song settle into the soul. Let it be a reminder to stay true to the dreams that sustain us.
"The Americans" at first listen, is a patriotic celebration of American pride, its chorus partnered hand in hand with 4th of

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