John Mellencamp was relatively unknown when photographer Norman Seeff shot this 1979 session. “He was very young, kind of baby-faced,” recalls Seeff. “But I was blown away by his vitality.” Seeff was also impressed by Mellencamp’s authenticity, a trait reflected in his casual attire. “It was as if he was saying, ‘This is who I am. I come with nothing but a denim shirt and a cigarette,’” Seeff says. “There was nothing pre-conceptual... 

BOX SET REVIEW John Mellencamp On the Rural Route 7609 [Mercury/Island/UMe] When it comes time for the box-set treatment, most artists are content to line up a few discs’ worth of hits and rarities and let ’em fly. John Mellencamp is not like most artists. On the Rural Route 7609 is a four-CD collection that sets out to tell a story all its own, tracing connections among its songs and emphasizing its author’s current attitudes and concerns...