{"id":2468,"date":"2013-10-21T21:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2013-10-23T20:59:02","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T20:59:02","slug":"mellencamp-and-stephen-king-conjur-the-ghost-brothers-of-darkland-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=2468","title":{"rendered":"John Mellencamp and Stephen King conjur the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cRain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow.\u201d The image from 1985 shows John Mellencamp\u2019s knack for literary horror, 15 years before he began writing a musical with iconic horror writer Stephen King. The song about a dying Heartland farm was one of the singer-songwriter\u2019s first indelible artistic statements. Some years ago, Mellencamp bought a lake cabin which turned out to be allegedly haunted — by accidental deaths and restless spirits — the inspiration for Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, <\/i>the ambitious stage production that will come to Fort Wayne (Embassy Theatre) Oct. 24, Madison (Overture Center) \u00a0Oct. 25. Rockford Oct. 26 (Coronado Theatre), Milwaukee (Riverside Theatre) on October 29 and Minneapolis (State Theatre) \u00a0Oct, 31, then on to Iowa.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly Mellencamp is a Stephen King fan and he approached King with the idea of doing a libretto for what became a \u201clive radio musical,\u201d says Ghost Brothers<\/i> director Susan Booth. The story\u2019s key dynamic is two mirroring male relationships — dead brothers who haunt their living nephews in a Southern Gothic atmosphere of poisoned character entanglement.<\/p>\n

The story of jealousy, murder and suicide is set in a Mississippi cabin \u201chaunted by the ghosts of people that had a terrible thing happen,\u201d King said. \u201cBecause it is so awful, their spirits stayed there, and then the whole chain of events starts to repeat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

This all grew from a working relationship of two symbolic blood brothers. King\u2019s prolific literary sensibility rises relentlessly like a specter from the darkest shadows of the American experience. King\u2019s also an amateur musician, and a roots music aficionado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest thing about Ghost Brothers<\/i> is my friendship with Steve King,\u201d Mellencamp said in an interview with The Tennessean<\/i> in Nashville. \u201cHe and I are like brothers. In 15 years, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve had a cross word. We laugh at each other and teased each other quite a lot, but never has there been any kind of, I\u2019m really mad about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project also marked the reunion of two estranged brothers, Dave and Phil Alvin who perform on the recording. However, the biography John Mellencamp: Born in a Small Town<\/i> details his problematic issues with collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t play well with the other kids, and neither did Steve,\u201d Mellencamp admits. \u201cSteve lives in Maine by himself. I live in Indiana by myself so the idea of him and I working together doesn\u2019t sound like it would work very well, both of us are very respectful of each other, and it\u2019s worked fantastically.\u201d<\/p>\n

That almost ominous isolation belies the charisma and strong connections of their individual talents, which attracted an all-star cast recording. That includes Mellencamp\u2019s current girlfriend, Meg Ryan, as Monique, the mother of the living brothers.<\/p>\n

The third member of the dead uncle’s love triangle is Anna sung by the silver-throated Neko Case. One of the first really gripping songs is \u201cWrong Wrong Wrong About Me\u201d by \u201cThe Shape\u201d a ghostly figure sung by Elvis Costello with Marc Ribot\u2019s far-eastern psychedelic guitar backwash.<\/p>\n

Frank and Drake argue in roles by actors Matthew McConaughey and Hamish Linklater. The ironic \u201cBrotherly Love\u201d moves with the shambling funkiness characteristic of Mellencamp\u2019s recent work, with \u00a0singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham (Oscar-winner for Crazy Heart<\/em>) and Will Daily, as the brothers.<\/p>\n

A spectral aura deepens when Kris Kristofferson, as the father Joe, sings \u201cHow Many Days.\u201d Joe\u2019s the younger brother of the two dead uncles and the father of Frank and Drake,. \u201cHome Again\u201d quivers with a winsome lyrical soulfulness in a four-part harmony among Sheryl Crow, Taj Mahal and the Alvin brothers.<\/p>\n

On \u201cYou are Blind\u201d gravel-throated Ryan Bingham as Drake reflects on his love for the woman he shares with his brother.<\/p>\n

Kristofferson\u2019s father Frank begins to tell his story and Taj Mahal invokes chaos in \u201cTear This Cabin Down,\u201d to convey the horror of the murder site.<\/p>\n

Joe continues story about brothers \u201cwho couldn\u2019t get along.\u201d in 1967 when it happened.
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A brotherly heart to heart may not deter tragic fate. Courtesy mediagalleryusatoday.com \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sung by young Clyde Mulroney, \u201cMy Name is Joe,\u201d is a touchingly plainitive flashback ode about the father as a boy and \u201cthe runt to the family,\u201d whose big brothers \u201cwill take care of me.\u201d Later Roseanne Cash sing Monique\u2019s song \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know Me\u201d which reveals how love is ravaged by tragedy and misunderstand, yet a forgiveness persists.<\/p>\n

And yet\u00a0 the dead brothers\u2019 mother Jenna can only ponder, \u201cIt all goes so fast and it\u2019s all so rich, life I mean, and love. It slips away from this world, like silk.\u201d She calls out for Andy and Jack, \u201cwhere did you go?\u201d a sentiment superbly expressed by Sheryl Crow in \u201cAway From This World.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally the song “Truth” is a stirring, swelling ensemble song with Mellencamp having the final musical word.<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, the recording sprawls but it hangs together like a dark, engulfing cloud of inevitability, with committed performances and excellent music.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

The touring cast has some of its own star-power but promises proven acting and musical chops. Ghost Brothers<\/em>\u00a0should be more compelling as a dramatic story line on stage. The show stars actor Bruce Greenwood as the father Joe McCandless. Greenwood is perhaps best known for his roles as JFK in the film Thirteen Days, <\/em>in Flight<\/em>\u00a0as Denzel Washington’s friend and union rep, and as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek<\/em> film and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em>. Broadway actress Emily Skinner, who plays Monique, received a Tony Award nomination for Side Show<\/em>, and has had leading roles in\u00a0Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce’s The Dead, The Full<\/i> Monty<\/i> and Billy Elliot.<\/i><\/p>\n

Both the ghostly uncles and the nephews vie for the hearts of a woman: One is Anna, played by Kylie Brown, who has recently appeared in Atlanta productions of Hello Dolly<\/i> and Hair<\/i>. The other, Jenna, is played by Kate Ferber, whose recent credits include the one-woman show One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro<\/i>.
\nThe Shape, a devil-like character, is played by Jake LaBotz, who is a blues singer-songwriter and has acted in films by Sylvester Stallone and Steve Buscemi. LaBotz has released six of his own albums.<\/p>\n

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The Shape casts a bluesy spell over the people of Darkland County.<\/em><\/p>\n

The company’s music ensemble is Mellencamp\u2019s longtime band, led by bandleader Andy York on guitar, percussionist Dane Clark, Troye Kinnett on Keyboards and harmonica and upright bassist Jon Gunnell.<\/p>\n

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Producer T-Bone Burnett (in suit, front left) \u00a0takes a bow with co-authors John Mellencamp and Stephen King in an early production of Ghost Brothers. www.lijas-library.com<\/em><\/p>\n

The libretto\u2019s shades of Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner and perhaps Carson McCullers underscore that King is a more subtle psychological writer than often given credit for. Typically penetrating lyrics and memorable refrains by Mellencamp reflect a theme of suffering, resilience and self-acceptance in the face of fate.<\/p>\n

Booth says the gritty, low production values \u201callows us to sit and listen to Stephen\u2019s words and plug our imagination in, rather than having the work done for us by a fully stage production.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

The photos in this blog are from a previous production of “Ghost Brothers.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A version of this story was published in The Shepherd Express.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cRain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow.\u201d The image from 1985 shows John Mellencamp\u2019s knack for literary horror, 15 years before he began writing a musical with iconic horror writer Stephen King. The song about a dying Heartland farm … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-DO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions\/2495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}