The Midwestern United States (in the U.S. generally referred to as the Midwest) is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America used by the United States Census Bureau in its reporting.

The region consists of twelve states in the north-central United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. A 2006 Census Bureau estimate put the population at 66,217,736. Both the geographic center of the contiguous U.S. and the population center of the U.S. are in the Midwest. The United States Census Bureau divides this region into the East North Central States (essentially the Great Lakes States) and the West North Central States.

Chicago is the largest city in the region, followed by Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Milwaukee. The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA is the largest metropolitan statistical area, followed by the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI MSA, the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA, and the Greater St. Louis area. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is the oldest city in the region, having been founded by French missionaries and explorers in 1668.

The term Midwest has been in common use for over 100 years. A variant term, "Middle West", has been in use since the 19th century and remains relatively common. Another term sometimes applied to the same general region is "the heartland". Other designations for the region have fallen into disuse, such as the "Northwest" or "Old Northwest" (from "Northwest Territory") and "Mid-America". Since the book Middletown appeared in 1929, sociologists have often used Midwestern cities (and the Midwest generally) as "typical" of the entire nation. The region has a higher employment-to-population ratio (the percentage of employed people at least 16 years old) than the Northeast, the West, the South, or the Sun Belt states.

Definition

Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance "Old Northwest" states and many states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase. The states of the Old Northwest are also known as "Great Lakes states". Many of the Louisiana Purchase states are also known as "Great Plains states".

The North Central Region is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as these 12 states:

Illinois: Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes state.

Indiana: Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes state.

Iowa: Louisiana Purchase.

Kansas: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.

Michigan: Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest and Great Lakes state.

Minnesota: Part of Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest, Louisiana Purchase, part of Red River Colony before 1818, Great Lakes state.

Missouri: Louisiana Purchase, Border state.

Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.

North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, part of Red River Colony before 1818, Great Plains state.

Ohio: Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest (Historic Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River, and Great Lakes states. The southeastern part of the state is part of Northern Appalachia.

South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains states.

Wisconsin: Quebec Province prior to 1783, Old Northwest and Great Lakes states.

Physical geography

While these states are for the most part relatively flat, consisting either of plains or of rolling and small hills, there is a measure of geographical variation. In particular, the eastern Midwest near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains; the Great Lakes Basin; the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri; the rugged topography of Southern Indiana and far Southern Illinois; and the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa exhibit a high degree of topographical variety. Prairies cover most of the states west of the Mississippi River with the exception of taiga-clad northern Minnesota. Illinois lies within an area called the "prairie peninsula", an eastward extension of prairies that borders deciduous forests to the north, east, and south. Rainfall decreases from east to west, resulting in different types of prairies, with the tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the rain shadow of the Rockies. Today, these three prairie types largely correspond to the corn/soybean area, the wheat belt, and the western rangelands, respectively. Although hardwood forests in the northern Midwest were clear-cut in the late 19th century, they were replaced by new growth. Ohio and Michigan's forests are still growing. The majority of the Midwest can now be categorized as urbanized areas or pastoral agricultural areas.

Largest Midwestern U.S. cities and urban areas

{|class="wikitable" | style="text-align:left;" |+ Cities |- style="text-align:center;" !Rank !City !State

!Population(2008 census) |- | align=left | 1 | Chicago | IL | align=right | 2,851,268 |- | align=left | 2 | |Detroit | MI | align=right | 910,921 |- | align=left | 3 | Indianapolis | IN | align=right | 807,584 |- | align=left | 4 | Columbus | OH | align=right | 769,332 |- | align=left | 5 | Milwaukee | WI | align=right | 605,013 |- | align=left | 6 | Kansas City | MO | align=right | 482,229 |- | align=left | 7 | Omaha | NE | align=right | 454,731 |- | align=left | 8 | Cleveland | OH | align=right | 431,369 |- | align=left | 9 | Minneapolis | MN | align=right | 385,378 |- | align=left | 10 | Wichita | KS | align=right | 372,186 |}

{|class="wikitable" | style="text-align:right;" |+ Urban Areas |- style="text-align:center;" !Rank !Urban area !State(s) !Population(2000 census) |- | 1 | style="text-align:left;"| Chicago | IL-IN | 8,307,904 |- | 2 | style="text-align:left;"| Detroit | MI | 3,903,377 |- | 3 | style="text-align:left;"| Minneapolis-St. Paul | MN | 2,388,593 |- | 4 | style="text-align:left;"| St. Louis | MO-IL | 2,077,662 |- | 5 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | OH | 1,786,647 |- | 6 | style="text-align:left;"| Cincinnati | OH-KY-IN | 1,503,262 |- | 7 | style="text-align:left;"| Kansas City | MO-KS | 1,361,744 |- | 8 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | WI | 1,760,268 |- | 9 | style="text-align:left;"| Indianapolis | IN | 1,287,919 |- |10 |align="left" | Columbus | OH | 1,133,193 |}

{|class="wikitable" | style="text-align:right;" |+ Metro Areas |- style="text-align:center;" !Rank !Metro area !State(s) !Population(2009 estimate) |- | 1 | style="text-align:left;"| Chicago | IL-IN-WI | 9,580,567 |- | 2 | style="text-align:left;"| Detroit | MI | 4,403,437 |- | 3 | style="text-align:left;"| Minneapolis-St. Paul | MN-WI | 3,269,814 |- | 4 | style="text-align:left;"| St. Louis | MO-IL | 2,828,990 |- | 5 | style="text-align:left;"| Cincinnati | OH-KY-IN | 2,171,896 |- | 6 | style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland | OH | 2,091,286 |- | 7 | style="text-align:left;"| Kansas City | MO-KS | 2,067,585 |- | 8 | style="text-align:left;"| Columbus | OH | 1,801,848 |- | 9 | style="text-align:left;"| Indianapolis | IN | 1,743,658 |- | 10 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | WI | 1,559,667 |}

History

Exploration and early settlement

European settlement of the area began in the 17th century following French exploration of the region. The French established a network of fur trading posts and Jesuit missions along the Mississippi River system and the upper Great Lakes. French control over the area east of the Mississippi River ended in 1763 with the conclusion of the French and Indian War. British colonists began to expand into the Ohio Country during the 1750s. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 temporarily restrained expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains, but did not stop it completely. West of the Mississippi River, French settlers flourished in towns such as St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve until the mid 18th century.

Early settlement began either via routes over the Appalachian Mountains, such as Braddock Road, or through the waterways of the Great Lakes. Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) at the source of the Ohio River was an early outpost of the overland routes. The first settlements in the Midwest via the waterways of the Great Lakes were centered around military forts and trading posts such as Green Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Detroit. The first inland settlements via the overland routes were in southern Ohio or northern Kentucky, on either side of the Ohio River, and early such pioneers included Daniel Boone and Spencer Records.

The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as corn, oats, and, most importantly, wheat. The region soon became known as the nation's "breadbasket".

Development of transportation

Two waterways have been important to the development of the Midwest. The first and foremost was the Ohio River, which flowed into the Mississippi River. Development of the region was halted until 1795 due to Spain's control of the southern part of the Mississippi and its refusal to allow the shipment of American crops down the river and into the Atlantic Ocean.

The second waterway is the network of routes within the Great Lakes. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 completed an all-water shipping route, more direct than the Mississippi, to New York and the seaport of New York City. In 1848, The Illinois and Michigan Canal breached the continental divide spanning the Chicago Portage and linking the waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf of Mexico. Lakeport and River cities grew up to handle these new shipping routes. During the Industrial Revolution, the lakes became a conduit for iron ore from the Mesabi Range of Minnesota to steel mills in the Mid-Atlantic States. The Saint Lawrence Seaway (1862, widened 1959) opened the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean. is shared by four Midwestern states: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.]]

In the 1870s and 1880s, the Mississippi River inspired two classic books – Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – written by native Missourian Samuel Clemens, who used the pseudonym Mark Twain. His stories became staples of Midwestern lore. Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri is a tourist attraction offering a glimpse into the Midwest of his time.

Inland canals in Ohio and Indiana constituted another important waterway, which connected with Great Lakes and Ohio River traffic. The commodities that the Midwest funneled into the Erie Canal down the Ohio River contributed to the wealth of New York City, which overtook Boston and Philadelphia. New York State would proudly boast of the Midwest as its "inland empire"; thus, New York would become known as the Empire State.

Transportation

During the mid-19th century the region got its first railroads, and the railroad junction in Chicago grew to be the world's largest. Even today, a century after Henry Ford, six Class I railroads meet in Chicago.

In the period from 1890 to 1930 many Midwestern cities, towns, villages, and even farms were connected by interurbans, or electrical streetcars. The Midwest had more interurbans than any other region. In 1916, Ohio led all states with 2,798 miles (4502 km), Indiana followed with 1,825 miles (2936 km). These two states alone had almost a third of the country's interurban trackage. The nation's largest interurban junction was in Indianapolis. During the first decade of the 20th century the city's 38% growth in population was attributed largely to the interurban.

Competition with a growing population of automobiles and buses traveling on paved highways led to a decline in the interurban and other railroad passenger business. Henry Ford and Charles Kettering, the inventor of the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline, were both products of the Midwest, as were the Wright brothers.

19th century sectional conflict

The Northwest Ordinance region, comprising the heart of the Midwest, was the first large region of the United States that prohibited slavery (the Northeastern United States emancipated slaves in the 1830s). The regional southern boundary was the Ohio River, the border of freedom and slavery in American history and literature (see Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Beloved by Toni Morrison). The Midwest, particularly Ohio, provided the primary routes for the "Underground Railroad", whereby Midwesterners assisted slaves to freedom from their crossing of the Ohio River through their departure on Lake Erie to Canada.

The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, democratic notions brought by American Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads.

Industrialization and immigration

By the time of the American Civil War, European immigrants bypassed the East Coast of the United States to settle directly in the interior: German immigrants to Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and eastern Missouri; Irish immigrants to port cities on the Great Lakes, especially Chicago; Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians to Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas; and Finns to Upper Michigan and northern/central Minnesota. Poles, Hungarians, and Jews settled in Midwestern cities.

The U.S. was predominantly rural at the time of the Civil War. The Midwest was no exception, dotted with small farms all across the region. The late 19th century saw industrialization, immigration, and urbanization that fed the Industrial Revolution, and the heart of industrial domination and innovation was in the Great Lakes states of the Midwest, which only began its slow decline by the late 20th century.

In the 20th century, African American migration from the Southern United States into the Midwestern states changed Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Gary, Detroit, Minneapolis, and many other cities in the Midwest dramatically, as factories and schools enticed families by the thousands to new opportunities.

History of the term Midwest

As this region lies mostly in the eastern half of the United States, the term "Midwest" can be misleading if one does not understand American history.

The term West was applied to the region in the early years of the country. In 1789, the Northwest Ordinance was enacted, creating the Northwest Territory, which was bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Because the Northwest Territory lay between the East Coast and the then-far-West, the states carved out of it were called the "Northwest". In the early 19th century, anything west of the Mississippi River was considered the West, and the Midwest was the region east of the Mississippi and west of the Appalachians. In time, some users began to include Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri in the Midwest. With the settlement of the western prairie, the new term Great Plains States was used for the row of states from North Dakota to Kansas. Later, these states also came to be considered Midwest by some.

The states of the "old Northwest" are now called the "East North Central States" by the United States Census Bureau and the "Great Lakes" region by some of its inhabitants, whereas the states just west of the Mississippi and the Great Plains states are called the "West North Central States" by the Census Bureau. Today people as far west as eastern Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and southward into Oklahoma sometimes identify themselves with the term Midwest. Some parts of the Midwest are still referred to as "Northwest" for historical reasons – for example, Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines and Northwestern University in Illinois – so the Northwest region of the country is called the "Pacific Northwest" to make a clear distinction.

Culture

is the largest city in the Midwest]] is the busiest commercial border crossing in North America.]] is the third largest city in the Midwest]] is the fourth largest city in the Midwest]] of St. Louis is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Midwest.]]

Religiously, like most of the United States, the Midwest is mostly Christian.

Roman Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in the Midwest, varying between 19 and 29% of the state populations. Southern Baptists compose 15.42% of Missouri's population and a small percentage in other Midwestern states. Lutherans are prevalent in the Upper Midwest, especially in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Judaism and Islam are each practiced by 1% or less of the population, with higher concentrations in major urban areas, such as Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Cleveland. Those with no religious affiliation make up 13–16% of the Midwest's population. Around 50% of the people in the Midwest regularly attend church.

The rural heritage of the land in the Midwest remains widely held, even if industrialization and suburbanization have overtaken the states in the original Northwest Territory.

Because of 20th century African American migration from the South, a large African-American urban population lives in most of the region's major cities, although the concentration is not generally as large as that of the Southern United States. The combination of industry and cultures, jazz, blues, and rock and roll led to an outpouring of musical creativity in the 20th century, including new music genres such as the Motown Sound and techno from Detroit and house & blues music from Chicago. Additionally, the electrified Chicago blues sound exemplifies the genre, as popularized by record labels Chess and Alligator and portrayed in such films as The Blues Brothers, Godfathers and Sons and Adventures in Babysitting. Rock and roll music was first identified as a new genre by a Cleveland radio disc jockey, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located in Cleveland.

Cultural overlap with neighboring regions

Differences in the definition of the Midwest mainly split between the Heartland and the Great Plains on one side, and the Great Lakes and the Rust Belt on the other. While some point to the small towns and agricultural communities in Kansas, Iowa, the Dakotas, and Nebraska of the Great Plains as representative of traditional Midwestern lifestyles and values, others assert that the declining Rust Belt cities of the Great Lakes – with their histories of 19th- and early-20th-century immigration, manufacturing base, and strong Catholic influence – are more representative of the Midwestern experience.

Certain areas of the traditionally defined Midwest are often cited as not being representative of the region, while other areas traditionally outside of the Midwest are often claimed to be part of the Midwest. These claims often embody historical, cultural, economic or demographic arguments for inclusion or exclusion. Perceptions of the proper classification of the Midwest also vary within the region, and tend toward exclusion rather than inclusion.

Two other regions, Appalachia and the Ozark Mountains, overlap geographically with the Midwest – Appalachia in Southern Ohio and the Ozarks in Southern Missouri. The Ohio River has long been the boundary between North and South and between the Midwest and the Upper South. All of the lower Midwestern states, including Missouri, have a major Southern component, but only Missouri was a slave state before the Civil War.

Western Pennsylvania, which contains the cities of Erie and Pittsburgh and the Western New York city of Buffalo, New York, shares history with the Midwest but overlaps with Appalachia and the Northeast as well.

Kentucky is rarely considered part of the Midwest, although it can be grouped with it in some contexts. It is categorized as Southern by the Census Bureau and is usually classified as such especially from a cultural standpoint.

Political trends

One of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party, originated in Ripon, in east-central Wisconsin, in the 1850s. It included opposition to the spread of slavery into new states as one of its agendas.

Midwestern political caution is sometimes peppered with protest, especially in minority communities or those associated with agrarian, labor, or populist roots. This was especially true in the early 20th century, when Milwaukee was a hub of the Socialist movement in the United States, electing three Socialist mayors and the only Socialist Congressional representative (Victor L. Berger) during that time. The metropolis-strewn Great Lakes region tends to be the most liberal area of the Midwest, and liberal presence diminishes gradually as one moves south and west from that region into the less-populated rural areas. The Great Lakes region has spawned politicians such as the La Follette political family, labor leader and five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, and Communist Party leader Gus Hall. Minnesota has produced liberal national politicians Paul Wellstone, Walter Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, and Hubert Humphrey, and protest musician Bob Dylan.

The region is now home to many critical swing states that do not have strong allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican party. Upper Midwestern states, such as Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have proven reliably Democratic. Normally a Republican stronghold, Indiana became a key state in the 2006 mid-term elections, picking up three House Seats to bring the total to five Democrats to four Republicans representing Indiana in the U.S. House. In 2008, Indiana voted for the Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in 44 years. Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Missouri had supported the winning candidate all but once since the beginning of the 20th century.

The state government of Illinois is currently dominated by the Democratic Party. One Illinois senator is a Democrat and a majority of the state's U.S. Representatives are also Democrats. Illinois voters have preferred the Democratic presidential candidate by a significant margin in the past five elections (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008). The same is true of Michigan and Wisconsin, which also currently have Democratic governors and two Democratic senators.

Iowa is considered by many analysts to be the most evenly divided state in the country, but has leaned Democratic for the past fifteen years or more. Iowa had a Democratic governor from 1999 until Terry Branstad was re-elected in the mid-term elections in 2010, has had both a Democratic and Republican Senator since the early 1980's, currently has three Democratic Congressmen out of five, and has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in four out of the last five elections, (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008). Since the 2006 mid-term elections, Iowa had a state legislature dominated by Democrats in both chambers; however, after the mid-term elections of 2010 Republicans regained a significant majority in the Iowa House of Representatives. However an recent Iowa supreme court ruling over same sex marriage was a win for the democrats, and is a hot topic of debate.

Minnesota voters have chosen the Democratic candidate for president longer than any other state. Minnesota was the only U.S. state (along with Washington, D.C.) to vote for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984 (Minnesota is Mondale's home state). In Iowa and Minnesota, however, the recent Democratic pluralities have often been fairly narrow. Minnesota has elected and re-elected a Republican governor, as well as supported some of the strongest gun concealment laws in the nation.

In 2006, Democrats scored major gains across the region. In Iowa, Democrats gained control of the state legislature and held onto the governor's mansion, giving them one-party control of Iowa's government. Elsewhere, Democrats gained control of the Wisconsin Senate, the Michigan Legislature, and the Indiana House. Minnesota, thought to be trending Republican, saw the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) post double-digit gains in the Minnesota House and win all state-wide elections, save for the gubernatorial race. Democrats also won all all Illinois statewide offices. On a federal level, Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican incumbent Mike DeWine 56-44 for the U.S. Senate. Consistently, Ohio is a battle-ground state in presidential elections—no Republican has won the office without winning Ohio. This trend has contributed to Ohio's reputation as a quintessential swing state.

By contrast, the Great Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas have been strongholds for the Republicans for many decades. These four states have gone for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since 1940, except for Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Barack Obama's capture of one electoral vote in Nebraska in 2008. However, North Dakota's Congressional delegation has been all-Democratic since 1987, and South Dakota has had at least two Democratic members of Congress in every year since 1987. Nebraska has elected Democrats to the Senate and as Governor in recent years, but the state's House delegation has been all-Republican since 1995. Kansas has elected a majority of Democrats as governor since 1956 but has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.

Missouri is considered a "bellwether state". Only twice since 1904 has the Show-Me-State not voted for the winner in the presidential election, in 1956 and in 2008. Missouri's House delegation has generally been evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the Democrats holding sway in the large cities at the opposite ends of the state, Kansas City and St. Louis, and the Republicans controlling the rest of the state. Missouri's Senate seats were mostly controlled by Democrats until the latter part of the 20th century, but the Republicans have held one or both Senate seats continuously since the 1976 elections.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the region spawned the Populist movement in the Plains states and later the Progressive movement, which consisted largely of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. The Republicans were unified anti-slavery politicians, whose later interests in invention, economic progress, women's rights and suffrage, freedman's rights, progressive taxation, wealth creation, election reforms, temperance, and prohibition eventually clashed with the Taft–Roosevelt split in 1912. The region was a progressive stronghold for much of the early 20th century. Roosevelt's 1912 Progressive Party had the best showing in this region; carrying the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s 1924 Progressive Party also showed a similar trend as he carried his home state of Wisconsin. The Protestant and Midwestern ideals of profit, thrift, work ethic, pioneer self-reliance, education, democratic rights, and religious tolerance influenced both parties, despite their eventual drift into opposition.

Some in the Midwest favor isolationism, a belief that America should not involve itself in foreign entanglements. This position gained much support from German- and Swedish-American communities and leaders like Robert M. La Follette, Sr., Robert A. Taft, and Colonel Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune.

Linguistic characteristics

The accents of the region are generally distinct from those of the South and of the urban areas of the American Northeast. To a lesser degree, they are also distinct from the accent of the American West.

The accent characteristic of most of the Midwest is considered by many to be "standard" American English. This accent is preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters.

This may have started because many prominent broadcast personalities – such as Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Brokaw, John Madden, and Casey Kasem – came from this region and so created this perception. A November 1998 National Geographic article attributed the high number of telemarketing firms in Omaha to the "neutral accents" of the area's inhabitants. Currently, many cities in the Great Lakes region are undergoing the Northern cities vowel shift away from the standard pronunciation of vowels.

The dialect of Minnesota, western Wisconsin, much of North Dakota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula is referred to as the Upper Midwestern Dialect (or "Minnesotan"), and has Scandinavian and Canadian influences.

See also

Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

Heartland rock

Islands of the Midwest

List of colleges and universities in the United States#Midwest

List of Midwestern cities by size

List of Midwestern urban areas

List of regions of the United States

Midwest hip hop

Eastern United States

Western Interior Seaway

Notes

References

Buley, R. Carlyle. The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815-1840 2 vol (1951), Pulitzer Prize

Cayton, Andrew R. L. Midwest and the Nation (1990)

Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Susan E. Gray, Eds. The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History. (2001)

Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1992), 1850-1900 excerpt and text search

Garland, John H. The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography (1955)

Gjerde, John. Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (1999) excerpt and text search

Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)

Meyer, David R. "Midwestern Industrialization and the American Manufacturing Belt in the Nineteenth Century", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Dec., 1989) pp. 921–937.in JSTOR

Nordin, Dennis S., and Roy V. Scott. From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture. (2005) 356pp.

Shannon, "Fred A. The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. Vol. 37, No. 3. (Dec., 1950), pp. 491–510. in JSTOR

Sisson, Richard, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton, eds. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (Indiana University Press, 2006), 1916 pp of articles by scholars on all topics covering the 12 states; ISBN 0-253-34886-2 ISBN 978-0-253-34886-9

Slade, Joseph W. and Judith Lee. The Midwest: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures (2004)

Primary sources

Frederick; John T. ed. Out of the Midwest: A Collection of Present-Day Writing (1944) literary excerpts online edition

Category:Regions of the United States Category:Census regions of the United States

Name	Tech N9ne
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Aaron Dontez Yates
Born	November 08, 1971
Origin	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper
Years active	1985–present
Associated acts	The Regime, K.A.B.O.S.H., 57th Street Rogue Dog , Nnutthowze, 816 Boyz, Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Yukmouth
Label	Strange Music
Url	TheRealTechN9ne.com

Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "Tech Nine"), is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. In 1999, Yates and Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. Throughout his career, Yates has sold over one million albums and has had his music featured in film, television, and video games. In 2009, he won the Left Field Woodie award at the mtvU Woodie Awards.

Early life

Tech N9ne was born Aaron Dontez Yates on November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri. He never met his father, and his mother suffered from epilepsy and lupus when he was a child, which deeply affected him and inspired him to "search for God". Yates later applied a deeper meaning to the name, claiming that it stands for the complete technique of rhyme, with 'tech' meaning technique and 'nine' representing the number of completion.

Career

Early in his career, Yates was a member of a group called Black Mafia. He saw glimpses of success in the group 57th Street Rogue Dog with their single "Let's Get Fucked Up." As a member of the group Nnutthowze, Aaron Yates signed with Perspective Records in 1993. However, the group disbanded soon after being released from the label. Yates signed with Qwest Records briefly before moving to JCOR Records. The following year, he was featured on the soundtrack for the film Gang Related. Yates appeared on the song "The Anthem" by Sway & King Tech in 1999, which also featured artists RZA, Eminem, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Jayo Felony, Chino XL, KRS-One, and Kool G. Rap. Later that year, he and Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music.

In 2001, Yates released the studio album Anghellic on JCOR Records. The following year, he released Misery Loves Kompany. Yates announced that the album was the first in a series of "Tech N9ne Collabos" albums that feature a wide range of guest appearances. That September, he exceeded one million album sales.

Yates later performed at the Rock The Bells 2009 Festival and the tenth annual Gathering of the Juggalos. That October, he released K.O.D., short for King of Darkness. The album featured a dark overtone, as Yates was dealing with the illness of his mother. An EP of cut songs from the album was released in 2010 as The Lost Scripts of K.O.D. Later that year, Yates released his third Collabos album, The Gates Mixed Plate. Yates hopes to feature both T-Pain and Lil Wayne on his song "Fuck Food" on the new album. Yates was originally set to score the entire film Alpha Dog, but the studio decided to replace some of his music with more commercially known songs. In 2009, his song "Let's Go" was used in an online promotional short film for AXE body spray. Yates also appears as an actor in the films Vengeance and .

Video games

Several of Yates' songs are featured in the video games Madden NFL 2006, ,EA Sports MMA, and 25 To Life, the latter of which Yates is also an unlockable character. In 2009, Yates and label mate Krizz Kaliko appeared in a promotional video for the Fight Night Round 4 video game.

Television

Yates' music has appeared on the television shows Dark Angel, I'm From Rolling Stone, My Super Sweet 16, The Hills, Spike Guys' Choice Awards, and Warren The Ape. In 2008, his song "Earthquake" was featured on an episode of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew in which the crew had to visually convey the title of the song in their performance. On the August 15, 2009 Strikeforce event, , MMA fighter Gilbert Melendez entered the arena to Tech N9ne's 2006 song "The Beast" for his bout with Mitsuhiro Ishida. His song "Riot Maker" was used as the official theme song for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's 2010 Hardcore Justice pay-per-view.

Discography

Studio albums

1999: The Calm Before the Storm

2000: The Worst

2001: Anghellic

2002: Celcius

2002: Absolute Power

2006: Everready (The Religion)

2007: Misery Loves Kompany

2008: Killer

2009: Sickology 101

2009: K.O.D.

2010: The Gates Mixed Plate

2011: All 6s And 7s

;with K.A.B.O.S.H. 2011: Amafrican Psycho

EPs

2010: The Lost Scripts of K.O.D.

2010: Seepage

Mixtapes

2010: Bad Season with DJ Whoo Kid

Selected filmography

2003: Beef

2003: Das Bus

2004: T9X: The Tech N9ne Experience

2004: United Ghettos of America Vol. 2

2005: Hip Hop Nation Vol. 1

2005: Letter to the President

2006: Alpha Dog 2008: The Psychumentary

2009: The Life of Lucky Cucumber

2009: Strictly Strange

2010: K.O.D. Tour (Live in Kansas City)

2010: Vengeance

2011:

:Selected filmography notes :1. Tech N9ne does not physically appear, but he did have a helping hand in scoring the movie, this includes the placement of several of his songs in the films score as well as the appearance of a song from fellow label mates Skatterman & Snug Brim.

Awards and nominations

mtvU Woodie Awards

References

External links

Official website

Category:1971 births Category:African American rappers Category:Horrorcore artists Category:Living people Category:Rappers from Missouri Category:People from the Kansas City metropolitan area Category:Underground rappers

Name	Lucinda Reddick Bassett
Birthdate	September 28, 1954
Birthplace	Toledo, Ohio, United States
Occupation	CEO, Author, Speaker
Nationality	American
Genre	self-help

Lucinda Reddick Bassett is an American self-help author and motivational speaker and keynote presenter.

Background

A former agoraphobic, Bassett founded the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety headquartered in Oak Harbor, Ohio in 1984. She is the creator of "Attacking Anxiety and Depression", which is a 15-week home study course about recovery from anxiety disorders such as agoraphobia and panic attacks. Though she has published and produced several products, the program "Attacking Anxiety and Depression" is Bassett's most known product. The program is a 15-week workshop for recovery from anxiety disorder and clinical depression, which Bassett claims often co-exist within the sufferer. Participants may use the program by attending in-person workshops, by purchasing an audio version, through one-on-one counseling or via the company's web site. The program advocates an approach that is cognitive, rather than pharmaceutical. Bassett places emphasis upon relaxation techniques and what she refers to as "positive thinking" as a means of recovery.

Bassett's flagship infomercial has aired on late-night television for over a decade. She has appeared on many national (U.S.) talk shows, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, the Montel Williams Show and Hour of Power. In addition, her work has been featured in several (U.S.) magazine publications, including Family Circle, Reader's Digest, and The Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Personal life

Bassett is the mother of two, Brittany and Sammy, and lives in Malibu, California. Bassett's husband, David Bassett, died on June 7, 2008 at the age of 53 of an apparent suicide.

Books

From Panic to Power (1996) ISBN 0-060927-58-5.

Life Without Limits (2001) ISBN 0-060956-52-6.

See also

Anxiety

Stress

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

References

External links

The Midwest Center for Stress & Anxiety

Harper Collins author's profile

Category:American self-help writers Category:Popular psychology Category:Living people Category:1965 births Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Name	Krayzie Bone
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Anthony Henderson
Born	June 17, 1974
Alias	Krayzie, Leather Face, Krayzie Jackson (as a Tribute for Michael Jackson)
Origin	Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper, entrepreneur, producer, singer
Years active	1993–present
Label	Ruthless (1994–2003) ThugLine (1998–present) Full Surface (2005–present) Interscope (2006–present)
Associated acts	Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Chamillionaire, Trae, Z-RO, Mike Jones, Thug Line, Lil' JJ, Tech N9ne
Url	http://conquertheindustry.com/

Anthony Henderson (born June 17, 1974) better known as Krayzie Bone, is an artist and member of the rap/hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Biography

Solo career

Krayzie recorded his solo debut, Thug Mentality 1999, in 1998. The album was released as a double disc set, featuring a large selection of guest appearances, including Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, The Marley Brothers, Mariah Carey, Big Pun, Fat Joe, E-40, 8 Ball & MJG, Kurupt, Treach and Snoop Dogg. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA.

In 2001, Krayzie released Thug On Da Line. The album didn't do as well as his previous release, and was criticized for its frequent guest appearances from fellow Thugline members by a few hardcore fans. However his album received plenty of positive reviews from music critics and went gold. Amazon.com went as far as labeling it one of the best albums of 2001.

In 2006 Krayzie Bone was featured in a song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire. "Ridin'" was awarded "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Rap Song. It became number one in December on the Piczo Chart 3 months after its physical release. The song also topped the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart when it was released there.

The song ranked #3 on Rolling Stone's "100 Best Songs of 2006" and #91 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop." It was the best selling ringtone in 2006, with 3.2 million sales, certified by the RIAA as the first multi-platinum Mastertone artist in history. It was also awarded the last Best Rap Video at the MTV Video Music Awards, which was awarded in 2006.

Record labels

Krayzie Bone was a founding member of Mo Thugs Family, a collective of Cleveland based rap and Hip-Hop musical acts. He broke apart from the group in 1998 to form ThugLine Records, or TL. In many videos he can be spotted wearing a chain that says TL.In 2010 the name ThugLine Records was changed to The Life Entertainment. In order to reach out to more artists and identify the best talent for The Life Entertainment label, Conquer The Industry was developed as an internet channel to help up and coming music artists break into the music industry.

Discography

Studio albums

1999: Thug Mentality 1999

2001: Thug on da Line

2003:

2005:

Compilations albums

2005: Too Raw for Retail

2007: Thugline Boss

2007: Mellow, Smooth And Krayzie

2010: Everybody Wants A Thug

Mixtapes

2008:

2009:

2010:

Awards

Grammy Award

1997: "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" (Tha Crossroads)

2007: "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" (Ridin')

MTV Video Music Award

2006: "Best Rap Video" (Ridin')

American Music Award

1998: "Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist"

2007: "Best Duo or Group Rap/Hip-Hop"

References

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:African American rappers Category:Musicians from Ohio Category:Hip hop singers Category:People from Cleveland, Ohio Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Bone Thugs-n-Harmony members Category:Rappers from Ohio

Name	John Mellencamp
Background	solo_singer
Alias	Johnny CougarJohn CougarJohn Cougar MellencampThe coug
Born	October 07, 1951Seymour, Indiana, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Genre	Rock, heartland rock, roots rock, folk
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
Years active	1976–present
Label	MCA, Riva, Mercury, Columbia, Island, Universal Republic Records, Hear Music
Associated acts	Crepe SoulTrashMason BrothersMitch RyderJames McMurtryMe'Shell NdegeocelloChuck DIndia.ArieTrisha YearwoodLittle Big TownJoan Baez
Url	JohnMellencamp.com

John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, (born October 7, 1951) is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds in favor of organic instrumentation. He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. His latest album, No Better Than This, was released on August 17, 2010 to widespread critical acclaim.

Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. The Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 25 years, and as of 2010 the organization has raised over $39 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. The 25th anniversary Farm Aid concert was held at Miller Park in Milwaukee on October 2, 2010.

Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 by Billy Joel. His biggest musical influences are Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and The Rolling Stones.

Early life

Mellencamp was born in Seymour, Indiana with a mild form of spina bifida that necessitated a lengthy stay in the hospital as a baby. He is descended from German immigrant Johann Herman Möhlenkamp, who came to the White Creek area of Bartholomew County, Indiana in 1855.

He formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14 DeFries insisted that Mellencamp's first album, Chestnut Street Incident, a collection of covers and a handful of original songs, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar, suggesting that the bumpy German name "Mellencamp" was too hard to market. The album was a complete failure, selling only 12,000 copies.

Mellencamp recorded The Kid Inside in 1977, the follow-up to Chestnut Street Incident, but DeFries eventually decided against releasing the album and Mellencamp was dropped from MCA records (DeFries finally released The Kid Inside in early 1983, after Mellencamp broke through to stardom). He drew interest from Rod Stewart's manager, Billy Gaff, after parting ways with DeFries and was signed to the tiny Riva Records label. At Gaff's request, Mellencamp moved to London, England for nearly a year to record, promote and tour behind 1978's A Biography. The record wasn't released in the United States, but it yielded a hit in Australia with "I Need a Lover". In his second painting exhibition, at the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery in Indianapolis in 1990, Mellencamp's portraits were described as always having sad facial expressions and conveying "the same disillusionment found in his musical anthems about the nation's heartland and farm crisis."

Performing as John Mellencamp (1991–1997)

Mellencamp's 1991 album, Whenever We Wanted, was the first with a cover billed to John Mellencamp—the Cougar was now gone forever. Whenever We Wanted yielded the Top 40 hits "Get a Leg Up" and "Again Tonight," but "Last Chance," "Love and Happiness" and "Now More Than Ever" all garnered significant airplay on rock radio. "It's very rock 'n' roll," Mellencamp said of Whenever We Wanted. "I just wanted to get back to the basics."

In 1993, he released Human Wheels, and the title track peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard singles chart. "To me, this record is very urban," Mellencamp told Billboard magazine of Human Wheels in the summer of '93. "We had a lot of discussions about the rhythm and blues music of the day. We explored what a lot of these (current) bands are doing — these young black bands that are doing more than just sampling."

Mellencamp's 1994 Dance Naked album included a cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Night" as a duet with Me'Shell NdegeOcello. The album also contained two protest songs in "L.U.V." and "Another Sunny Day 12/25", in addition to the title track, which hit No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1994. "This is as naked a rock record as you're going to hear," Mellencamp said of Dance Naked in a 1994 Billboard magazine interview. "All the vocals are first or second takes, and half the songs don't even have bass parts. Others have just one guitar, bass, and drums, which I haven't done since American Fool."

With guitarist Andy York now on board as Larry Crane's full-time replacement, Mellencamp launched his Dance Naked Tour in the summer of 1994, but a minor heart attack suffered after a show at Jones Beach in New York on August 8 of that year eventually forced him to cancel the last few weeks of the tour.

He returned to the concert stage in early 1995 by playing a series of dates in small Midwestern clubs under the pseudonym Pearl Doggy.

In September 1996, the experimental album Mr. Happy Go Lucky, which was produced by Junior Vasquez, was released to critical acclaim. "It's been fascinating to me how urban records use rhythm and electronics, and it's terribly challenging to make that work in the context of a rock band," Mellencamp told Billboard magazine in 1996. "But we took it further than an urban record. The arrangements are more ambitious, with programs and loops going right along with real drums and guitars."

Mr. Happy Go Lucky spawned the No. 14 single "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" (Mellencamp's last Top 40 hit) and "Just Another Day," which peaked at No. 46.

Recording for Columbia (1998–2003)

After the release of Mr. Happy Go Lucky and a subsequent four-month tour from March–July 1997 to promote it, Mellencamp signed a four-album deal with Columbia Records, although he wound up making only three albums for the label.

Issued a day before his 47th birthday in 1998, his self-titled debut for Columbia Records included the singles "Your Life is Now" and "I'm Not Running Anymore," along with standout album tracks such as "Eden Is Burning," "Miss Missy," "It All Comes True" and "Chance Meeting At The Tarantula." The switch in labels coincided with Dane Clark replacing Aronoff on drums. "On this record, we ended up quite a-bit away from where we started," Mellencamp told Guitar World Acoustic in 1998. "Initially, I wanted to make a record that barely had drums on it. Donovan made a record (in 1966), Sunshine Superman, and I wanted to start with that same kind of vibe—Eastern, very grand stories, fairy tales."

He released a book of his early paintings, titled Paintings and Reflections, in 1998.

In 1999, Mellencamp covered his own songs as well as those by Bob Dylan and the Drifters for his album Rough Harvest (recorded in 1997), one of two albums he owed Mercury Records to fulfill his contract (the other was The Best That I Could Do, a best-of collection).

The early 21st century found Mellencamp teaming up with artists such as Chuck D and India.Arie to deliver his second Columbia album, Cuttin' Heads and the single "Peaceful World". Cuttin' Heads also included a duet with Trisha Yearwood on a love song called "Deep Blue Heart." "He played me this song," Yearwood told Country.com, "and he said, 'I kind of have an idea of like when Emmylou Harris sang on Bob Dylan's record, just kind of harmony all the way through.'"

Mellencamp embarked on the Cuttin' Heads Tour in the summer of 2001, before the album was even released. He opened each show on this tour with a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" and also played a solo acoustic version of the Cuttin' Heads track "Women Seem" at each show.

In 2003, he released Trouble No More, a quickly-recorded collection of folk and blues covers originally done by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Lucinda Williams and Hoagie Carmichael. The album was also dedicated to Mellencamp's friend, Billboard magazine editor-in-chief Timothy White, who died from a heart attack in 2002. In October 2002, Mellencamp performed the Robert Johnson song "Stones In My Passway" at two benefit concerts for White. Columbia Records executives, who were in attendance at the benefits shows, were so impressed with Mellencamp's live renditions of "Stones In My Passway" that they convinced him to record an album of vintage American songs, which ultimately became Trouble No More. Mellencamp sang the gospel song "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" at White's funeral on July 2, 2002. Trouble No More spent several weeks at #1 on Billboard's Blues Album charts.

Words and Music and Freedom's Road (2004–2007)

Mellencamp participated in the Vote for Change tour in October 2004 leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. That same month he released the two-disc career hits retrospective , which contained 35 of his radio singles (including all 22 of his Top 40 hits) along with two new tunes, "Walk Tall" and "Thank You" — both produced by Babyface but written by Mellencamp.

In 2005, Mellencamp toured with Donovan and John Fogerty. The first leg of what was called the Words and Music Tour in the spring of '05 featured Donovan playing in the middle of Mellencamp's set. Mellencamp would play a handful of songs before introducing Donovan and then duetting with him on the 1966 hit "Sunshine Superman." Mellencamp would leave the stage as Donovan played seven or eight of his songs (backed by Mellencamp's band) and then return to finish off his own set after Donovan departed. On the second leg of the tour in the summer of '05, Fogerty co-headlined with Mellencamp at outdoor amphitheaters across the United States. Fogerty would join Mellencamp for duets on Fogerty's Creedence Clearwater Revival hit "Green River" and Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow."

Mellencamp released Freedom's Road, his first album of original material in over five years, on January 23, 2007. "Our Country," the first single from the album, was played as the opening song on Mellencamp's 2006 spring tour, and the band that opened for him on that tour, Little Big Town, was called on to record harmonies on the studio version of "Our Country," as well as seven other songs on Freedom's Road. "Our Country" began being featured in Chevy Silverado TV commercials in late September 2006, and Mellencamp sang the song to open Game 2 of the 2006 World Series. "Our Country" was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance but lost out to Bruce Springsteen's "Radio Nowhere."

Mellencamp wrote and produced all 10 songs on Freedom's Road, and the record peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart by selling 56,000 copies in its first week on the market. In addition to "Our Country," Freedom's Road included "Jim Crow," a duet with Joan Baez, "Rural Route" and "Someday," which was the album's second single.

The T Bone Burnett Era (2008–present)

On August 13, 2007, Mellencamp began recording his 18th album of original material, titled Life, Death, Love and Freedom. The album, which was released on July 15, 2008, was produced by acclaimed roots producer T Bone Burnett. The first song with video, "Jena," was introduced on Mellencamp's website in October 2007. In an interview with the Bloomington Herald-Times in March 2008, Mellencamp dubbed Life, Death, Love and Freedom "The best record I've ever made." He signed with Starbucks' Hear Music label to distribute the album and said, "they think it's a fucking masterpiece." The album's first single was "My Sweet Love." A video for the song was filmed in Savannah, GA on June 9, 2008. Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town is featured in the video. She harmonizes with Mellencamp on "My Sweet Love" and provides background vocals to three other songs on Life, Death, Love and Freedom, which became the ninth Top 10 album of Mellencamp's career when it debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 the week of August 2, 2008. It sold 56,000 copies in its first week on the market. In its list of the 50 best albums of 2008, Rolling Stone magazine named Life, Death, Love and Freedom No. 5 overall and also dubbed "Troubled Land" No. 48 among the 100 best singles of the year.

Mellencamp made a guest appearance at Billy Joel's July 16, 2008 concert at Shea Stadium in New York. Mellencamp sang "Pink Houses" in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 60,000 people., Australia on Nov. 29, 2008.]]

On September 3, 2008, Mellencamp made available on his website a home-video recording of his solo acoustic cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" as a sign that the 2008 Presidential Election is going to bring about change in America.

On September 23, 2008, Mellencamp filmed a concert at the Crump Theatre in Columbus, Indiana for a new A&E; Biography series called "Homeward Bound." The show features performers returning to small venues they performed at during the early stages of their careers. Mellencamp had last played at the Crump Theatre on October 4, 1976. The program aired on December 11, 2008 and also featured an in-depth documentary tracing Mellencamp's roots.

For the first time since 1992, Mellencamp toured Australia and New Zealand with opening act Sheryl Crow from November 15 – December 7, 2008. Crow joined Mellencamp on stage to duet on "My Sweet Love" during the last seven shows.

Mellencamp participated in a tribute concert for Pete Seeger's 90th birthday on May 3, 2009 at Madison Square Garden in New York City which raised funds for an environmental organization founded by Seeger to preserve and protect the Hudson River. Mellencamp performed solo acoustic renditions of Seeger and Lee Hays' "If I Had a Hammer" and his own "A Ride Back Home."

In the Summer of 2009, Mellencamp embarked on a tour of minor league ballparks with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson that ran from July 2–August 15.

While he was on tour, Mellencamp recorded a new album, titled No Better Than This, that was again produced by T-Bone Burnett. The tracks for the album were recorded at historic locations, such as the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia as well as at the Sun Studio in Memphis and the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, where blues pioneer Robert Johnson recorded "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Crossroad Blues". Mellencamp recorded the album using a 1955 Ampex portable recording machine and only one microphone, requiring all the musicians to gather together around the mic. The album was recorded in mono. Mellencamp wrote over 30 songs for the record (only 13 made the final cut), and he wrote one song specifically for Room 414 at the Gunther Hotel. "It's called 'Right Behind Me'. I wrote it just for this room." Mellencamp told the San Antonio Express-News. "I could have done this in my studio. But I want to do it this way, and if I can't do what I want at this point, I'm not going to do it. If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it. I'm through digging a ditch." No Better Than This was released on August 17, 2010 and peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming the 10th Top 10 album of his career. No Better Than This is the first mono-only release to make the top 10 since James Brown's Pure Dynamite! Live At The Royal, which peaked at #10 in April 1964.

On December 6, 2009, Mellencamp performed "Born in the U.S.A." as a tribute to Bruce Springsteen, who was one of the honorees at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors. "I was very proud and humbled to have been able to play 'Born in the U.S.A.' in a different fashion that I think was true to the feelings that Bruce had when he wrote it." Mellencamp said. He performed "Down By The River" on January 29, 2010 in Los Angeles in tribute to Neil Young, who was honored at the 20th annual MusiCares Person of the Year gala. Mellencamp sang the hymn "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" at "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" on February 9, 2010.

A career-spanning box set of album tracks and demos titled On the Rural Route 7609 was released on June 15, 2010, nine weeks before No Better Than This hit stores. "If you didn’t get deeper into the original albums and know these songs, it will be like discovering new material." Mellencamp said about On the Rural Route 7609.

Mellencamp, who co-headlined 11 shows in the summer of 2010 with Bob Dylan, launched the No Better Than This theater tour on October 29, 2010 in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. On this tour, which will run through late April 2011 and cover the entire United States, Mellencamp is opening each concert with a showing of a Kurt Markus documentary about the making of No Better Than This called "It's About You" before hitting the stage to play three different sets: a stripped-down acoustic set with his band, a solo acoustic set, and a fully electrified rock set. "It'll be like Alan Freed, like the old Moondog shows." Mellencamp told Billboard magazine. "When you went to see his shows, there was a movie, like 'The Girl Can't Help It' or something, and then three or four bands played. I'm gonna come out and play with upright bass and cocktail [drum] kits and a lot of acoustic instruments. I'll play for, like, 40 minutes that way. Then the band will leave and it'll just be me with an acoustic guitar for 40 minutes, and then there'll be 40 minutes of rock 'n' roll. You'll get three different types of John Mellencamp, and you'll get a movie." Mellencamp is playing for over two hours and including 24 songs in his setlist on the tour.

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

Mellencamp has been working on a musical with horror author Stephen King, entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, since 2000. Liv Ullmann said in a March 2010 radio interview that she will direct the stage version of the musical. According to Mellencamp's website, production of the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County CD/book package began on June 15, 2009, when T Bone Burnett began laying down tracks in Los Angeles, California, for the songs Mellencamp has written for the musical. The recording will be available in a book package containing the full text, two discs featuring the entire production of the spoken word script and songs performed by the cast, and a third CD of the songs only. Mellencamp said the soundtrack includes Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, and Neko Case.

In November 2010, Mellencamp told the Chicago Tribune: "T Bone and I and Stephen King are working on a musical. All the music has been recorded. We had Kris Kristofferson, Neko Case, Elvis Costello, Taj Mahal, all singing different characters' roles. I wrote all the songs, 17 songs. (T Bone) produced. ... The play is called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, about two brothers who hate each other. ... They’re recording the dialogue now and we're putting out a record of the entire show before it comes out. Right now, Elvis Costello, Meg Ryan, Kris Kristofferson, and Matthew McConaughey are doing table readings like an old radio play. So you’ll get all the dialogue, all the sound effects, and all the songs sung by different people so you can follow the story. The CD will come out ahead of time, and then Liv Ullmann will be directing the play." He told the paper, "[I]t's our own money we’re putting into it".

Ryan D'Agostino of Esquire stated in a review of a New York rehearsal of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County in the fall of 2007, "Musicals aren't usually a guy thing. This one, though, is not only tolerable, it's good. It may be the first-ever musical written by men for men. There's no orchestra, just two twangy acoustic guitars, an accordion, and a fiddle. The songs are both haunting and all-American."

Movie career

Mellencamp has made several forays into acting over the years, appearing in four films: Falling from Grace (which he also directed) (1992), Madison (2001, narration only), After Image (2001), and Lone Star State of Mind (2002). His older brother, Joe Mellencamp, appears in Falling from Grace as the bandleader during the country club scene.

In 1980, Mellencamp turned down the lead role in the movie The Idolmaker because, as he told the Toledo Blade in 1983, "I was afraid that if I made too much money, I'd have no motivation to make records anymore."

Mellencamp told VH1 that he was originally offered the Brad Pitt role in Thelma and Louise: "You know they used to want me to be an actor all the time and I used to get more movie role offers. That's when I was – believe it or not, I used to not be as ugly as I am now. And they gave me this script called Thelma & Louise and they said, 'The guy wrote the part with you in mind, John, you really gotta do this part.' And I read the script and I thought, 'Yeah, I get it but I don't want to take my shirt off.' So Brad Pitt took his shirt off and look what happened to Brad Pitt. I was that close."

In April 2007, Mellencamp was a "guest critic" on At the Movies, filling in for Roger Ebert.

Personal life

Mellencamp lives in Bloomington, Indiana. He married former supermodel Elaine Irwin Mellencamp on September 5, 1992, but on December 30, 2010, Mellencamp announced that he and Irwin had separated after 18 years of marriage. Mellencamp has five children from his three marriages: Michelle from his first marriage to Priscilla Esterline (1970–81); daughters Teddi Jo and Justice from his second marriage to Victoria Granucci (1981–89); and sons Hud and Speck from his marriage to Irwin.

In 2000, he gave the Indiana University commencement address, in which he advised graduates to "play it like you feel it!" and that "you'll be all right." Following the delivery of his address, Indiana University bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate of Musical Arts.

Politics and activism

in 2007]]

Mellencamp was critical of Ronald Reagan through his music in the 1980s and wrote numerous songs about him, including "Country Gentleman," where he sang: "He ain't-a gonna help no poor man/He ain't-a gonna help no children/He aint-a gonna help no women/He's just gonna help his rich friends."

In 2003, Mellencamp became one of the first entertainers to speak out against the Iraqi War when he released the song "To Washington", which was also critical of the 2000 U.S. Presidential elections. "When the song first came out I was in the car one day and we were driving to the airport and I had my kids with me and a radio station was playing 'To Washington' and having callers call in." Mellencamp said. "Some guy comes on and says, 'I don't know who I hate the most, John Mellencamp or Osama bin Laden.'"

In an "Open Letter to America" on his website, Mellencamp stated: }}

On his 2007 album Freedom's Road, Mellencamp included a hidden track called "Rodeo Clown," which was a direct reference to George W. Bush ("The bloody red eyes of the rodeo clown").

In April 2007, Mellencamp performed for wounded troops at the Walter Reed Medical Center. His original intent was to duet on the Freedom's Road track "Jim Crow" with singer and activist Joan Baez. However, Army officials barred Baez from performing. He told Rolling Stone magazine: "They didn’t give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.' Joan Baez is a 66-year-old woman and the sweetest gal in the world."

According to a February 8, 2008, Associated Press report, Mellencamp's camp asked that the campaign for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain stop using his songs, including "Our Country" and "Pink Houses," during their campaign events. McCain's campaign responded by pulling the songs from their playlist. Mellencamp's publicist, Bob Merlis, noted to the Associated Press that "if [McCain is] such a true conservative, why [is he] playing songs that have a very populist pro-labor message written by a guy who would find no argument if you characterized him as an ardent leftist?" Merlis also noted that the same songs had been used, with Mellencamp's approval, by John Edwards's campaign; in response, the McCain campaign ceased using the songs.

Mellencamp performed "Small Town" at a Barack Obama rally in Evansville, Indiana on April 22, the night of the 2008 Pennsylvania primary. Mellencamp also performed "Our Country" at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 3, 2008, although he never came out in support of either Obama or Clinton during the primaries. "Neither candidate is as liberal as he would prefer, but he's happy to contribute what he can," Merlis said.

On January 18, 2009, Mellencamp performed "Pink Houses" at the at the Lincoln Memorial.

In 2010, Mellencamp's music was used by the National Organization for Marriage at events opposing same-sex marriage. In response, Mellencamp instructed Merlis to pen a letter to NOM stating "that Mr. Mellencamp’s views on same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM's stated agenda" and requesting that NOM "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."

Honors and awards

Mellencamp has won one Grammy Award (Best Male Rock Performer for "Hurts So Good" in 1982) and been nominated for 12 others. He has also been bestowed with the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Special Music Industry Humanitarian Award (1991), the Billboard Century Award (2001), the Woody Guthrie Award (2003), and the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award (2007). On October 6, 2008, Mellencamp won the prestigious Classic Songwriter Award at the 2008 Q Awards in London, England. Mellencamp was nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009 and 2010 but was not elected either time. On September 9, 2010, Mellencamp received the Americana Lifetime Achievement Award in Nashville.

Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2008. The induction ceremony took place in New York City on March 10, 2008, and Mellencamp was inducted by good friend Billy Joel, who asked Mellencamp to induct him into the Rock Hall back in 1999 (Mellencamp had to opt out because of another commitment, so Ray Charles inducted Joel). During his induction speech for Mellencamp, Joel said:

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Discography

See also

Best selling music artists

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

Bruce Robb (producer)

Footnotes

External links

Mellencamp.com Official Website

2007 Vanity Fair Feature

Category:Living people Category:1951 births Category:American Lutherans Category:American male singers Category:American musicians of German descent Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American rock singers Category:Songwriters from Indiana Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Indiana Democrats Category:Musicians from Indiana Category:People from Seymour, Indiana Category:People with spina bifida Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees