As Posted at: www.phillly.com

“Homeward Bound: John Mellencamp,” a new documentary from Philadelphia-based Stage 3 Productions (a subsidiary of Center City Film and Video), premieres at 9 tonight on the Biography Channel.

The film, which traces the singer-songwriter’s career from its roots in Seymour, Ind., the small town where he was born, with spina bifida, in 1951, boasts extensive interviews with Mellencamp and with those who know him, including former band members who chose a different path from the guy once known - to his embarrassment and theirs - as “Johnny Cougar.”

There’s not a lot of personal dishing of the “E! True Hollywood Story” sort, but “Homeward Bound” does a nice job of showing how record companies shape our perception of their artists, and what it took Mellencamp to get that Cougar off his back.

In any case, Mellencamp fans won’t want to miss the included concert, filmed at an Indiana theater where he’d performed 30 years earlier. *

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Spina Bifida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.