“The first great singer-songwriter”, according to John MellencampAuthenticity seems an especially rare characteristic in the realm of music, and even rarer in the world of heartland rock. John Mellencamp has always gravitated towards the more genuine and honest voices, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, but even then, he recognised that even they could sometimes get it wrong. “Bob Dylan used to call me up in the middle of the night and read his lyrics to me that he was working on for new records,” Mellencamp told Billboard. “Buddy Holly was one of the first great singer-songwriters,” Mellencamp told Rolling Stone. Clearly, then, it doesn’t matter to Mellencamp where an artist comes from or how they choose to tell their story.