On deck at the ballpark

There’s nothing quite like being at the ballpark in the summertime. There’s as much time spent watching people as watching baseball.

Y0u can head out to the ballpark to hear tunes, too. Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson are doing another summer tour of ballparks, accompanied this time around by John Mellencamp.

The tour starts July 1 at Summerfest in Milwaukee, but Mellencamp won’t make the opener. I’ll have to settle for this tantalizing morsel. It’s Mellencamp live, from his forthcoming EP, a companion piece to last year’s well-received album, “Life Death Love and Freedom.”

“If I Die Sudden (radio edit),” John Mellencamp, from “Life Death Live and Freedom,” 2009.

I’m far from a hardcore Mellencamp fan, but I’ve found him more interesting as he gets older. I’ve always appreciated his passion for his work.

“If I Die Sudden” is the first cut on the EP, recorded at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 2008. Four of the eight cuts come from that show. The rest were recorded in February 2008 in Philadelphia, Toronto and Red Deer, Alberta.

Here’s Mellencamp doing the same tune live at Red Rocks in Denver just four days earlier, on July 27, 2008.