On the Rural Route 7609

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On the Rural Route 7609
Box set by John Mellencamp
Released	June 15, 2010
Recorded	1976–2009
Genre	Rock, heartland rock, folk
Label	Island Def Jam
Producer	John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp chronology
Life, Death, Live and Freedom (2009) On the Rural Route 7609 (2010) No Better Than This (2010)

On the Rural Route 7609 is a box set by rock singer/songwriter John Mellencamp that was released on June 15, 2010.^[1] The first part of the title refers to the song "Rural Route" (which is included in two versions) from his 2007 album Freedom's Road and the fact that Mellencamp's music and lifestyle have always been very rural in nature, and 7609 references that the set spans Mellencamp's entire recording career from 1976 to 2009.^[2] Said Mellencamp in the set's liner notes: "I started making records in '76, and the most recent track on the collection was done in '09. So Rural Route 7609; it's like an address. I thought it sounded cool."

The liner notes for On the Rural Route 7609 were penned by veteran rock journalist Anthony DeCurtis, who also wrote the liner notes for Eric Clapton's Crossroads and Billy Joel's My Lives. DeCurtis wrote a 4,500-word essay on Mellencamp, and Mellencamp provides track-by-track commentary.