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This intermezzo has a function. It serves to present some of Mellencamp's best tunes in a different light, bringing their messages home ever more fully. These songs either represent Mellencamp's influences (the strikingly beautiful "Farewell Angelina" and "In my Time of Dying") or Mellencamp's most profound, and often most personal, songwriting efforts. "Jackie Brown" gets a more rythmic, percussive arrangement, as does "Between a Laugh and a Tear". "Scarecrow" gets its tempo slowed a bit, and its arrangement made stark, so that it no longer sounds like a heartland rocker's tune, but rather like something a delta bluesman would perform. Although a few songs remain faithful to their mostly-acoustic original recordings (see "Key West Intermezzo" and "When Jesus Left Birmingham"), many of these tunes utilize their new arrangements to demonstrate their strength and vitality.

Throughout his career, Mellencamp had developed from a rocker who showed occasional depth and insight into a great songwriter. The versatility of his tunes stand as a testament to his ability to communicate some fundamental truths about the realities he sees around him. By stipping down his arrangements a bit, and calling upon his blues, folk and country influences, Mellencamp enables his work to communicate more clearly the everyman experiences and insights that form the cornerstone of his best work. For example, "When Jesus Left Birmingham" has as its protagonist a man who observes, in himself and in those around him, the limitations of the human ability transcend worldly circumstances and act solely according to the dictates of the conscience and heart. Stripping the song down a bit allows the starkness of the song's observations to ring even more truly.

An early reviewer said it best this CD is Mellencamp Unplugged. Mellencamp and his band took a number of his early songs and based on old interviews or two, I think these are some of his favorite songs and reworked them. The CD sounds like the Studio C CDs put out by radio station KBCO each year.

The songs are given a country style and some come out in a more enjoyable. I especially enjoy "Love and Happiness" in this style. I've always like "Human Wheels" and the covers, "Farewell Angelina", "Under the Boardwalk" and "In My Time of Dying" are excellent. Two other gems are "Between a Laugh and a Tear" and "Jackie Brown." The whole effort gives you a feel of a concert in a small bar.