With wonderfully chosen songs like "Hearts of Stone" and George Jones' classic country weeper "She Thinks I Still Care," John Fogerty's solo debut with The Blue Ridge Rangers has held up well over the last two decades. It isn't the most supple or technically proficient one-man recording of all time, but it's a wonderfully engaging record; upbeat, unpretentious, and loaded with good songs. Fogerty's rigid, no-frills drumming took a lot of heat for being mechanical, but no one has ever explained how Fogerty's abilities on the trap kit are significantly different from Creedence's Doug Clifford. In retrospect, this was a tremendously risky record to make; country music in the early '70s was regarded as the domain of right-wing, rock & roll-hating Nashville traditionalists, and it was reasonable to assume that fans (even staunch ones) wouldn't take kindly to this genre switch. While it wasn't a huge success, it was in no way a disaster, and perhaps more importantly, served as a much-needed rock & roll history lesson... Despite the obvious connection with the past and the Album Title plus the similarity with the cover photography from his previous "Blue Ridge Rangers" project. This represents a real return to form and possibly his best solo offering since the first "John Fogerty" Album. Revival it most certainly is but that in essence is probably exactly what most of his fans want to hear. C.C.R. Revisited. The problem with Creedence is that it all ended much too soon in acrimonious circumstances betweeen the Band Members and the Record Label Fantasy. It`s taken all this time for John Fogerty to come to terms with the demons of his past and release a complete Album worthy of his considerable talents as a song writer and performer. It`s very hard to select stand out tracks from this twelve song set. They'll all pretty damn good. However, "Long Dark Night" really kicks in hard. "Summer of Love" reminds listeners of C.C.R.`s appearence at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and "I can`t take it no more" is a frantic outcry against the Bush Regime and more specifically The War in Iraq. But it is "Creedence Song" which gives the whole Album the feeling of Deja Vu perspective. On a personal note I have recently considered J.F.'s Live set lists to show too much adherence to the C.C.R. Song Book when his own material stands up well and deserves greater opportunity for a Live airing. Nothing currently available including the new Boss Album is much better than this. Good Time Rock 'N' Roll played with heart and sang with Soul. Welcome back with a vengence Foggy.
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