New Fogerty album + beer = Friday night

John Fogerty
Album: The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again (Verve Forecast)
In stores: Now
Sunset ride: The title of John Fogerty's new album may look grammatically askew, but there's a story there. After Creedence Clearwater Revival dissolved in the early 1970s, Fogerty went solo...with a twist. He recorded a '73 album as the Blue Ridge Rangers, playing every instrument and covering such heroes as Hank Williams (Jambalaya). Thirty-six years later, on this relaxed, twang-centric followup, Fogerty enlists a few new Rangers to his cause, including Kenny Aronoff on drums and Don Henley on Rick Nelson's wistful rock seance Garden Party.
Reminds us of: With that beautifully broken wagon wheel of a voice, Fogerty honors down-home peers John Prine (Paradise) and John Denver (Back Home Again). But the best re-do is the Everly Brothers' When Will I Be Loved, done in fun, furious tandem with Bruce Springsteen. A Fogerty original, Change in the Weather is hamhanded politicizing and totally skippable. But if you're looking for relaxed accompaniment to a six-pack of suds, this album's a charmer.
Download this: When Will I Be Loved
Grade: B

Woodstock at 40: Do you even care?

This is a horrible thing for a music fan to say — and an actionable statement for a music critic — but I never cared much about Woodstock. It seemed inconvenient, overblown, populated with 500,000 people I wouldn’t like. Plus I have an irrational fear of getting sprayed with LSD, but I digress...

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of that “aquarian exposition in White Lake, N.Y.,” and I wasn’t sure how to write about it. Then an oversized answer arrived in my mailbox: Rhino Records’ Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm, a new, beautifully detailed six-CD set that collects one-fifth of the music heard at the 3-day event. Many of the digitally gussied live performances here are “previously unissued”: Creedence Clearwater Revival (Bad Moon Rising), Joe Cocker (Feelin’ Alright) the Who (Pinball Wizard). How remarkable is that? Somehow there remains “new” stuff to be picked from the Woodstock carcas!

The most fascinating recordings, however, are the public-address remarks from MC Chip Monck (“The brown acid is not particularly too good”) and stage manager John Morris (“Bring Scully his asthma pills”). There’s a beautifully awkward moment when concertgoers climbing the stage scaffolding are reprimanded with withering passive-aggressiveness: “If you’re determination was the same as your selfishness, we’d be able to have gatherings like this every week.” Hippies vs. hippies!

Woodstock deserves its mythology: At the end of a turbulent decade, peace reigned, if only for a weekend. But the famed concert also deserves the truth. It wasn’t an absolute love-in, the perfect moment in time that’s been sold to my generation ad nauseam. Instead, it was a mess, and a lot of people were jerks. On the Rhino set, one concertgoer shouts at the stage not for peace — but for the Mets score! And yet, for all of the awkwardness and ugliness and not-perfect-ness, beauty, and some really good music, remains the only lingering aftertaste.

And now, suddenly, I care about Woodstock.

Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty ponder the age-old question 'When Will I Be Loved'

Hey kids, awhile ago I wrote about John Fogerty's new album, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, out Sept. 1. The first single is out now, and it's a doozy. Here's the Boss and Fogerty doing a killer cover of Phil and Don Everly's When Will I Be Loved. The player is right under the album cover. GO HERE AND TWANG OUT!!!

Fogerty, Springsteen, Henley team up for new "Blue Ridge Rangers" album

Way back when, in the year 1973, John Fogerty released an album called The Blue Ridge Rangers, a tribute to his country roots. It was made after his acrimonious split with Creedence Clearwater Revival; as a thumbed-nose to his former mates, John played all the instruments in his new "band." Jambalaya was the big hit.

Now, 36 years later, in a grammatically suspect sequel called The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, Fogerty is having his roots done one more time. But this time, instead of going it alone, he's called on such pals as Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit and drumming god Kenny Aronoff to help with such covers as John Prine's Paradise, John Denver's Back Home Again and the Everly Brothers' When Will I Be Loved. Should be a hoot(enanny). No release date yet, but he's shooting for late summer/early fall.