Customer Reviews

The Blue Ridge Rangers

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

John Fogerty, the reigning frontman to one of the best and most influential rock bands of the mid to late '60's, had left the band and had gone solo. No surprise there. When he did leave, one wondered what the next step his career and sound would take. Would the Creedence music and sound(all due to Fogerty)continue?. Yes. But what did Fogerty do when he went solo and released his first solo record in 1973?. He delivered a hardcore country album. This is by no means a real departure for John or from some of the music of CCR. There was a lot of country in their sound and that type of music. It had always been done in the band, but never a full album of it. There are a couple tunes that are straddling the line of traditional country and the country/rock sound of some of CCR's songs. But it's mostly stone cold country. Something Fogerty is a master at, and something most country fans probably wished he did more of since country is filled with generic soft pop/rock. The albums opens with the toe tapping jumbo blaster, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues", a traditional old number Fogerty makes his. He then covers "Somewhere Listening(For My Name), which was a song done by Archie Branlee of the Mississippi Blind Boys. "You're The Reason" is a classic sounding country tune, originally done by Bobby Edwards, and it fits perfectly to Fogerty's voice. The best track on the album is "Jambalaya(On The Bayou", an old Hank Williams classic. A teriffic song that sounds as if John could of written it himself. Surprisingly, it was a top 20 hit on the Billboard singles chart, and the other hit here was the harder sounding "Hearts Of Stone", which was a top 40 hit at #37. He also covers the classic George Jones hit, "She Thinks I Still Care", yet another song that seems custom made for John. The last song is a song written by Merle Haggard, a real country chestnut called "Today I Started Loving You Again". The traditional "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" is also included. The two best tracks here are the smooth and undeniably groovin' "California Blues(Blue Yodel #4)", a perfect song for Fogerty. One of the best Fogerty songs that's not his. And the traditional "Workin' On A Building". It is surprising to hear how many people were turned off by the country turn of Fogerty, when a lot of his CCR work is rooted in souther/country-ish type tunes. The music is not far off from each other at all. Cover albums are touch and go, but this is one of the best cover albums I've heard. Sometimes it just works and sometimes it doesn't. It obviously does. The only other cover album that rocked my socks was Paul McCartney's "Run Devil Run", which just rocked harder than anything he's done in years. I hear some people complain when cover albums have songs that go so far back that they have never heard of them and what was the point. A cover album just covers songs that the artists wants and likes. No one said it has to be well known songs. In fact, songs not as well known are better because it brings great work into the light. This album is a little known gem that should of been as equally well known and successful as some of his other albums. It's a little buried treasure that should have a second coming.

Fogerty's first solo album was started concurrently with the last CCR album. While it's nice to have it in print on CD, it's desperately in need of remastering. Fogerty aquits himself quite well on these remakes of classic country & western and gospel tunes. The arrangements don't necessarily improve the originals but have Fogerty's classic sound crafted around the original songs.

While his one man band isn't perfect, there's a charm and some very nice playing throughout the album. A suggestion to Fantasy Records--since you don't have enough material to do a Fogerty box set why not reissue the album with the follow up Blue Ridge Rangers single Back in the Hills/You Don't Owe Me as bonus tracks and reissue it in state of the art 24 bit sound (or in the SACD format).

Since Fogerty's self title debut isn't available in the US but is available as an import, I'd suggest doing the same with that album. Fogerty cut a strong single prior to the release of John Fogerty (Comin' Down The Road/Ricochet). Adding that single to Fogerty's second solo album (the first offically issued under his name) with enhanced sound would be greatly apreciated by CCR/Fogerty fans.

John Fogerty's first solo album turned out to be one of the best buys that I have ever made in my life. Hearing his version of the the classic Webb Pierce song "I Ain't Never" is worth the price alone. In fact Fogerty was able to make each of these songs "his own." I wish he would do another album like this again.

With or without his bandmates in Creedence Clearwater Revival, Mr.Fogerty has always been one of the most artless performers that I've ever known; he's certainly never tried to be anything other than the talented singer/songwriter that he is(unlike some acts who adopted grandiose images that they could never continue off-stage: the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues & David Bowie among them...John Lennon called them "Sons of Beatles").

And on the face of it, this album is a simple collection of country & western "oldies"(even by 70's standards) whose repertoire is taken from the bluegrass & gospel heroes that inspired the artist in his younger days(similar to the rock & roll "farewell" album that John Lennon would do two years later in 1975).

But this album, the Blue Ridge Rangers(his first solo album after disbanding CCR over legal and familial issues), rapidly shows itself to have an underlying thematic unity that reveals itself as one of the most low-key and honest of the "concept albums" that came to maturity in the late sixties.

For instance, the name of this album suggests that this is a group-effort being released by someone calling themselves the "Blue Ridge Rangers", but that name is actually taken from one of the songs contained on the album itself, namely 'Blue Ridge Mountain Blues'; and local legend in my hometown claims that Mr.Fogerty handled all of the instrumental/vocal chores on this album all by his lonesome self...a thus-far unverified fact not disputed by the liner notes on the sparse CD booklet(which has no credits and only says: Arranged and Produced by John Fogerty) or by the album cover itself, which features John himself as no less than 5 different members of the Blue Ridge Rangers: Fiddler, Banjo-Picker, Head Singer, Double-bass player & Guitarist.

Continuing with this, we have to ask: "Why did a man who was the primary creative focus behind one of music's top acts choose to release an album of Other People's Songs"? The answer is simple, as we see that, except for the cajun good-fun of 'Jambalaya', his selection of songs and the raw emotion that he pours into performing them show an incredible tinge of sadness and loss for something/someone extremely close to him. He pretended to be "Someone Else" and chose to sing "Other People's Songs" simply because "They" could say what he wanted to say easier and less painfully than if he had said it or sung it or written it himself...it was comfort to know that "Someone Else" had gone through what he had went through, that "Someone Else" had been as lonely as he felt right now, lonely enough that he literally had to "be" every single member of a fictional band.

This period was so painful that 'Blue Ridge Rangers' is the only album from which he did NOT extract any material for his mid-90's live event extravaganza, 'Premonition'("What about Eye Of The Zombie?", you ask? Well, FYI and UjustME...'Going Back Home' was used as a warm-up and 'Headlines' was used as a sound-check with updated verses; both are among the great bootlegs from that era, if you want to go searching for them).

Ultimately, I believe that 'Blue Ridge Rangers' was a cathartic episode for Mr.Fogerty, who was saying goodbye to his old bandmates, and the past in general, while trying hard to look ahead to a brighter future. The beautiful part is that he does so while still somehow managing to turn in an extremely respectable performance, unlike other singers' therapeutic sessions which happened to make it onto the market.

I heartily recommend this album, not only to Country & Western or John Fogerty/CCR fans, but also to anyone "into" the revealing side of classic rock albums...I mean, you can easily find any and all of these songs on Other People's Albums, but they would not provide you with any of the insight into the heart and soul of one of Rock's legendary greats.

The history of rock is often the history of roads not taken, ideas picked up and then dropped, "side projects" that suggested new horizons that were scarcely explored. With "Blue Ridge Rangers," John Fogerty's first solo album after the breakup of Creedence Clearwater Revival, he went way into country and gospel, melding a few of his unique musical trademarks, specifically his signal guitar sound and the tight, double-tracked vocal harmonies, into some very traditional songs. One of them, his version of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," was even a hit. His versions of the gospel standard "Workin' on a Building," the countrypolitan standards "She Thinks I Still Care," and "Today I Started Loving You Again," and the half-bluegrass cuts like "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" are all very tasty.

But CCR was, above all a rock band, and so Fogerty decided, I guess, that he was born to rock. His solo albums since this one are all based on the CCR formula, updated in the 80s and 90s with Fogerty's imitations of his imitator, Bruce Springsteen. Some of it was very good (his next album after this one had the classic "Almost Saturday Night," and the song "Centerfield" is nice), but most of it sounds to my ears very sour and spiteful--albeit for reasons that have been well-documented and are perhaps justified, but also are none of our business. In retrospect, even a lot of CCR is pervaded by a kind of free-floating anger--at bandmates, at the music industry, at audiences, who knows? It's a feeling that limits how much fun you can have listening to them. Fogerty can be kind of a scold.

But not on "Blue Ridge Rangers." This album is a joyous musical treat that sounds like liberation for the artist. A moment in time that should be listened to more today. And a road that maybe Fogerty should be encouraged to take again.

I've always had a soft spot for this album.
Not a genuine rock song among the lot, this is all country and spirituals, yet Fogerty makes the whole thing sound sincere and appealing.
I'm a rock and blues fan myself, and I own very little in the way of traditional country, but I've always liked "The Blue Ridge Rangers".
The lead-off track is a real banjo-pickin' clog-stomper, the traditional "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues", yet Fogerty's characteristic baritone voice (no twang there) makes it into something that a rock band could actually play on stage and not have too many things thrown at them.
Then comes a beautiful religious piece, Mississippi Blind Boy Archie Brownlee's "Somewhere Listening For My Name", complete with a gospel choir consisting of Fogerty himself.

Bobby Edwards' "You're The Reason" has been transformed into something almost like a country-rocker with the addition of a rock n' roll backbeat from the man on the swivel chair (a certain Mr Fogerty), and Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" is given the rock treatment as well, guitar solo and everything, yet stays true to its country origins. Fogerty still does than one in concert on occation.

"She Thinks I Still Care" is a great vocal performance by John Fogerty, aided by himself on harmony vocals and steel guitar.
"Blue Yodel #4" was witten by the legendary Jimmie Rodgers, who influenced country- and blues singers alike, and the traditional gospel piece "Working On A Building" also popped up in concert on Fogerty's 1997-98 world tour. On this record he provides all the harmony vocals, hand claps and enthusiastic wails himself.

"Please Help Me, I'm Falling" is another catchy melody, the kind that's so much fun to sing if you have half a singing voice (a sinful pleasure, I know).
"Have Thine Own Way, Lord" has been sung by everyone from Slim Whitman and Marty Robbins to Pat Boone and Jim Reeves, and Fogerty does a lovely job with it, once again adding layers of harmony vocals.
"I Ain't Never" is a Mel Tillis/Webb Pierce song, and it's hard to sit still when it is playing. "Hearts Of Stone" was released as a single, and showed up in the top 50 on the pop charts (as did "Jambalaya"), and the album closes with the resigned country ballad "Today I Started Loving You Again", a Merle Haggard song, and another fine vocal perfomance.

Remember - this is not a rock record.
But it's a lot of fun to sing along to on a rainy afternoon, after making sure nobody can hear you, of course, and perhaps leaving a few hard rock records lying around in case anyone should come by!

As stated by many reviewers and by the title of the album, this is John Fogerty's legendary One Man Band (meaning he played all the instruments and sang all the vocals) album from 1973 entitled "Blue Ridge Rangers." Back when it was released in 1973, Creedence Clearwater Revival had just broken up and he had to fulfill his contract with Fantasy with 1 more album and this is the album that he not only recorded to do that and that he couldn't sing the Creedence hits legally at the time, but it also is an album that pays tribute to his influences by singing covers of many country classics with gospel and blues mixed in for good measure. The Top 20 hit, Jambalaya, is performed here in a rousing arrangement. Some of the other highlights include the top 40 minor hit cover of "Hearts of Stone" which had been recorded by a few country artists and in the pop world, the Fontaine Sisters, The Webb Pierce/Mel Tillis classic "I Ain't Never", Working on a Building, Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again," Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, the George Jones hit "She Thinks I Still Care," Jimmie Rodgers's "California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)" and You're The Reason. If he would have recorded "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (appears on the Big Mon tribute to Bill Monroe) at the time this was recorded, it would also appear on this album. The sound quality is excellent and the music is timeless. Country fans, Fogerty fans, CCR fans, folk fans, blues fans, gospel fans, rock and roll fans should definitely pick up this album.

This must have seemed like a real oddity - to both Fogerty's fans and his record label - upon its release in 1973. Only a year's distance from Creedence Clearwater Revival's break-up, Fogerty immersed himself in an album of cover version, mostly country, with a smattering of gospel and blues. And "immersed" is meant in its fullest sense -- Fogerty produced the album, sang all the vocals (including the layered backings) and played all the instruments: guitar, drums, bass, pedal steel, banjo, organ and fiddle. Though not a virtuoso across the board, Fogerty was certainly talented enough to create a convincing and compelling illusion of a band.

More importantly, freed from the shackles of his Creedence fame, Fogerty was able to express his heartfelt love for the roots music that fueled his own songwriting. Considering that country wasn't exactly popular with the rock crowd in '73 (though it was making stoner inroads through Commander Cody, and the Outlaw movement was about to take off), this was a rather daring move commercially. Most likely, Fogerty wasn't concerned about duplicating his Creedence success, and he obviously relishes the opportunity to record something close to his heart, without concern for sales or radio play.

What truly fuels this album's greatness is Fogerty's repertoire selection. Country classics from Hank Williams ("Jambalaya (on the Bayou)"), George Jones ("She Thinks I Still Care"), Jimmie Rodgers ("California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)"), Webb Pierce ("I Ain't Never") and Merle Haggard ("Today I Started Loving You Again") are rendered in Fogerty's bayou-voice with an enthusiasm that rings of affection and thankfulness. Traditional tunes like "Somewhere Listening (For My Name)" and "Workin' on a Building" feature Fogerty singing both lead vocals and the fervent shout-outs, with multi-layered backing that forms an all-Fogerty gospel chorus.

The dichotomy of this album is fascinating: Fogerty travelled great lengths to distance himself from Creedence (including posing on the album cover as all five silhouetted members of the fictional Blue Ridge Rangers), while at the same time his voice, front and center, provides an unmistakable link to previous fame. In retrospect, this mid-career tip-of-the-hat to Fogerty's influences turns out to have been a place to rest, regather, and contemplate his next steps. The choice of an entirely solo production, and the obvious safety and relaxation it provided, resulted in a highly personal and superbly listenable album.

I don't remember the last time I listened to a CD that I liked as much as this one. Every song is a classic. I listen to this over and over and over again.

If you like bluegrass, old-time country (including country ballads) and gospel, you'll love this album. If you like John Fogerty's voice, you'll agree with me that this is one of the best albums ever made.

Granted, Fogerty won't set the world on fire with his fiddle or banjo playing (he plays all instruments). But the simple arrangements emphasize the material, all of which are covers (no Fogerty originals). This is a labor of love for Fogerty. Nothing he's done since comes close, for my money.

I very love country country.Since I can remember I had listened country.Until now I still like that song.