John Fogerty - Wrote A Song For Everyone
By: George Peden, Staff Journalist
I’ve always, it seems like a lifetime, been a John Fogerty fan. Looking back to another time and place, maybe a more innocent time and place, it was the music of Fogerty and the iconic Creedence who shaped the turmoil and the fun of my youth. It was those gnarly vocals and that scruffy image of a band with hair and flannel, singing out, belting out, tunes of life on the bayou while a candle allowed us all to see the light.
They were the times. Fogerty was the music.
Now those times, modern and infused with today’s top talent, are playing out to a new audience. Fogerty has just released his new album, Wrote a Song For Everyone. The music bible of the masses, Rolling Stone, has awarded it five stars. Let me polish the Stone – they got it right! This is a stellar album and dear reader, down on the corner the word is this will be one of this year’s major releases.
A word though to the Nuts gang. This is not primarily a country album, with its traces of pop and hard and edgy guitars it’s sure to be of a more general appeal. Proof in point is the charged opening cut, “Fortunate Son”. Powered with Dave Grohl’s vocal (Foo Fighters) and the let-loose fury of a band in determined swing, the song is rocked- up and amped-out.
However, with Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown, Brad Paisley, Jennifer Hudson, Alan Jackson and Keith Urban adding individual talents, there is interest here for the country fan.
“Almost Saturday Night” brings the multi-tasking Urban to the mix. With a pleasing familiarity, Urban shares vocal duties, while adding polished guitar and banjo plays to a tune Fogerty calls a cheerful song.
If cheerful is your thing then the pairing of the Zac Brown Band to “Bad Moon Rising” will bring a delighted grin. Just like this whole album, Fogarty’s vocal range is cutting, dynamic and powerful; add Zac Brown and the whole just got a whole lot better. Inoculated with feel-good playing and fun vocals, the known riff from the Creedence classic, reworked and layered, is infectious. And it works so well. More please. (Can we hope for a follow-up album of Fogerty /CCR classics?)
“Born On The Bayou” brings Kid Rock to the game, not the best of the album’s offerings, but certainly a memory-charger, while to these weathered ears, one of many standouts “Someday Never Comes” with its probing reminder: “To each and every mother’s son you’d better learn it fast and you’d better learn it young, someday never comes”, is a Dawes/Fogerty gem.
Keeping it a family affair, having used wife Julie as executive producer, John F brings sons Tyler and Shane to the studio with “Lodi”. Recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios, the tune is a blast from its first toe-tappin’ grove. Memories are made of this.
Alan Jackson is lassoed into the corral with a ride on “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, while veteran rocker Bob Seeger answers the call with another question: “Who’ll Stop The Rain.” Miranda Lambert stamps her country diva credentials all over one of the two new tunes on the album, “Wrote A Song For Everyone”. The telling tale of being able “to write a song for everyone and I couldn’t even talk to you” is a timely modern day metaphor.
Blistering virtuoso playing of the guitar kind comes on a track from Fogerty’s 1997 killer album, Blue Moon Swamp. Proving there’s fire in the aging rocker’s bones, John F engages, lick for lick and chord for chord Brad Paisley on “Hot Rod Heart”. To say this smokes is a limp understatement – it rocks, it rolls and it moves quicker than last week’s pay packet. What a pairing. What energy. What excitement.
The blurb for WASFE goes along the lines: one songwriter, 16 artists and 14 special tracks. But this is more than an album of recorded music, flung to the masses with some clichés and hype, Forgive my excitement, but this album stirred the emotions of better times past, all with the reassurance that with John Fogerty at the helm, musically, the best is yet to come.
Is it too early to call for nominations for an album of the year? Maybe not…
Wrote a Song For Everyone is out now on Vanguard.
www.johnfogert.com
I’ve always, it seems like a lifetime, been a John Fogerty fan. Looking back to another time and place, maybe a more innocent time and place, it was the music of Fogerty and the iconic Creedence who shaped the turmoil and the fun of my youth. It was those gnarly vocals and that scruffy image of a band with hair and flannel, singing out, belting out, tunes of life on the bayou while a candle allowed us all to see the light.
They were the times. Fogerty was the music.
Now those times, modern and infused with today’s top talent, are playing out to a new audience. Fogerty has just released his new album, Wrote a Song For Everyone. The music bible of the masses, Rolling Stone, has awarded it five stars. Let me polish the Stone – they got it right! This is a stellar album and dear reader, down on the corner the word is this will be one of this year’s major releases.
A word though to the Nuts gang. This is not primarily a country album, with its traces of pop and hard and edgy guitars it’s sure to be of a more general appeal. Proof in point is the charged opening cut, “Fortunate Son”. Powered with Dave Grohl’s vocal (Foo Fighters) and the let-loose fury of a band in determined swing, the song is rocked- up and amped-out.
However, with Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown, Brad Paisley, Jennifer Hudson, Alan Jackson and Keith Urban adding individual talents, there is interest here for the country fan.
“Almost Saturday Night” brings the multi-tasking Urban to the mix. With a pleasing familiarity, Urban shares vocal duties, while adding polished guitar and banjo plays to a tune Fogerty calls a cheerful song.
If cheerful is your thing then the pairing of the Zac Brown Band to “Bad Moon Rising” will bring a delighted grin. Just like this whole album, Fogarty’s vocal range is cutting, dynamic and powerful; add Zac Brown and the whole just got a whole lot better. Inoculated with feel-good playing and fun vocals, the known riff from the Creedence classic, reworked and layered, is infectious. And it works so well. More please. (Can we hope for a follow-up album of Fogerty /CCR classics?)
“Born On The Bayou” brings Kid Rock to the game, not the best of the album’s offerings, but certainly a memory-charger, while to these weathered ears, one of many standouts “Someday Never Comes” with its probing reminder: “To each and every mother’s son you’d better learn it fast and you’d better learn it young, someday never comes”, is a Dawes/Fogerty gem.
Keeping it a family affair, having used wife Julie as executive producer, John F brings sons Tyler and Shane to the studio with “Lodi”. Recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios, the tune is a blast from its first toe-tappin’ grove. Memories are made of this.
Alan Jackson is lassoed into the corral with a ride on “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, while veteran rocker Bob Seeger answers the call with another question: “Who’ll Stop The Rain.” Miranda Lambert stamps her country diva credentials all over one of the two new tunes on the album, “Wrote A Song For Everyone”. The telling tale of being able “to write a song for everyone and I couldn’t even talk to you” is a timely modern day metaphor.
Blistering virtuoso playing of the guitar kind comes on a track from Fogerty’s 1997 killer album, Blue Moon Swamp. Proving there’s fire in the aging rocker’s bones, John F engages, lick for lick and chord for chord Brad Paisley on “Hot Rod Heart”. To say this smokes is a limp understatement – it rocks, it rolls and it moves quicker than last week’s pay packet. What a pairing. What energy. What excitement.
The blurb for WASFE goes along the lines: one songwriter, 16 artists and 14 special tracks. But this is more than an album of recorded music, flung to the masses with some clichés and hype, Forgive my excitement, but this album stirred the emotions of better times past, all with the reassurance that with John Fogerty at the helm, musically, the best is yet to come.
Is it too early to call for nominations for an album of the year? Maybe not…
Wrote a Song For Everyone is out now on Vanguard.
www.johnfogert.com
