John Fogerty

John Fogerty is many things, but predictable is not one of them. His solo career has proceeded in fits and starts, with waits as long as a decade separating solo albums, and when the records did arrive, they could be as brilliant as Centerfield or as bewilderingly misdirected as Eye of the Zombie. There was no telling what a new Fogerty record would bring, but perhaps the strangest thing about his sixth studio album, 2004's Deja Vu All Over Again, is that it's the closest thing to an average, by-the-books John Fogerty album that he's released in his solo career. Unlike its immediate predecessor, the Southern-obsessed Blue Moon Swamp, there is no unifying lyrical or musical theme, nor was it released with the comeback fanfare of that 1997 affair.

For a good portion of his solo career, John Fogerty refused to play any of his old Creedence Clearwater Revival songs – not because he hated them but because he was tied up in a nasty legal battle with Saul Zaentz, the head of his former record label Fantasy. After a few decades, Fogerty's position softened and he started playing the tunes in concert, then, after Concord purchased Fantasy in 2004, he celebrated CCR, first with a new hits compilation combining his old band and solo work, then eventually working his way around to Wrote a Song for Everyone, a 2013 album where he revisits many of his most popular songs with a little help from his superstar friends.

John Fogerty pulled himself out of the game sometime after his 1976 album Hoodoo failed to materialize and he sat on the bench for a full decade, returning in the thick of the Reagan era with Centerfield in 1985. For as knowingly nostalgic as Centerfield is, deliberately mining from Fogerty’s childhood memories and consciously referencing his older tunes, the album is steeped in the mid-‘80s, propelled too often by electronic drums – the title track has a particularly egregious use of synthesized handclaps – occasionally colored by synths and always relying on the wide-open production that characterized the ‘80s…plus, there’s no denying that this is the work of a middle-aged baby boomer, romanticizing TV, rockabilly, baseball, and rock & roll girls. Since Fogerty always romanticized a past he never lived, these sepia tones suit him but it also helps that he’s written a clutch of terrific songs…

John Fogerty released his first solo CD, an album of covers on which he played all the instruments, under the name the "Blue Ridge Rangers," and he revives that concept on 2009's The Blue Ridge Rangers Ride Again. Where the first smacked of the righteous zeal of a young purist, Ride Again is a lot looser in its attack, something reflected in how it splits the difference between country and rockabilly classics and reflective numbers from '70s songwriters…

This one-man extravaganza finds John Fogerty plowing the same ground he worked with Creedence Clearwater Revival. This mix of originals and rock & roll classics finds him in fine voice, with the familiar vocal scream and hot guitars augmented in places by saxophones reminiscent of CCR's "Travelin' Band." Several of these songs rank with the top tier of Fogerty's Creedence material, particularly "The Wall," "Almost Saturday Night," and the anthemic "Rockin' All Over the World." He also delivers satisfying versions of Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops" and Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise" (written by Huey "Piano" Smith). The closer, "Flyin' Away," could have come off the Doobie Brothers' Toulouse Street. This underappreciated album is worth checking out.

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…

John Fogerty will release 50 Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks as an album on Nov. 8, followed by an exclusive screening of this concert in movie theaters on Nov. 11. Fogerty describes the evening as a family affair. "I've played Red Rocks a number of times over the years and it's always magical," he said in a news release. "But this time, to play with both of my sons on this amazing stage, will certainly go down as one of the major highlights of my life." Recorded June 20, 2019, in Morrison, Colo., 50 Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks includes 17 solo and Creedence Clearwater Revival classics – along with a pair of key covers: "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Susie Q," the latter of which became the only CCR Top 40 hit not written by Fogerty.