John Fogerty 50

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.

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.

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…

The self-referential title of Fogerty's first album in three years is no mere play on words; this is as close as he's gotten in a long while to duplicating the loose swamp blues, country, folk, soul and rock that he so memorably created a template for in Creedence Clearwater Revival. Thankfully the advertisement for downloaded ringtones in the disc's booklet is the only contemporary influence creeping into this stripped-down set of rootsy rockers and ballads. Fogerty's voice sounds great throughout; passionate, more committed and comfortable with these songs than he has seemed in years.

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…

Eye of the Zombie is the fourth solo studio album by American singer/songwriter John Fogerty. Released in September 1986, it was his first album with a backing band, and it includes the Creedence-inspired track "Change in the Weather" as well as "Wasn't That a Woman" and "Soda Pop", his first forays into 60s-70s Motown-sounding funk and R&B. The album was not received well by critics and had lukewarm chart success despite a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal in 1987. After the Eye of the Zombie tour in 1986, Fogerty did not perform any material from this album in concerts until 2009, when he played "Change in the Weather" at a few shows.

Upon its release in the spring of 1997, John Fogerty's long-awaited comeback album Blue Moon Swamp was lavished with praise – it didn't become the crossover hit that Centerfield was, but it earned great reviews and a solid cult audience. Furthermore, his tour – his first ever to feature classic Creedence material – was, if anything, even better received than Blue Moon Swamp, so it made some sense that he quickly released Premonition, his first solo live album, in 1998. Premonition is frighteningly good – Fogerty doesn't sound like a veteran rocker, he sounds nearly as powerful as he did on old Creedence live shows. He also sounds more mature, bringing increased depth to his older songs as he energizes recent material, from "The Old Man Down the Road" to "Swamp River Days." Premonition is essentially the province of dedicated Fogerty fans – there's only one new song, and the differences in the live performances are things only the hardcore will spot – but they'll be delighted with the quality of the music.