John Fogerty - The Blue Ridge Rangers (1973)

The Blue Ridge Rangers is the first solo album by John Fogerty, the former lead singer and lead guitarist of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Upon its initial release by Fantasy Records in 1973, the album was credited to "The Blue Ridge Rangers" with no mention of Fogerty on the cover. Fogerty chose to do this in order to distance himself from his Creedence legacy. The LP was later reissued and credited to John Fogerty with a different cover design. The CD reissue restores the original silhouette cover photo and credits the album to Fogerty. The album is made up entirely of traditional and country covers, and features Fogerty playing all the instruments.
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. Fogerty's rigid, no-frills drumming took a lot of heat for being mechanical, but no one has ever explained how Fogerty's abilities on the trap kit are significantly different from Creedence's Doug Clifford. In retrospect, this was a tremendously risky record to make; country music in the early '70s was regarded as the domain of right-wing, rock & roll-hating Nashville traditionalists, and it was reasonable to assume that fans (even staunch ones) wouldn't take kindly to this genre switch. While it wasn't a huge success, it was in no way a disaster, and perhaps more importantly, served as a much-needed rock & roll history lesson.
The album peaked at #47 on the charts. Two singles from the album became hits: "Jambalaya" and "Hearts of Stone".

Track listing

01. "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues"   (Traditional)  - 2:29
02. "Somewhere Listening (For My Name)"   (Archie Brownlee)  - 2:37
03. "You're the Reason"   (Fred Henley, Terry Fell, Mildred Imes, Bobby Edwards)  - 3:12
04. "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)"   (Hank Williams)  - 3:15
05. "She Thinks I Still Care"   (Dickey Lee Lipscomb, Steve Duffy)  - 2:57
06. "California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)"   (Jimmie Rodgers)  - 3:04
07. "Workin' on a Building"   (Traditional)  - 4:34
08. "Please Help Me, I'm Falling"   (Don Robertson, Hal Blair)  - 2:49
09. "Have Thine Own Way, Lord"   (Adelaide A. Pollard, George C. Stebbins)  - 2:59
10. "I Ain't Never"   (Mel Tillis, Webb Pierce)  - 2:49
11. "Hearts of Stone"   (Rudy Jackson, Eddy Ray)  - 2:10
12. "Today I Started Loving You Again"   (Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens)  - 3:12

Credits
Producer, Arranged By, Vocals [Featuring] – John Fogerty
Engineer – Russ Gary, Skip Shimmin
Remastered By – Phil De Lancie

Notes
Genre:  Roots Rock
Length:  37:20

© 1973 Fantasy Records