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
's abilities on the trap kit are significantly different from
Creedence
's
Doug Clifford
. In retrospect, this was a tremendously risky record to make;
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
history lesson. ~ John Dougan