Ccr - Bayou Country (Dig)

Great remastering and bonus material!

If you buy ANY Creedence Clearwater Revival CDs, look for a release date of September 30, 2008. After FINALLY making peace with Fantasy records, the CCR catalog has gotten the remastering treatment, along with several live bonus tracks. In addition, these new downloads are actually CHEAPER than the others!

Bayou Country was MY introduction to CCR, and as such it and my second purchase, Willy and the Poorboys, will always remain my favorites. I downloaded this, then Willy, then said "what the heck" and went ahead and got Green River, the self-titled debut, and Cosmo's Factory. ALL FIVE are great and come highly recommended. Trust me, if you get one, you're gonna want all five...

GREAT STUFF! And much improved audio! October 17, 2008

CCR Begins Their String of Classic Albums

I've seen self-appointed critics label CCR a "singles band" but that's bunk. Albums like "Bayou Country", "Willy and the Poor Boys" and "Cosmo's Factory" disprove that attempt at belittling their legacy.

For my money the best thing CCR ever laid to vinyl didn't even make it to the knockout compilation "Chronicle". I'm referring, of course, to the opening track here, and the b-side of "Proud Mary", "Born On The Bayou". The a-side is present and accounted for here as well. The album closer, the almost eight minute long "Keep On Chooglin'" is also a must for even the casual fan of CCR. Such a song that so well defines a band's sound should also have made it to the definitive compilation.

In the days before Amazon's mp3 downloads I was determined to have "Born On The Bayou" on CD. Since I already owned "Chronicle" on CD I was reluctant to shell out for a whole album but in this case my venture was well-rewarded. This is a great album. Oh, I don't really have any use for the least of the set, the Little Richard cover, but it certainly doesn't harm the album. If one was to download individual tracks to complement "Chronicle", the tracks already named would be must-haves, but seriously, just spring for the whole thing. Only one of the seven tracks is on the 'best of' and when you hear the other six here, you will be very glad you added this to your collection. It's as solid, consistent, and distinctive as any of the Doors' best albums from this same era.
October 8, 2008

+1/2 -- The Great American Band finds their mojo

With Concord Music Group having purchased the Fantasy catalog, the fortieth anniversary of Creedence Clearwater Revival's debut LP provides a suitable opportunity for a fresh round of reissues. All six of the original foursome's albums (from 1968's Creedence Clearwater Revival through 1970's Pendulum) have been struck from new digital masters and augmented by previously unreleased tracks. Those who purchased the 2001 box set can pick up most of the bonus tracks separately as digital downloads (the two longest bonuses are CD-only). Those who didn't buy the box, and think they'll buy all six reissues may want to consider the box set for its inclusion of pre-Creedence work from the Blue Velvets and Golliwogs, the seventh CCR album Mardi Gras, the 1970-71 live recordings and several box-only bonuses. But for those just wanting to pick up a few favorite albums, these reissues are the ticket. Each is presented in a digipack with original front and back cover album art and a 16-page booklet with photos, credits and new liner notes.

By the time Creedence recorded their second album, Bayou Country, John Fogerty had fully merged his broad range of Americana music influences into a wholly new sound. The El Cerrito, California bred songwriter re-imagined himself as a bayou musician whose guitar rock crawled from the swamp laden with backwoods blues and country twang. Fogerty debuts his persona on the album's opener, with reverbed guitar bending over, around and through the group's brilliant rhythm section. It's a perfect bookend to the album's closer, "Keep on Chooglin'," whose title and rhythm define the underpinnings of the band's musical vocabulary. In between Fogerty crafted the lasting myth of "Proud Mary," fusing the group's newly born shuffle, the soul of Stax and fictionalized images of Mississippi riverboats.

The band plays spare, late-night blues on "Graveyard Train," but the images of lonely rural highways, railroads and undertakers all return to the album's bayou hoodoo. The lone cover is a version of Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly" that finds Fogerty tearing up his overdriven lead guitar. The 2008 CD's bonus tracks open with an alternate take of the shuffling "Bootleg" that's stretched to double the original three minutes with a scat vocal section added to the middle. There's also a trio of live tracks from the three-piece version of the group (sans Tom Fogerty) that toured Europe in 1971. "Born on the Bayou" is more rock `n' roll fierce than the album track, "Proud Mary" is a by-the-numbers rendition of a band's Big Hit (and seems most to miss Tom Fogerty), and "Crazy Otto" is a nine-minute blues jam recorded at the Fillmore in 1969. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com] October 5, 2008

A landmark album

A very under-rated, intense swampy-bluesy, album which I appreciate now even more than when it was first released. Contains some outstanding material.

Proud Mary, the most popular song, was a deserved big hit but Born On The Bayou is the best song. An intense, brooding, swampy - occasionally even slinky - masterpiece with scowling vocals that John Fogerty does better than any other man alive. Play it loud and get into the mood of the song. Magnificent. One of the greatest songs of the era.

Bootleg is an excellent, catchy tune which also is typically swampy while being laid back and ultra cool. Very under-rated; few people have heard it but when they do for the first time it is an instant success. I'm surprised they didn't promote that song better. Is noteworthy that JF still does it in his concerts - he knows the good lesser known ones! Keep on Chooglin' (a term Fogerty says he made up himself) is also a great addition to the album.

Penthouse Pauper reveals some fine Fogerty blues guitar and is an interesting mood change. Speaking of guitar, Fogerty does some neat work on Good Golly Miss Molly, which rolls along at pace compared to the slow, harp orientated, blues number Graveyard Train, which adds some darkness and tension to an excellent and varied album. I've bought a DCC version because the fine collection deserves to be heard at its best. A must have. August 6, 2008

Possibly their best album

Bayou Country was the first huge break through for CCR. Technically they only had on single that was popular, but two of their very best songs appear on this collection. Every group has a break through album and this is theirs.
Proud Mary is of course one of the top R&R songs ever recorded and has been covered by numerous artists including Tina Turner.
This album also had Born on the Bayou, which to this day is my favorite CCR song of all times.
This is one of the classic albums of R&R and belongs in any library.
February 23, 2008

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