John Fogerty Plots Return of the "Blue Ridge Rangers"

Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty is planning a sequel of sorts to his 1973 roots-and-country covers album Blue Ridge Rangers. Fogerty, along with producer T-Bone Burnett, will release The Return of the Blue Ridge Rangers at some point in 2009, but as opposed to the original album, Fogerty this time will be surrounded by musicians instead of going it alone. "I've known for years that if I ever did a Blue Ridge Rangers album again I sure didn't want to play all the instruments," Fogerty told Billboard, "I had long felt that was probably something that was wrong with the first album." The new album was recorded in a span of ten days in Santa Monica, with Fogerty and Burnett recording 15 songs from a list of 40 they comprised. While the CCR remains quiet about which songs are covered this time around, he revealed that there will be a Merle Haggard tune on Return. Additionally, 2009 will also see the release of Fogerty's Comin' Down the Road, a live DVD documenting his first-ever performance at London's Royal Albert Hall from earlier this year.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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