John Fogerty's new album revisits Creedence classics with guests

For John Fogerty’s next album, due this fall, the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman will revisit his old band’s deep catalog of hits in new collaborations with rock, pop and country duet partners including the Foo Fighters, Miranda Lambert, My Morning Jacket, Bob Seger, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley.

“Wrote a Song For Everyone” also is slated to include new Fogerty songs, set alongside Creedence touchstones such as “Fortunate Son” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” from the band's most successful period in the late '60s and early '70s.

The new project shows Fogerty fully embracing his artistic legacy; for many years after Creedence disbanded in 1972, he refused to perform the group’s songs because of legal issues with his former record company. He famously refused to play with former band mates Doug Clifford and Stu Cook when Creedence was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. The fourth original band member, guitarist Tom Fogerty, John's older brother, died in 1990.

Fogerty eventually began performing Creedence material again during his live shows, and last September in New York played Creedence’s albums “Green River” and “Cosmo’s Factory” in their entirety over the course of a two-night stand.

The new album, which also will include duets with Alan Jackson, Dawes and other artists still to be confirmed, draws its title from Fogerty’s song that originally appeared on “Green River” in 1969.

Most recently Fogerty made his acting debut portraying himself in an episode of the Fox TV series "The Finder," for which he wrote and sang the theme song "Swamp Water," at the invitation of the show's creator, Hart Hanson, a longtime Fogerty/Creedence fan.

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Q&A with John Fogerty

--Randy Lewis

Photo of Keith Urban, left, performing with John Fogerty during the Recording Academy's 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year benefit concert salute to Neil Young in Los Angeles. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times.

Live review: My Morning Jacket's technicolor dream

The Kentucky band brings its special brand of chaos to the Pantages Theatre.

“Whoever built this knew something about the human brain and the way it's constructed. This is solid gold,” said Jim James, lead singer of My Morning Jacket, midway though the band's marathon two and a half hour set Wednesday night at the Pantages Theatre. 

You could say the same thing about the live performances from the Louisville, Ky., quintet. Like the Art Deco palace, My Morning Jacket creates a dazzling collision of ostensibly irreconcilable shapes and sounds. Guitar lines sparkle like the room's zigzag gold and henna leafs. James' voice levitates like it was unleashed from one of the bronze Apollo statues in the lobby, an Olympian wail best explained through an electromagnetic chart rather than effusive adjective.

This is My Morning Jacket, a baker's dozen years deep into a wonderful career. 

The Pantages stop came in service of “Circuital,” the band's celebrated sixth album. 

Every seat in the house was empty because no one sat down — eyes locked on the stage as celestial ballads became thunderous barnburners.

Album review: My Morning Jacket's 'Circuital'

My Morning Jacket, on its sixth studio album and after establishing itself as one of the most monstrously compelling live acts of the last 10 years, returns to a more disciplined form on “Circuital,” a welcome tightening of the reins after the downright goofball antics of 2008’s “Evil Urges.”

On both records, the band digs outside its dusted country roots to incorporate barroom soul, glistening R&B and the chugging twists and turns borrowed from prog-rock. It's a game of musical tag that keeps My Morning Jacket limber, if not always focused, but on "Circuital," the genre experiments seem guided by a watchful eye. (If that eye is anything like the penetrating neon-green iris on the album's cover, you wouldn't want to run amok either.)

There are moments when the bear-voiced Jim James and company sound as if they’re scraping an old dinner plate for a last lick, retreading what they've done better elsewhere, but then they strike on something inspired enough to renew their license to rock-trot all over the globe.

The title track, soaked in atmosphere that veers from a stealth synth backdrop to open-hearted strumming, hangs on a pristine needle of a guitar part. “Holdin’ on to Black Metal,” built from a Thai pop song and with a children's chorus thrown in, is giving Lucifer the shivers -- or it's the theme to a neverending James Bond movie, screening in hell's cineplex. Either way, MMJ has given itself plenty to work with onstage. “Hello, Tokyo,” you can practically hear James saying. “Looking good tonight!”

My Morning Jacket
“Circuital”
ATO
Three stars (Out of four stars)

-- Margaret Wappler

My Morning Jacket to play intimate KCRW members-only concert on June 21

If you've seen My Morning Jacket live, you'll understand why more than a few music fans will consider this is a big deal. Starting Wednesday (June 1), at 10 a.m., tickets go on-sale for a June 21 KCRW members-only performance at The Village, a West L.A. venue with a 250-person capacity.

After all, it's been nearly a decade since the lightning-disguised-as-a-Lousiville rock band have regularly played venues that small. Last year, they played five consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden and on June 22, they're playing a date at Hollywood's 2,700-seating Pantages Theatre.

Hosted by Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley, tickets go for $125 and all proceeds will benefit the nonprofit station. Even at that price, expect them to be snatched up within a few hours. My Morning Jacketheads are a rabid breed and for good reason, the band's live shows boast a singularly hypnotic quality. Jim James' voice jumps like Rod Strickland, and Patrick Hallahan plays the drums like he was taught on a Norwegian glacier, and the rest of the group fall into graceful interlocking grooves.

My Morning Jacket reveals details of new album, gives away free songs

With the White Stripes having faded to black and the KROQ landscape laden with emollient rockers such as Coldplay, Kings of Leon and Muse, Louisville, Ky.'s My Morning Jacket remains one of the few great arena rock bands still standing.

So it was little surprise that diehards received the news of the band's return to action with great fanfare last week, when Rolling Stone reported the details of the new album "Circuital," slated for release sometime this spring. 

Following a detour to New York City for 2008's "Evil Urges," the band returned home to Kentucky to record in a makeshift studio carved out of the gynasium of a local church. According to Rolling Stone, the new record features "trippy keyboards, twisted pop hooks and fuzzed-out guitar attacks," and "feels like the culmination of the sonic adventures the band began with 2005's 'Z' -- while also capturing the power and dynamics that have made MMJ one of the greatest live bands of their generation."

Said frontman Jim James: "We want people to have almost the exact opposite experience they had last time. I definitely had some goals of wanting to make this one warmer and somehow more contained and more concise of a statement."

On Monday, the veteran band announced a series of weekly track giveaways, figuring to satisfy those patiently awaiting new tunes. Recorded in October during a five-night stand at New York's Terminal 5, the downloads will consist of one song from each of the band's five records, leading up to the release of the first single from "Circuital" on April 12.

My Morning Jacket's Jim James injured, shows postponed

My Morning Body Cast? Jim James of My Morning Jacket took a tumble off the stage last night during a show in Iowa City, Iowa, and evidently landed pretty hard. That’s causing the band to postpone a few shows in Chicago that were on tap later this week, as well as benefit performances for Sen. Barack Obama tonight in Chicago and next week in Louisville, Ky.

"We were finishing up the last few bars of 'Off the Record,' and just like any other night we were all having a great time,” according to a statement the band issued today. “Jim went to get closer to the audience on his side of the stage, and as he moved forward to step onto the sub-woofer, the lights darkened, and he inadvertently stepped off the stage.

“Upon falling, he suffered traumatic injuries to his torso, and was immediately taken to the hospital,” the statement continued. “Per the doctor's orders, Jim will be off the road and recovering from his injuries for the next two to three weeks. Sadly, we must postpone the two shows in Chicago on Thursday and Friday until further notice… We take our fans and performances very seriously, and would never cancel a show unless it was absolutely necessary. Please know that we will be making every effort to return to your fine city.”

There’s no word on whether the doctor gave James the news to the tune of MMJ’s “Lay Low.”

-- Randy Lewis

Photo by Chris Pizzello/Associated Press