Back Home Again

Background

"Back Home Again" is the fifth track of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, the ninth solo album of John Fogerty with new material. The collection is a follow-up to Fogerty's first solo album The Blue Ridge Rangers which consisted of covers of old country and gospel tunes and came out in 1973.

Recording of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again started in October 2008 at Village Recorders in Santa Monica with engineer Mike Piersante. The album was arranged and produced by John Fogerty. It was released in August 2009. The album peaked at #24 in the USA, #1 in Norway and #3 in Sweden.

John Fogerty picked up "Back Home Again" from the catalogue of John Denver. As he admitted in an interview in 2009, Fogerty has always liked Denver's voice that he describes "beautiful and jolly". It wasn't an easy job to cut his song, actually it scared him to death. At his wife's urging he went forward. "It's clear I'm singing to her", he said (Edna Gundersen, Interview with John Fogerty, USA Today, October 19th, 2009).

Personnel

Vocals, acoustic guitar: John Fogerty

Guitar: Buddy Miller

Dobro: Greg Leisz

Drums: Jay Bellerose

Bass: Dennis Crouch

Acoustic guitar, backing vocals: Jason Mowery

Backing vocals: Jodie Kennedy

The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again was the second John Fogerty release featuring Jodie Kennedy on backing vocals. She debuted on the Comin' Down the Road live DVD. 

Acoustic version

The bonus DVD of the Deluxe version of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again features a short unplugged version of "Back Home Again" performed by John Fogerty with his acoustic guitar.

Collector's notes

"Back Home Again" was also released as a two-track promotional single on November 25, 2009. Track 1 was a Radio Edit and track 2 the Album Version.  

Trivia

Fogerty was giving an interview at Farm Aid in Indiana in 1985 when he heard John Denver's performing "Back Home Again". Fogerty interrupted the interview and ranted "I wanna see John Denver!".  (Ken Dassow, Interview with John Fogerty, PRX, August 26th, 2009). 

Live versions

The world premiere of the live version of "Back Home Again" was seen in the free open air concert at Pier 17, South Street Seaport, New York, on September 2nd, 2009. Fogerty performed the number regularly on the subsequent tour in the USA in fall 2009.

Fogerty and the band also delivered the song live on the Artist Confidential  series by Sirius XM satellite radio. It was taped at XM Performance Theatre in New York on September 4th, 2009, and broadcast in the USA on October 19th, 2009. 

Critical reception

"Fogerty plays it too safe on sleepy tunes like John Denver's 1974 'Back Home Again' ---." -Mark Kemp,The Rolling Stone, August 31st, 2009. 

"Fogerty clearly loves this music, though at times he veers toward the overly sentimental (John Denver's "Back Home Again") or the overly familiar." -Greg Kot, The Chicago Tribune, September 1st, 2009.

"In addition to the Pat Boone cover, hipsters might balk at the record's dobro-sweetened take of John Denver's "Back Home Again," a No. 1 country hit in 1974, but that's their loss. Fogerty's performance is as heartfelt and un-self-conscious as everything else on the album, a project that sounds every bit as classic as the immortals to whom it pays tribute."  -Bill Friskics-Warren, The Washington Post, September 1st, 2009.

"John Prine’s “Paradise” and John Denver’s “Back Home Again” get the acoustic treatment with a bluegrass feel spiked by Leisz’s ace dobro work. Prine is a nice choice for the discerning country listener who might scoff at the inclusion of a John Denver song, but Fogerty’s earnestness makes the two sit naturally on the same record. In fact, Fogerty’s earnestness and obvious passion for these songs are what make this record work. These tunes are so dead simple that it would be impossible pull them off if you didn’t believe in them whole-heartedly, and John Fogerty leaves no room for doubt about that." -The Sounds Country, September 15th, 2009.

"He gets to the emotional core of John Denver's Back Home Again, slowing it down slightly and clearly putting the emphasis squarely on the vocals with mandolin punctuating the song. For Fogerty, the song may not only refer to the Denver song, but a welcome, albeit different, trip back to his past." -Jeffrey B. Remz, The Country Standard Time,

"--- a rendition so fine it carries the listener like a flying cloud." -Good New Music.

Fans' views

"Another Julie influenced song. I tried not to compare it to John Denver but it is very hard. There are some of John Fogerty's songs that are exclusively John and no one else can do them like he does (Born On the Bayou a prime example). We all know how John can take any cover and make it his own, and while I like this arrangement, I think John may have met his match on this one. No one does Rocky Mountain High like John Denver and this one is close."

"I like John's cover of Back Home Again but I think he sounds slightly tentative. Not as confident as he does on most of the other songs. Not sure why, as he's capable of doing full justice to it."

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