John Fogerty photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media.

Thanks to his role as the primary singer and songwriter for Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty’s name is permanently etched in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But his first post-CCR project, 1973’s Blue Ridge Rangers album, put him on the pop charts with a cover of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On The Bayou).” John went back to the country well in 2009 with a sequel, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

As with the original Rangers release, John covers a series of country music classics: Buck Owens’ “I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me),” the Kendalls’ “Heaven’s Just A Sin Away,” John Denver’s “Back Home Again” and Ray Price’s “I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me),” to name a few.

There are no Hank songs this time, though the singer-songwriter remains one of John’s biggest influences. Hank is always remembered this time of year because his life ended in a mysterious ride that began in Knoxville on New Year’s Eve 1952 and ended with a visit to a hospital in Oak Hill, W.Va., where he was pronounced dead on New Year’s Day 1953. Hank was in a bad way — he was taking medication for severe back pain, had a noted alcohol problem and was on his second marriage. His first was pockmarked with arguments and violence, and many of his ballads were as tortured as his personal life.

“I love that mournful kinda thing,” John says of Hank’s work. “I’m a sucker for that feel with somebody playin’ probably an arch-top guitar. I think they used to call that sock rhythm, and Hank made so many of those things… I’ve read several different biographies of Hank and I’m not sure how much of it is real, but Fred Rose was apparently responsible for havin’ Don Helms play [steel guitar] ‘up there where only the dogs can hear.’”

The authentic, mostly acoustic Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again demonstrates John’s affection for traditional forms of country, though that’s not what the Recording Academy embraced when it set the ballot for January’s Grammy Awards. John’s new version of his own “Change In The Weather,” originally included on the 1986 album Eye Of The Zombie, is a finalist for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance — ironic recognition for a track from an album that’s ostensibly country.

“Don’t ask me to try and figure out the Grammys,” John laughs. “There’s no way I can. I’m flattered obviously and honored, but… that’s a convolution, isn’t it?”

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