Willy and the Poor Boys [LP]

Opening up with the feel-good, down-home groove of the hit "Down on the Corner" and featuring all-out, belligerent roots rock like "Fortunate Son" and loose, soul-drenched instrumentals like "Side Of The Road," WILLY AND THE POOR BOYS is sensational from start to finish. Throughout CCR's brief career, their sound was a musical evocation of a mythic rural South, and WILLY AND THE POOR BOYS is arguably the most Southern-sounding of all their records. Even though this t10-song album is padded out with cover versions of such folk-blues standards as "Cotton Fields" and "The Midnight Special," John and brother Tom Fogerty's ragged electric guitar playing and the minimalist bass and drum work of Stu Cook and Doug Clifford make these well-known songs sound like Creedence originals.