Wrote a Song for Everyone
John Fogerty
For certain Boomers, listening to the songs on John Fogerty’s Wrote a Song For Everyone will be like reacquainting with old friends, their wisdom and vitality still exhilarating after all these years. For post-Boomers, the album can serve as an introduction to the kind of meaty, foursquare guitar rock that has largely disappeared from the pop charts.
Wrote a Song is a Fogerty tribute album that comes with the artist’s seal of approval. In fact, he sings on every cut, making it a duets album, too.
Fogerty, who turns 68 on Tuesday, recruited an array of younger artists to help resurrect some of his biggest hits, and the results rock. Highlights include a thunderous performance of Fortunate Son featuring the Foo Fighters and Fogerty sound-alike Dave Grohl; the 1997 obscurity Hot Rod Heart, with Brad Paisley revving up his guitar; and a rollicking Proud Mary, reclaimed from marching band songbooks everywhere by Jennifer Hudson, Allen Toussaint and the Rebirth Brass Band.
Fogerty himself remains a mighty singer, and shows he hasn’t lost his knack as a songwriter either. Two new tunes fit right in, which is impressive given such distinguished company.
— Steven Wine
Associated Press
The Ophelia Cut
John Lescroart
A young woman makes a bad decision and her father ends up a murder suspect in The Ophelia Cut, John Lescroart’s latest courtroom drama featuring defense attorney Dismas Hardy.
Brittany McGuire meets a man in a coffee shop and realizes he’s a loser after one date. Rick Jessup starts harassing her, demanding another chance. She goes to his house to tell him to get lost, then passes out and wakes up in his bed. She realizes she’s been drugged and raped.
Twenty-four hours later, Rick is dead and Brittany’s father, Moses, becomes the prime suspect. Moses has been sober for quite some time, but he’s found completely wasted on alcohol. Also, witnesses saw Moses attack Rick when he learned that Rick was stalking his daughter.
Moses turns to his brother-in-law Dismas for help. Dismas isn’t sure Moses is innocent. The witnesses seem to convey guilt, and exoneration, if possible, comes with a high price.
Friends become enemies and moral dilemmas abound in this tense and intricate tale. The story starts off a bit slow, but Lescroart is a master of legal suspense. Once the final page is turned, everything, including the title, makes sense.
The Ophelia Cut will be remembered more as a literary endeavor in the vein of Scott Turow than anything Lescroart has done.
— Jeff Ayers
Associated Press
How Mercy Looks From Here
Amy Grant
Few singers probe issues of the spirit and of the heart with the warmth and intimacy of Amy Grant. On How Mercy Looks From Here, her first album of all-original material in a decade, the 52-year-old doesn’t try to sound anything other than her age, and the result poignantly examines life’s twists and turns with depth and grace.
Ignoring pop culture’s reliance on outrageousness and shock value, Grant focuses her songs inward, reflecting on the joyous (Here), the tragic (Shovel In Hand) and the spiritual (Deep As It Is Wide). With a voice as organic and comforting as a wool sweater, Grant also shows maturity by relying on her voice’s amber tones and subtle phrasing without showing off or pushing any edges.
Her duet guests include husband Vince Gill, veterans Sheryl Crow, Carole King and James Taylor and Nashville roots rocker Will Hoge, who all sound like they’re sitting with her on the couch as they harmonize. “Time is an illusion, time is a curse,” Grant sings with King on Our Time Is Now. The point is that however we look at time, we should make the best of this moment — which is what Grant does on How Mercy Looks From Here.
— Michael McCall
Associated Press