First, I became a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then, I took a liking to the Marshall Tucker Band. And now, I found a soft spot for Creedence Clearwater Revival.

CCR may be from the San Francisco Bay Area, but the county, folk, blues, and Southern Rock elements in their music are just timeless. They sold me with their first self-titled album. And now, with Bayou Country, I can enjoy listening to their music even more so. The songs on this album are top-notch. The opener "Born on the Bayou" is absolutely splendid. "Bootleg" is short, but it's musically exquisite. The 8-minute long "Graveyard Train" is good on a cold/warm rainy day (and I mean that in a good way). "Good Golly Miss Molly" is a cover one of of Little Richard's classic songs, and it's just as great as the original. The next three songs ("Penthouse Pauper," "Proud Mary," and "Keep on Chooglin") are typical vintage CCR. The bonus tracks for this new release, especially the live recordings of certain songs, are nice additions.

Bayou Country is absolutely perfect. I really wish I would have discovered this sooner. But hey, I'm still young. This album is a classic, and I hope that the later albums are just as great.

Grade: 10 out of 10

Creedence Clearwater Revival/ Bayou Country: In the late 1960's and early 1970's there were few bands (and albums) as entertaining as CCR. This album only has seven tracks (apparently there are another three in the Bonus Tracks edition CD) but these are all Great songs and both "Keep on Chooglin'" and "Graveyard Train" are around the 8 minute mark. This is a great five-star CD.

The Best Cajun,Rock,Folk,Country whatever album of ALL times . JCF at his best. He never topped this. A MUST have CD.

Great seller. Item as described. Was not to happy with the music on this one. That was my own fault. I was thinking it had a song on it and it did not. I had the wrong title. good seller however and fast, fast shipping!

It's been said a million times already, and truthtully all I'm doing is repeating what's already been said by bigger and better people- Creedence Clearwater Revival is truly unique in every sense of the word.

Something must have been seriously wrong with me when I was younger, because "Born on the Bayou" never seemed particularly appealing to me back in the day. NOW however, I realize the error of my ways. Whatever it was I was smoking back then, the fact remains I definitely wasn't thinking or hearing very clearly because this is one HECK of an awesome tune. Best verse melody ever.

"Bootleg" is an extremely melodic little roots rock tune. A perfect song really. At least, a perfect example of what makes CCR so darn irresistible.

Some people have a problem with "Graveyard Train" because, to be honest, the verse melody is somewhat mindless. It sounds extremely simple, however, that's exactly why I love it so much. It's catchy, and the harmonica jam that appears later on is really good as well. An underrated track. Its only flaw is being 8 minutes long because it honestly only deserves to be about 4 or 5 minutes.

Would you like to hear solid proof that todays guitar players can't hold a candle to the older ones? Just listen to the guitar playing in "Penthouse Pauper". Upon hearing it, you can definitely tell it's stuck in the late 60's because a bunch of blues rock bands like Cream and Zeppelin were writing songs with similar implementation of the guitar work, however it's also distinctive enough to stand head and shoulders above most guitar rock of todays generation.

We all know "Proud Mary" to the point of memorization so there's no need to further explain its awesomeness, and the album closes with the very best song- "Keep On Chooglin". BRILLIANT guitar jam, BRILLIANT harmonica work, and BRILLIANT rhythm section. Seriously, it's perfect.

Creedence Clearwater Revival is an incredible band and there's a reason people still listen to them today. There's a reason radio stations still play their classic material. Bayou Country covers all the bands very best points and offers some underrated ones as well.

I decided to buy all the remastered cd's of the Creedence Clearwater Revival albums (thanks Amazon!) because I've been a fan of the band for years. I thought it was time I heard more than just the songs from the CHRONICLES albums.

They are all fantastic, but I find myself listening to BAYOU COUNTRY slightly more than the others. Of course there's the legendary tune PROUD MARY. But BORN ON THE BAYOU is one of my absolute favorite, so those are two great reasons alone to get the album. But this album also includes 3 songs I wasn't quite familiar with:

GRAVEYARD TRAIN is a haunting blues jam that seems to move with the tempo of a slow rolling train.

BOOTLEG is a fun rock and roller that makes great use of Tom Fogerty's rhythm guitar. It's so good, I wonder why it wasn't one of their big hits.

Finally, KEEP ON CHOOGLIN' is an mesmerizing jam, played in perfect harmony by the fellas. Tom Fogerty's guitar, Stu Cook's base, Cosmo's drumming work so beautifully with John Fogerty's lead guitar, harmonica and vocals you get somewhat swept away by its power. This song may just be my new favorite!

I can't help but feel those three songs should have been included in the CHRONICLES 2 album, but whatever. It's an excuse to buy the album. No more excuses...go out and get you some BAYOU COUNTRY!

Proud Mary, a song about a riverboat of that name, was the single that established Creedence Clearwater Revival as a force to be reckoned with. It made the top ten in Britain and did even better in America, where it became the first of several Creedence Clearwater Revival singles to reach the top three. Curiously, they eventually had a number one hit in Britain (Bad moon rising, from a later album) but never reached the very top in America, where they were far more popular.

Supported by a cover of Good golly Miss Molly, the rock'n'roll classic, and several great original songs including Born on the bayou, Keep on chooglin', Penthouse pauper and Graveyard train, this album laid down a marker. It gave the public a clear message that Creedence Clearwater Revival was different from what had gone before. Although all the members were born in California, the group had absorbed a variety of influences, including some from Louisiana, prior to hitting the big time.

While this is not their best original album (that distinction belongs to Cosmo's factory), it provides a fine sampling of Creedence Clearwater Revival's music and all committed fans of the group need this album in their collection.

Around the turn of the century the long neglected Creedence catalog was suddenly appearing in new upgraded editions with cynical regularity. I bought the Steve Hoffman vinyl remasters, which are fine if hard to find. A 2000 CD reissue program was rendered unnecessary by the release - one year later - of the CCR box, with the entire catalog, plus previously issued live albums ("The Concert" from 1970 and the 1971 European set) in one nifty little box that offered familiar liner notes (Ed Ward, Joel Selvin,etc) and one disc to bait fans - a full disc of pre Creedence material that offered a fascinating revisionist essay by Alec Palao and 25 tracks - some originally issued on singles, some not - recorded during 1961 - 66, as the group struggled to make a living and develop the astonishing musical identity that felt so utterly "natural" by 1968.
These tracks are an uneven lot but many are surprisingly good, as young John Fogerty grew to be the major talent and visionary, leaving older brother Tom (who had started the band a decade before the debut Creedence album) in the humble role of rhythm guitarist...
Now it did seem a bit odd that the box offered no real rarities from CCR's 1967 - 72 period, when they were at absolute creative and commercial peak. After all, after the first album was released in June 1968, production chores were assumed by John and three seamless classics quickly followed, "Bayou Country" (January 1969), "Green River" (August 1969), and "Willy and the Poor Boys" (November 1969). "Cosmos Factory" (July 1970) and "Pendulum" (December 1970) completed an astonishing ruyn and one dazzling and enduring body of work. 1972's "Mardi Gras", recorded after Tom's 1971 departure, contains some good songs, but is an anomaly in the band's catalog, with drummer Doug Clifford and bassist Stu Cook composing (and worse, singing) two thirds of the material, a failed attempt at democracy that led John to split fpr a solo career by the end of the year.
So here we have the classic CCR albums, remastered once again, and finally packaged with all the original LP graphics (except those "Fantasy presents..." lablels, which are exactly reproduced by DCC along with every other graphic and sonic detail, in their beautiful transfers issued in the mid 1990s). The question for anyone who is already a fan is, Do we need the third or fourth (fifth counting DCC's gold discs) reissues of the Creedence catalog? Well, perhaps not, unless you're as obsessive compulsive as I am. The bait here is the bonus cuts, and I must say the studio stuff is really only for completists - nothing left in the can for the past thirty or forty years is in any way revelatory, nor is there even a nice b-side ('Call It Pretending', which is interesting, has already been appended to the debut on the aforementioned boxed set). There are some nice live versions that have not been issued. As for these master transfers (George Horn) they in fact are superior to the ones issued earlier this decade - more powereful overall, and details jump out like the percussion on 'Born On The Bayou.' Fogerty's guitars sting. And his piano, always mixed to be felt not heard, is another detail in what are afterall unparalelled original mixes. One may note the 2000-01 transfers of this and other CCR albums are somwhat shorter in length than bothe these new editions and the Steve Hoffman transfers for DCC. Thant's because of the digital devotee's horror of leaving in information from the original master tape that might be misinterpreted as "bad" or wrong; dare we lead the younger or less informed consumer to perceive any amount of audible tape hiss as a 'flaw' in the mastering process (usually audible during the fade near the end of a track, as it rightly should be as it's right there on the original analog master) as if discovering that some uncouth Great Dane relieved himself right there on the front stoop.
DCC reproduced the original masters faithfully, and George Horn does it here, though these new discs are sometimes a little bright for my taste and perhaps the overall ambience Fogerty worked to achieve. But at least 'Born On The Bayou' is 5:15 and not 5:10. And one can just bask in the details and the earth tones of these performances. The debut is a good one, but "Bayou Country" is the first undeniable classic from Creedence, invoking Sun Records, Howlin Wolf, Little Richard, and Mark Twain within a seamless and wonderously executed vision that is now Fogerty's own.

If you buy ANY Creedence Clearwater Revival CDs, look for a release date of September 30, 2008. After FINALLY making peace with Fantasy records, the CCR catalog has gotten the remastering treatment, along with several live bonus tracks. In addition, these new downloads are actually CHEAPER than the others!

Bayou Country was MY introduction to CCR, and as such it and my second purchase, Willy and the Poorboys, will always remain my favorites. I downloaded this, then Willy, then said "what the heck" and went ahead and got Green River, the self-titled debut, and Cosmo's Factory. ALL FIVE are great and come highly recommended. Trust me, if you get one, you're gonna want all five...

GREAT STUFF! And much improved audio!

I've seen self-appointed critics label CCR a "singles band" but that's bunk. Albums like "Bayou Country", "Willy and the Poor Boys" and "Cosmo's Factory" disprove that attempt at belittling their legacy.

For my money the best thing CCR ever laid to vinyl didn't even make it to the knockout compilation "Chronicle". I'm referring, of course, to the opening track here, and the b-side of "Proud Mary", "Born On The Bayou". The a-side is present and accounted for here as well. The album closer, the almost eight minute long "Keep On Chooglin'" is also a must for even the casual fan of CCR. Such a song that so well defines a band's sound should also have made it to the definitive compilation.

In the days before Amazon's mp3 downloads I was determined to have "Born On The Bayou" on CD. Since I already owned "Chronicle" on CD I was reluctant to shell out for a whole album but in this case my venture was well-rewarded. This is a great album. Oh, I don't really have any use for the least of the set, the Little Richard cover, but it certainly doesn't harm the album. If one was to download individual tracks to complement "Chronicle", the tracks already named would be must-haves, but seriously, just spring for the whole thing. Only one of the seven tracks is on the 'best of' and when you hear the other six here, you will be very glad you added this to your collection. It's as solid, consistent, and distinctive as any of the Doors' best albums from this same era.