Creedence Clearwater Revival
split in early 1972, which is only part of the reason why it was a busy year for
Tom Fogerty
. When
CCR
's farewell arrived in the spring of 1972, he already had an eponymous album in stores, recorded with keyboardist
Merl Saunders
, bassist
John Kahn
, drummer
Bill Vitt
, and guitarist
Russ Gary
. This same lineup quickly went back into the studio to cut another record, this time swapping
Gary
for a guitarist of greater renown:
Jerry Garcia
. The appearance of
Captain Trips
on
Excalibur
is logical, as the album essentially features the group that was gigging around the Bay Area as the
Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia
band (if anything, it's a surprise that
Jerry
didn't sit in on the first
Fogerty
LP), and this fact puts the LP in a different light. While
still sounds a bit like his brother
John
and is more inclined to choogle than his bandmates -- who are nevertheless happy to follow him when he decides to lay into the New Orleans -- this shouldn't be seen as a
castoff. Instead,
belongs in the extended
Dead
universe, capturing an elastic, winding rock & roll whose essential three-chord boogies seem slightly spacy. That vague trippiness can sometimes translate into music that feels a little bit lazy -- they're all jamming on mellow grooves, a notable shift from the driving backbeat of
-- but it also contains its share of period charms. Above all,
is an artifact of the early '70s, a record that finds space for the ornate AM-psych of "Sign of the Devil" but is generally more concerned with hippie rhythms that are just starting to seem a little musty. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine