Ravinia 2022, Issue 2

LEE CHERRY (FOGERTY); VANDI ANGGA (FRANTI) JOHN FOGERTY Coming of age in Southern California, John Fogerty was immersed in emergence of rock and roll. Naturally, John and his older brother Tom learned to play guitar and, together with high-school friends Doug Clifford and Stu Cook, formed The Golliwogs in the late ’50s. John took over as lead vocalist and guitarist in the mid-’60s, and with a new band name and an album to match—Creedence Clearwater Revival—the quartet hit the airwaves with a gold-selling rendition of “Susie Q.” Fogerty also emerged as the band’s chief songwriter, definitively establishing CCR’s fame with the number-two hit “Proud Mary” off the top-10 hit album Bayou Country (1969). He contin- ued to draw from a seemingly endless well of inspiration, producing four top-five albums over the next two years— Green River , Willy and the Poor Boys , Cosmo’s Factory , and Pen- dulum —including such everlasting songs as “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” CCR split up in 1972, and Fogerty immediate- ly began working on a “solo” album—though he was the only performer on the collection of country covers, the title and billing was The Blue Ridge Rangers . His first album bearing only his own name came in 1975, and after an extended hiatus he topped the charts with Centerfield (1985), featuring a couple smash- hit singles in “The Old Man Down the Road” and “Rock and Roll Girls.” Fogerty’s 1997 al- bum Blue Moon Swamp earned him the Best Rock Album Grammy, and during the ’90s he was also honored as a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. His 2013 top-five hit Wrote a Song for Ev- eryone featured collaborations with a variety of artists on both his classics and deep cuts, a formula he revisited with three of his chil- dren on Fogerty’s Factory (2020) for his 75th birthday. John Fogerty first played Ravinia in 2016 and is making his second return to the festival. HEARTY HAR A psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles formed in 2012, Hearty Har is led by co-gui- tarists and vocalists Shane Fogerty and Ty- ler Fogerty. The musical influence of their father, John Fogerty, is undeniable, but with a wide range of inspirations from the 1960s and ’70s—from synthesizer-laden reminis- cences of Kraftwerk and Electric Light Or- chestra to layers of Ennio Morricone-esque scoring—the group has come to be known for retro garage rock and soul blended with spacy psych-pop that makes for dynamic and raucous live listens. With recordings dating back to 2014, Hearty Har found its stride on the 2018 EP Crystal Shards, Vol. 1 and then set about the next step of crafting a full-length debut. The result was 2021’s Radio Astro , which winds through all of the style in their makeup, from urgent edges on “Radio Man ’56” and “Don’t Go Looking for Me” to psy- chedelic stirrings on “Fare Thee Well” and “Get Down”, plus a familiar/familial guest on “Scream and Shout.” Hearty Har is making its Ravinia debut. PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2022 FOLLOW YOUR HEART TOUR ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT † –Intermission– MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD † Ravinia debut MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD Born and adopted in Oakland, CA, Michael Franti developed his musical and songwriting chops while attending the University of San Francisco in the late 1980s, regularly washed over with the airwaves from KUSF radio. Af- ter cutting his first tracks with an industrial punk and hip hop band, Franti added jazz influences to the music behind the politically charged lyrics. With this later group, Dispos- able Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Franti confronted several socially regressive themes prevalent in hip hop writing of the early ’90s, and also backed an album by legendary Beat author William S. Burroughs. By 1994, Franti began incorporating more funk and reggae influ- ences into his soulful mélange with his present band, Spearhead, focusing more on social condi- tions in his songwriting. The song “Positive,” featured on the newly formed group’s debut album, Home , addressed the AIDS epidemic and was included on a Red Hot Organization compilation. The band’s 1997 follow-up, Chocolate Supa Highway , elevated the reggae tethers—particularly with Stephen Marley a guest on the track “Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock)”—and added focus on issues of policing. Cutting over to independent production, Franti & Spearhead released Stay Human in 2001, highlighting injustices of the death penalty, and Everyone Deserves Music in 2003, which added rock melodies to their sonic palette. Inspired by a trip to the Middle East, Franti tackled the costs of war in the 2006 film I Know I’m Not Alone and Spearhead album Yell Fire! , which was followed by the band’s first top-40 hit, All Rebel Rockers (2008). Both discs were partly recorded in Jamaica, the latter featuring the rhythm duo Sly and Robbie and the top-20 single “Say Hey (I Love You).” Franti & Spearhead scored their biggest hit yet with 2010’s The Sound of Sunshine , its title track and “Hey Hey Hey” becoming top-five radio plays. Franti in- troduced his second documentary film alongside 2019’s Stay Human, Vol. 2 , and the band’s most recent album, Follow Your Heart , was released in June. Michael Franti & Spearhead first appeared at Ravinia in 2009 and tonight make their first return to the festival. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 27