Album Review: Quiero Creedence by Various Artists

Concord Picante's Latin tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival details the California quartet's lasting influence beyond U.S. borders. The band's catalog has not only sold in Central and South America and Southern Europe, but continues to, and has inspired several generations of Latin rockers and pop stars. This set contains 14 tracks by (mostly) veteran artists.

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A tribute album with a difference, Quiero Creedence features 14 Latin acts paying homage to California rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival. Pre-eminent in the US singles charts in the late 60s, the group were no less popular south of the border, where the sharp social focus of John Fogerty’s songs found resonance. The anti-gun Run Through the Jungle gets a shimmering treatment from Spain’s Bunbury, Texas’s Los Lonely Boys raise dust on Born on the Bayou, and Oakland’s Bang Data give the anti-war Fortunate Son a bilingual hip-hop makeover.

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The Upshot: With tribute albums it always boils down to the tunes themselves, and in this case there are enough “A” quality tracks among the 14 to rate the project average. To date there have been at least five Creedence Clearwater Revival tributes, including the inevitable Pickin’ On… bluegrass trib, which is part of a ghastly trend of assembling genre tributes (coming soon to a tribute near you: a klezmer take on Led Zeppelin) rather than simply rounding up 12-15 groups who claim to have a deep appreciation of the artist being memorialized and each one delivering its own unique take on same. That five-tribs raw statistic by itself doesn’t constitute evidence of this particular band’s staying power.

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