Atlanta Journal-Constitution - October 6, 2000
Dan Fogelberg
He hasn't had much press since Jimmy Carter was in the White House or a hit
single since 1981's sweetly romantic album, "The Innocent Age."
But soft-rock folkie Dan Fogelberg has built a steady following over the years
with little more than his plaintive tenor, acoustic guitar and sensitive songs
of love (lost and found). The 49-year-old Coloradan bristles at suggestions that
he's a throwback to the 1970s, when introspective singer-songwriters ruled the
FM dial. Yet he clearly relishes being out of step with today's crop of
disposable hitmakers.
"What's on the radio these days is fluff entertainment for teens,"
says Fogelberg, calling from a tour stop in Naples, Fla. "I write for a
different audience, for my generation. We had our time and they have theirs.
Now, I think ours may have been more substantive; today's music has no real
substance. . . . You can't tell one artist from the next."
Fogelberg pulls into Chastain Park Amphitheatre on Saturday Oct. 7 for a one-man
show built largely around the '70s acoustic hits that earned him seven
platinum-selling albums. Accompanying himself on piano and guitar, the Peoria,
Ill., native will run through such chestnuts as "Longer" and
"Leader of the Band," but will also throw in some new material
developed since his last Atlanta performance in 1998.
Fogelberg insists the current tour is not part of a comeback of any kind ---
"The touring has never really stopped," he says, without a hint of
defensiveness. But when the tour ends this month, he will begin recording his
first new album of acoustic ballads since the 1970s --- marking a return to his
roots, after forays into bluegrass, country and even world-beat music in the
1980s and 1990s.
This summer, he also released a concert album --- "Live: Something Old,
Something New, Something Borrowed and Some Blues" --- featuring such
acoustic classics as "Looking for a Lady," and covers of George
Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" (recorded in Atlanta) and Blind Willie
McTell's classic "Statesboro Blues."
We talked with Fogelberg about what's old, new and borrowed.
Q: After nearly 30 years, does it still matter to you what the critics say?
A: Not terribly, no. You do your music and don't worry about all that. I don't
feel like I should lower what I do to appease the pop music world.
Q: On your tours, you do a coffeehouse-style show --- that guy-and-a-guitar
thing that was more popular in the '70s. It seems pretty different from what's
on the radio these days.
A: Well, it was an incredibly innovative time, the '60s and '70s. It was really
a remarkable golden era for music. Now all you hear is a copy of a copy of a
copy. . . . In the '60s and '70s there was so much individuality to the music.
There wasn't a second Janis (Joplin), or Joni (Mitchell) or Bruce (Springsteen).
That's what's different today. I can't tell Christina Aguilera from Britney
Spears, can you?
Q: Your current show is more of a greatest-hits live performance than a showcase
for new songs. How come?
A: I'm doing what I'm known for. Most people know those songs, and I want to
play what people want to hear. It's not like Neil Young, who gets out there and
does what he wants to do and it's like, y'know, (forget about) 'em. The people
who come to the shows, they paid a lot of money to come, and had to drive a good
way to get there, so I want to play the songs they came to hear.