Joe Bourdet – “Illinois”

Our good friend Joe Bourdet is releasing a Meadow Rock rendition of Dan Fogelberg’s “Illinois” today.

Joe says “I have a mischievious friend, who for years when he went digging through the LP stacks at Amoeba Music in Hollywood would collect all of the Dan Fogelberg records he came across, and, at the end of his search, would stealthily place the dozens of Fogelberg LPs all across the displays on the isles.  

His identity remained unknown to the Amoeba staff, but they started affectionately (or maybe otherwise) calling him the Fogelberg Bandit. 

Cut to present day, where the regular rediscovery and reissue of rare pressings and obscure artists is truly revelatory.  Even so, I’m happy to enjoy the work of this once very popular artist whose name may no longer be on the tip of everyone’s tongue. I’m doing some banditry of my own now by taking one of Dan Fogelberg’s finest songs and covering it in the style I call Meadow Rock. “Illinois” is a gem of a tune, originally produced by Joe Walsh and featuring his amazing crew, its singer/songwriter era fare, yes, but with a special extra oomph. The song is about a half-defeated homecoming, yet home is also a place of silver linings. I’m from California, not Illinois, so I relate to this song in multifaceted ways, and even hold my own private interpretations of these lyrics. “Open the curtains and let the rest wait” is a favorite line, oft thought of by me when enjoying coffee in bed (as often as possible). The hand drawn artwork by my friend Amy Blaschke is done in the arched shape of the windows on my rented Spanish house here in “South California”. The vocal arrangement on the chorus is special, the low harmony part comes within a mere single step away from the melody, creating an.. almost rub.  My version is faster, in a different key, and has an extended instrumental outro and slide solo at the end. It features two dear friends and collaborators: Justin Smith on drums, whose beat and energy lilt like the expanse of the prairie, “He gets it! Fills everywhere” a producer friend exclaimed to me when he heard it. If I recall correctly, Justin played this track with his broken kick drum foot in cast as well! The other key collaborator, on Emmons pedal steel guitar, is Catfish Connor Gallaher. He possesses boundless melodic and rhythmic ideas and applies them liberally here. Maybe it’s time for a new assessment of Fogelberg’s work, it’s my hope that this heartfelt effort from our crew might grab the ear of a whole new era of music lovers. “