What a great way to open up the 175th Erie County Fair with having a performer who is maybe more synonymous with Americana that anyone one else. John Fogerty and his former band Creedence Clearwater Revival symbolize that American tradition like few others. Fogerty is on the “Looking Out My Back Door” tour and playing all the hits from his days in CCR.
The show started promptly at 8pm with Fogerty taking the stage and going right into the chords of “Travelin’ Band.” An appropriate upbeat song to get the crowd’s juices flowing. As the next song was about to start, Fogerty stated that he is a man of few words and began “Green River.” In fact, Fogerty really let the music do the talking the entire night except the time he talked about being at Woodstock before the band started “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” He remarked about the rain along with the nakedness going on at the time.
Fogerty did switch instruments on just about every song and played acoustic on a few tracks including the aforementioned. An accordion solo was delivered before Fogerty and the rest of his band went into ‘”Looking Out My Back Door.” Speaking about Fogerty’s band I must add a band is only as good as its drummer. Fogerty has one of the best in Kenny Aronoff. He acknowledged this fact later on in the set as well. Arnoff was a beast and no song was more evident of Arnoff’s powerful drumming style than on “Hot Rod Heart.” He also enjoyed a drum solo before “Keep on Chooglin.”
Fogerty did mention how “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” reminded him of his daughter Kelsey. He had the crowd sing the chorus for the song as well. Up next he did the same with Gary U.S. Bonds cover of “New Orleans.” The big rise of the night is when he sang the line “Shuffling Off to Buffalo” in “Rock and Roll Girls.” Most of the crowd jumped in and helped sing as you can well imagine.
Wrapping up the last part of the set is one of my favorite songs that he does, “Centerfield.” He came out and played a baseball bat sized guitar. Odd yes but very cool looking nonetheless.
Fogerty still showed he has a voice that can drive him where he needs to go. Having Aronoff as a driving force helps matters and lets Fogerty and his band showcase their talents collectively as a cohesive unit. It was a perfect selection to get things started at this year’s 175th Erie County Fair!
Setlist:
Travelin’ Band (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Who’ll Stop the Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Born on the Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Lodi (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Lookin’ Out My Back Door (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Hot Rod Heart
Ramble Tamble (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Midnight Special (Lead Belly cover)
I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles cover)
Mystic Highway
Long as I Can See the Light (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
New Orleans (Gary “U.S.” Bonds cover)
Night Time Is the Right Time (Roosevelt Sykes cover)
Drum Solo
Keep On Chooglin’ (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Rock and Roll Girls
Down on the Corner (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Centerfield
Up Around the Bend (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
The Old Man Down the Road
Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Encore:
Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
We would like to thank both Laura Fisk from the Welk Music Group and Holly Smyczynski from the Erie County Fair for the credentials to review the show.
