{"id":407502,"date":"2026-09-22T19:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407502\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T19:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:52:12","slug":"review-in-clearwater-john-fogerty-and-steve-winwood-roll-with-it-during-packed-double-header","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407502\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: In Clearwater, John Fogerty and Steve Winwood roll with it during packed double-header"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"John Fogerty (second from right) Credit: Photo by Josh Bradley<\/p>\n

It rained during \u201cWho\u2019ll Stop The Rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

While John Fogerty was telling a story about his original Rickenbacker returning to his world, some raindrops began to fall atop the packed-out lawn. Not a torrential downpour, but enough of a sprinkle to brag about the cosmically beautiful moment last Saturday night.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t heard, Fogerty\u2014the frontman, axeman, and main creative force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2014got his songs back a few years ago,<\/a> ending a lifelong rights struggle. And he\u2019s taking them on the road to celebrate them like it\u2019s 1969 again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He credited his wife-slash-manager Julie, sitting backstage at downtown Clearwater\u2019s BayCare Sound, for the repossession and dedicated his solo tune \u201cJoy Of My Life\u201d to her. \u201cBehind every man is a great woman,\u201d he declared. \u201cYou girls all know about this!\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a video where he glazed his life story, Fogerty and his five-piece band, featuring his two boys Shane and Tyler of Hearty Har, hit the stage and immediately got a trifecta of his unmistakable bayou hits out of the way. Spooky-season standard \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d came first, followed by Shane leading the guys into \u201cUp Around The Bend,\u201d and a crazy long \u201cGreen River\u201d solo on his Les Paul goldtop guitar.<\/p>\n

Fogerty, 81, was sprightly and wild as ever. Unlike plenty of others in his age bracket, his swampy wail is still fully intact, he still plays (and owns) guitars like a madman, and he can still lead a jam session like it\u2019s his last.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a different \u201choly shit\u201d moment on a Fogerty tour. His time in Tampa Bay has seen the likes of a Billy F. Gibbons duet and a cover of \u201cFight Fire\u201d by The Golliwogs (his pre-CCR band, you golliwog.)\u00a0This time around, some Cosmo\u2019s Factory stans were taken aback when Fogerty picked up a fiery Ernie Ball custom guitar and jumped into all seven minutes and 11 seconds of \u201cRamble Tamble,\u201d the 1970 album\u2019s opening track. It\u2019s a fairly frequent addition to his setlist, sure, but it hasn\u2019t been played in Tampa Bay since a 2015 stop at the old Gary amphitheater, so we\u2019ll take what we can get.<\/p>\n

And then you had your intoxication playlist standards. The twangy \u201cLookin\u2019 Out My Back Door,\u201d complete with tangerines and Elvis. The smooth-sailing \u201cLong As I Can See The Light,\u201d complete with a heavy guitar-and-sax section to close it out. And of course, he touched upon his solo work, during which Shane got his Hearty Har moment to shine on \u201cThe Old Man Down The Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the crowd was into all of it, too. The stoners, Woodstockers, and weekend party-people really dug the psychedelic ambiance in the air. Plus, this was probably the biggest crowd I\u2019ve seen at this venue, and I\u2019ve seen a Beatle play here.<\/p>\n

An hour and a half beforehand, ol\u2019 Fogey\u2019s fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Winwood, with far less fanfare, plopped himself down at a piano for \u201cGlad,\u201d the instrumental opening track from the Dave Mason-free Traffic album John Barleycorn Must Die.<\/p>\n

\"\"Steve Winwood Credit: Photo by Josh Bradley<\/p>\n

A lot has happened since Winwood\u2019s last visit here in 2016 opening for Steely Dan<\/a>. He was appointed an MBE last year, and he played on the Rolling Stones\u2019 latest album Foreign Tongues, but he\u2019s also watched some comrades fall. There was The Dan\u2019s Walter Becker and Tom Petty (who Mr. \u201cHigher Love\u201d has also opened for in Tampa<\/a>) dying within a month of each other, and further, the passing of Dave Mason last April made Winwood is now the sole surviving member of Traffic.<\/p>\n

But whether he thinks that way or not, you\u2019d never guess that he\u2019s the last of a dying breed. While his voice did have a bit of a rusty start without his backup vocalists, the 78-year-old took it fairly easy once he was warmed up, spending most of his hour-long set behind an organ stage right. He took the liberty of wielding one stringed instrument per era of his: A Fender Telecaster TLAC on Blind Faith\u2019s \u201cCan\u2019t Find My Way Home,\u201d a Washburn M3s mandolin on \u201cBack In The High Life Again,\u201d and a baby blue Strat on Traffic\u2019s \u201cDear Mr. Fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that his early days with Spencer Davis Group went unacknowledged, though. He sat at the organ for \u201cI\u2019m A Man,\u201d which he originally wrote before leaving the group, and the obligatory \u201cGimme Some Lovin\u2019\u201d encore.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Proud Fogerty keeps on burning, Mr. Fantasy continues his happy tunes, and rain still comes down on sunny Florida days.<\/a><\/p>\n

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