Written by Eddie Ferranti
Oct 20, 2013 at 07:00 PM
ImageEvery once in a while, Rose and I get to grab the keys to the ‘Time Machine’ and head back to the rockin’ 1970’s. We feel so fortunate to be able to say we lived through the best era rock music will ever have seen and, as my fellow HMR stablemate, James Killen, proudly wears a t-shirt that says: “I may be getting old, but I saw all the cool bands!”

One of those icons from that golden time was Mr. John Fogerty.

He slid into the Woodlands, supporting his new album, “Wrote a Song for Everyone,” which entered the Billboard chart at #3. This marks the Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s highest-debuting record of his career – including his Creedence Clearwater Revival releases! How ’bout dem apples?!

The album is a collection of classics and deep tracks from his vast library performed alongside an array of today’s biggest superstars, which includes the likes of the Foo Fighters, Bob Seger, Keith Urban and My Morning Jacket to name a few.

Well, that is great, but the reason the place was packed on a beautiful evening in North Houston was to see the man burn down his CCR relics and chestnuts from his solo carreer, which unbelievably began in 1972. Man did this cat deliver and then some.

Coming out after a killer video highlighting his stellar resume, JF bounced out on an elevated stage and took over. He still moves (at 68 !) like a young rocker and his voice, oh that voice! Dude hit all the notes, high ones included. The man runs six miles a day and not since Mick Jaggar have I seen a vet KICK it on stage like Fogerty did. He had his son, Shane, playing in the band and he complimented him well throughout. You could tell he did his daddy proud, especially when he took a lead late in the show and JF’s smile was beaming. Sweet stuff.

Super drum vet, Kenny Aronoff, was a flat out stud on the skins and at the age of 60 he showed no signs of slowing down. VH1 had a video interview where he stated how Fogerty pushed him hard and it made for an awesome coupling.  The back drop videos highlighted old time America: tender shots mixed with young John’s CCR footage and it only enhanced the experience.

Unreal how he rolled thru 29 songs total without a break, including tear down the building “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary” for an encore. With this gig any song could of been the encore and it would of scored.

What impressed this reviewer was how bad freakin’ ass his guitar work was-along with mouth harp! Fogerty turned transistor radio classics “Green River,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Special” into full on axe shred epic blow torch classics, ala Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

ImageIn the opening video, they also stated he practices 4 hours a day and it shows. Oh yeah- Fogerty may give some of the best “guitar face” that rock and roll has ever known during his out of nowhwere blistering hot jams. John did not talk a bunch, but when he did he opened up about some super memories like of how they followed The Grateful Dead at Woodstock at 2:30am and everybody was so stoned they were barely noticed! HA!

Boy, oh boy, the list of standout moments are too many to list, but the stretch of “Rock and Roll Girls”, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” which was way beyond a sing along tune with this joyous throng, cover of “Pretty Woman” smoked, freakin’ “Down on the Corner”, “Centerfield”, “Up Around the Bend”, goosebump poppin’ intro to “Old Man Down the Road” and last one “Fortunate Son”!! Remember any of those?! Damn sure you do.

All the world over people still hear some of these songs every day and we’re better for it. The performer we saw this special night was there having a blast and had reconciled the life that his songs portrayed-that being the ones about war, growing up in small town USA and the chaos of the ’60’s.

Can’t quite come up with a word to describe the whole event, but magical will have to do. And it was hot. By that I mean we were surprised that the freakin’ stage did not melt. We know for sure he melted our hearts and we smiled as we parked the ‘Time Machine’ in the garage one more time…Thank the Lord for LIVE music. GO get ya some and you’ll better for it!