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Fogerty Tears Up Riverside John Fogerty's present road band features a four-guitar attack, plus bass and drums. Billy Burnette handles part of the guitar slinging, and Kenny Aronoff's manning the drum kit. by DAVE TIANEN If John Fogerty had taken the Riverside Theater any deeper into the swamp Tuesday night, there'd be an Orkin crew there this morning clearing out the leftover gators and water moccasins.

Thirty-five odd years ago, Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival renewed the classic sound of Sun Records by adding more muscle in the guitars and nudging the sense of place south from Memphis to the bayou country. In the process, he created a glittering array of rock classics, including "Lodi," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Born on the Bayou," "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" and "Travelin' Band," which opened the evening on an appropriately frantic note.

The calendar keeps insisting Fogerty is 62 years old, when any reasonable person witnessing the full head of shaggy hair, the trim waist, the unlined features and the abundant energy can see he's an exceptionally well-maintained 40. Senior citizens clearly don't pogo like that and run in place during their guitar solos.

After tearing things up with "Travelin' Band," Fogerty said, "You've already heard the longest speech I will ever make. Let's rock!"

He certainly came well-equipped for the task. Fogerty's present road band features a four-guitar attack, plus bass and drums. And the hired help is stellar. Billy Burnette handles part of the guitar slinging, and Kenny Aronoff's manning the drum kit. If you want to play raise-the-roof roots rock 'n' roll, you can't start much better than that.

For a while, it looked as if Fogerty might serve up a set list that duplicated the double disc concert album "The Long Road Home." Superb though it might be, that would have been a bit of a letdown.

But a few songs in, Fogerty began to revisit some of the back roads of his swamp. There was his version of a John Lee Hooker boogie "Keep On Chooglin'." There was a love song for his little girl called "I Will Walk With You." If you've seen Fogerty recently, you know he's a devoted family man. He introduced "I Will Walk With You" as his favorite song of all the tunes he'd ever written.

There was a sprinkling of more recent tunes from his solo career. "Deja vu (All Over Again)" is his answer to the Iraq war. Simple, direct, done with just Fogerty on the acoustic guitar, it connects the dots between Vietnam and Iraq. On a lighter note, "Hot Rod Heart" is Fogerty's fantasy of a Harley-Davidson getaway.

There were a few revivals that didn't show up on "Long Road." There was Fogerty's loping reinvention of "The Midnight Special" with that low ringing guitar introduction. That one brought the crowd to their feet.

Better yet, the band dusted off "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," complete with the extended guitar jam. Fogerty took what already was a classic piece of primal soul and added a low rumbling guitar line that added a double dose of voodoo to the spectral mojo.

© Copyright 2007, THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL