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OTTAWA -- Nobody needed any reviving while John Fogerty was playing at Scotiabank Place last night. The only way the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman could have gotten a louder reaction out of the 5,000 fans would have been with a defibrillator.
Fresh from a tour of central Europe and his first Canadian concert date in Montreal Tuesday night, the ageless Fogerty covered all the bases any CCR fan could want with a 90-minute performance packed with old CCR classics and a couple new tunes he's recorded for Revival, his first studio album in three years in October.
Looking at the 61-year-old Fogerty, and more importantly, hearing him perform, it's hard to believe it's been 35 years since CCR broke up in 1972. The swamp blues of Louisiana was in the blood of brothers Tom and John Fogerty with Stu Cooke and Doug Clifford in the early 1970s, when CCR was perhaps the most prolific hit-making band in America, pumping out a mind-boggling string of hits between 1969-1972 including Proud Mary, Lodi, Sweet Hitch Hiker, Travellin' Band, Who'll Stop the Rain and Bad Moon Rising.
Then, Fogerty's ambition for constant touring and recording sent first brother Tom, and later bandmates Stu Cook and Doug Clifford packing. Since then, Fogerty's been his own man, honouring his past and creating his own future with outstanding solo records such as Centrefield, Deja Vu and The Long Road Home.
With a lot of road to cover, Fogerty focused on many of the old hits including his opening number Travellin' Band and Green River before going acoustic on Who'll Stop the Rain, and the hypnotic rhythms of Born on the Bayou, a speedy Lookin' Out My Back Door, Lodi, I Will Walk With You, a long jam on Ramble Tamble, Midnight Special, I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Down on the Corner, giving lots of ampage to the blues with gorgeously raunchy guitar and a voice as fresh as it was 35 years ago.
Like I said, no one needed reviving last night. Particularly John Fogerty.
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Meanwhile, it's been all of a week since Blue Rodeo played Bluesfest. So my question for Jim Cuddy, who opened last night's gig, is, "What took you so long?"
All kidding aside, why Cuddy would play an opening set for Fogerty when, only last week, he and Blue Rodeo headlined their own gig for 28,000 fans at Bluesfest indicates either how much he loves his Ottawa fans, or his solo gigs. The feeling obviously is mutual, as the city has an insatiable appetite for Cuddy's low-key and boyishly sentimental love songs in an unembellished and surprisingly brief 45-minute set of solo and BR standards including All I Need, with fiddler Anne Lindsay stormy soloing on Five Days in May as well as Married Again and Pull Me Through from his last solo record The Light That Guides You Home.