ROCKING ALL OVER FREO

This review was published in Farm Weekly on Mar 19, 2008

By RAY CHAN

IT was singalong time at Fremantle last weekend .. the port town literally reverberated in unison to Ray Davies as he brought out his Kinks masterpiece Lola, while Don McLean got everyone to chime in on his classic American Pie.
    The two musicians were part of a stellar line-up which graced this year's West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, which also boasted artists of the calibre of Buddy Guy, Patti Griffin, Sinead O'Connor, Jools Holland and Eskimo Joe.
   But the undoubted star of the two-day event was John Fogerty, and it was on his songs that the audience participations were at their most robust.
    It's been two years since Fogerty last played in Perth, and time has not wearied the man who once fronted the legendary Creedence Clearwater Revival.
    Dressed in trademark checks, he was a bundle of energy from the start, pouncing on the stage to the rip-roaring Travelin' Band, a CCR favourite from the band's heyday.
    The frenetic nature of the show was even more admirable given that the performer is not only in his 60s, but had flown in fresh from the US after playing there barely two days before, giving him precious little time to rehearse or recover from jet lag.
    Yet you wouldn't know it. Fogerty's voice is, if anything, stronger, sweeter, yet softer, one minute rocking out a CCR standard like Bad Moon Rising, and the next settling into the mellower tones of a ballad like the poignant Broken Down Cowboy.
    Fogerty's repertoire was laced with many well-known, happy pieces that had the crowd bellowing deliriously .. Looking Out My Back Door, Midnight Special, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Down On The Corner ... hit after hit after hit sprang forth, as Fogerty tapped into his rich vein of material.
    One of his newer songs, Don't You Wish It Was True, had such a positive message that listeners who were unfamiliar with it were quick to join in with the chorus after just a few verses.
    Recently ranked number 40 of the top 100 guitarists of all time by a music magazine, Fogerty had ample opportunity to display his skills, notably on the raucous Keep On Chooglin', a showstopper back even in the CCR days.
    Renowned for his perfectionism, Fogerty cannot be unhappy with his own travelling band, which consists of five superb musicians: Kenny Aronoff, acclaimed as one of the best drummers in the world, Hunter Perrin, a guitarist with the looks of a slimmed-down Jack Black, Billy Burnette, son of rock pioneer Dorsey Burnette, Matt Nolan, an accomplished guitarist and keyboards player, and bass guitarist David Santos.
    They did not miss a beat, even when a technical glitch threatened to disrupt the proceedings; the band just carried on as if nothing had gone astray.
    Indeed, Perth fans were given a rare treat as attempts were made to fix the problem; Fogerty and band duly went into a rocking, impromptu rendition of Blue Suede Shoes, a song unlikely to be repeated on the rest of his Australian tour ... unless another equipment failure occurs.
    Fogerty has well and truly stepped out of the shadows of Creedence, and his fans will no doubt relish his next visit here as he looks like making Perth a regular stop on his worldwide tours.
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