Review: Bay Area rock legend has plenty to celebrate at sold-out concert

John Fogerty brought his Celebration Tour to Saratoga, performing a sold-out show on opening night of the 2023 Mountain Winery concert season.

John Fogerty was in the mood to celebrate.

“I’m so happy to be back at the Mountain Winery,” the 77-year-old Creedence Clearwater Revival founder exclaimed at the start of his sold-out show on Friday night. “As you may have heard, I’ve got my songs back.”

Thus ends a decades-long publishing rights battle for some of the greatest songs in rock ‘n’ roll history, a tussle that has certainly seen some bizarre twists over the years — including John Fogerty being basically being sued for sounding like John Fogerty by the then-owner of the CCR songbook, Fantasy Records.

Yet, victory was finally had in January as Fogerty was able to acquire a majority interest of the worldwide publishing rights to “Proud Mary,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and the other songs he authored as the leader of CCR back in the ’60s and ’70s.

And he’d certainly make great use of those forementioned tunes, and a dozen others, as he brought his aptly named Celebration Tour to the picturesque Saratoga venue, performing before 2,500 fans on what was opening night of the 2023 Mountain Winery concert season.

The first-tier Bay Area rock legend, who was born in Berkeley and grew up in El Cerrito, took the stage with his five-piece backing band around 8:30 p.m. and opened the 18-song show with a rowdy version of “Up Around the Bend.’

Picking at his Gibson Les Paul “Goldtop” — one of many axes Fogerty swung over the course of the 90-minute concert — the bandleader keep the adrenaline high as he paddled through the title track to 1969’s triple-platinum outing “Green River,” and the swampy “Born on the Bayou” from CCR’s second album, 1969’s “Bayou Country”.

The concert was basically a CCR greatest hits show, with 14 of the 18 selections hailing from that legendary East Bay band’s catalog. Fogerty filled out the rest of the set with solo career highlights, like “Centerfield” and “The Old Man Down the Road” — the number that prompted a ridiculous lawsuit against Fogerty because of alleged similarities it shared with another song he wrote — CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle”.

Fogerty’s vocals sounded pretty strong, if perhaps a bit more reedy than what one might recall from his most popular albums, as he continued through “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Rock and Roll Girls” and “Run Through the Jungle.” And his guitar work was even better, as he cooked up those legendary riffs and runs in ways that brought big smiles to the faces in the crowd.

He also seemed to be having a lot of fun interacting with the crowd, as he reminisced about old times and told stories and jokes.

At one point, he brought up some guitar heroes from the British rock scene of the ’60s, namedropping “Jimi (Hendrix, presumably, although he also could have meant Jimmy Page), Jeff (Beck) and Eric (Clapton).” He then starred out at a crowd member, likely singling out one of the few in attendance under the age of 40, and realizing that these names might not be ringing a bell, added, “Ask your grandpa.”

It was cool to see the classic rock icon accompanied onstage by his talented two sons — Shane and Tyler Fogerty — who besides doing guitar work in their dad’s band also opened the show with Hearty Har, a psychedelic rock act based in Los Angeles. The rest of Fogerty’s backing musicians — drummer Richard Millsap, keyboardist Bob Malone, bassist Jesse Wilson and, on a few numbers, tenor saxophonist Rob Stone — also sounded great as the bandleader continued through such cuts as “Effigy,” “Keep On Chooglin'” and “Joy of My Life.”

The group followed up with a gorgeous rendition of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” — a song that presented Fogerty with yet another chance to celebrate.

“That last song recently passed 1 billion streams on Spotify,” he remarked. “And I got that song back.”

Fogerty saved some of the best for last, rolling through the joyful “Down on the Corner,” going full-tilt rocker on “Old Man Down the Road” and putting his all into the amazing ’60s anthem “Fortunate Son” to close the main set. More good times would come in the encore, as Fogerty sent the crowd home smiling with a double shot of “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary.”

Setlist:
1. “Up Around the Bend”
2. “Green River”
3. “Born on the Bayou”
4. “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
5, “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”
6. “Rock and Roll Girls”
7. “Run Through the Jungle”
8. “Effigy”
9. “Joy of My Life”
10. “Keep On Chooglin'”
11. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
12. “Hey Tonight”
13. “Centerfield”
14. “Down on the Corner”
15. “The Old Man Down the Road”
16. “Fortunate Son”
Encore:
17. “Bad Moon Rising”
18. “Proud Mary”