Steve Winwood and John Fogerty might not seem like the most natural pairing. Winwood’s career, which began in the ’60s with the British invasion band The Spencer Davis Group, ranges from blue-eyed soul to progressive rock. Winwood was a teenage prodigy, an immensely gifted vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. As the driving force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival and beyond, Fogerty has always drawn on old-school American rock, country, and blues. Revered for his songwriting, he towers over roots, heartland, and even punk rock.
While it may have been an unlikely pairing, it worked out splendidly on last week, when Winwood and Forgerty shared the bill at Wolf Trap.
Winwood’s been party of many notable bands, and he tipped his hat to them, playing Traffic’s “Glad,” “Forty Thousand Headmen” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” “Can’t Find My Way Home” from Blind Faith, his collaboration with Eric Clapton, and the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man” and “Gimme Some Lovin’.” On Sept. 15, he also did several of his solo hits, “Roll With It,” “Back in the High Life Again,” and “Higher Love,” and covered Timmy Thomas’s “Why Can’t We Live Together.” Over the course of his set, he played, at least to my recollection, guitar, mandolin, and keys.
Watch the official music video for “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood on YouTube:
Over just a handful of years when he helmed CCR in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Fogerty put out an astonishing number of classic songs that wove into the tapestry of American culture. These songs are instantly familiar even to people who aren’t really music fans.
CCR didn’t end amicably, to say the least, a situation compounded by the contracts they’d signed giving ownership of John’s songs to his record label. In the ’80s, his former label sued him for “sounding like myself” on “The Old Man Down The Road” (the penultimate song in his main set), which he described as “painful.”
While many artists have been selling their catalogs, Fogerty has moved in the opposite direction. After years, even decades, of trying to regain ownership, he finally got them back, and he gives the credit to his wife, Julie. His career now is a family affair, with several of his sons playing in his band.
I saw John at Wolf Trap a couple years, and the setlist was pretty similar. That’s not a complaint. Bob Dylan — who is known for confounding his audiences by playing unrecognizable arrangements of his songs — told Fogerty that, if he didn’t play “Proud Mary” (which he finished his encore with, following “Travelin’ Band”), people would think Tina Turner wrote it. If I’d written “Proud Mary,” I would sing it every night.
The same can be said of “Fortunate Son,” which he ended his main set with, and which is maybe the greatest working-class anthem in the history of rock & roll. It’s been covered by everyone from Bob Seger to Todd Snider. There are a lot of songs about baseball; I’m not a baseball fan, so I don’t know if it’s the best, but “Centerfield” is definitely up there, and it’s all the more remarkable in being written from the perspective of a child by a 40-year-old man.
Watch John Fogerty perform “Fortunate Son” live on YouTube:
The whole set was a series of straight bangers, from the opening with “Bad Moon Rising” to “Up Around the Bend,” “Green River,” Born on the Bayou,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Rock and Roll Girls,” “Joy of My Life,” a tribute to Julie, “Keep On Chooglin’,” “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” (which was covered by southern California punks Minutemen, whose D. Boon was Fogerty cousin), “Long As I Can See The Light,” “Down on the Corner,” and a cover of “Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”
Rock critic Steven Hyden wrote recently that CCR was never cool, and he’s not wrong about that. I’ve jested, with all love intended, that John looks exactly the same as he had for the last 60 years. In CCR and his solo work, Fogerty has consistently resisted trends, with the result that his back-to-basics style aged well compared to many of his contemporaries. John isn’t cool: in a post-irony world, he’s honest, sincere, and he writes straight from the heart, which is even better.
Winwood is a fantastic musician and singer, and his set was terrific, but Fogerty was what drew me. His songs are classics, and, like I said, he’s in the DNA of many of the other artists I love, from Tom Petty and Los Lobos to Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams. John’s north of 80, but he has more energy and intensity as a performer than a lot of artists half his age. The man still rocks hard and plays it, as Dylan would put it, “fucking loud,” and he was all over the stage. I never get tired of seeing him live.
Here are some photos of Steve Winwood performing live at Wolf Trap on Sept. 15, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Ari Strauss.
