Creedence Clearwater Revisited was born in 1995 — 23 years after Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up. The newer band “celebrates the legacy” of the first, according to founding Revisited member Stu Cook.
Cook, bassist and original band member of Creedence Revival, says that the Creedence Revisited project he and Revival drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford started “will deliver authentic Creedence all night” at the Cape Cod Melody Tent on Saturday. The group will play some of Creedence Revival’s best-known songs like “Down on the Corner” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
Creedence Revisited — which also includes lead singer and rhythm guitar player John Tristao, lead guitarist Kurt Griffey, and Steve Gunner on keyboards, acoustic guitar, harmonica, percussion and vocals — is going into its 18th season and performs up to 100 shows a year. The band also released a live album, “Recollections,” in 1998, which was certified platinum in 2007. Cook attributes the band’s success to a “lack of expectations.”
“The project has been organic from the very beginning. We had no plans and we thought we would just see what happened,” Cook says in a phone interview. “Its the notion that if you don’t force things then it will work out.”
Cook’s approach to the Creedence Revisited project may come from the 1972 breakup of Creedence Revival – a highly publicized event that created tension between band members Cook, Clifford, lead singer and songwriter John Fogerty and Tom Fogerty (who died in 1990). Cook explains that the Creedence Revisited project is his way of “evolving” from the situation and nowadays he keeps band life “simple.”
“I don’t worry about too much that I can’t put my finger on anymore and I don’t believe much of what I hear or see. There is a point when enough is enough,” Cook says.” And I have been here long enough that I can do it my way or I just don’t do it.”
With only 14 members on the touring team, Cook says the band is like “a family organization” and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There’s no heirarchy. We have fun that way and we try not to make a distinction between the guys that work for us and the guys that work with us. We run it like a team.”
While Cook says the group may play songs “a bit different,” the “great music played by the original band remains the same.”
“At first there was a lot of confusion amongst ourselves between the Creedence legacy and our own lives, but we are further down the road then we ever thought we would be,” Cook says. “We play great and throw in 100 percent and it all feels pretty good now.”
When asked about a Creedence Revival tour, Cook was firm that he didn’t see a reunion in the band’s future because “the past is better left in the past.”
“The truth is, there would first need to be a real serious commitment from all surviving members to resolve the past and then move forward. Anything beyond that is just speculation.”
Reunion or no reunion, Cook is adamant that the original premise behind the band continues with Creedence Revisited and says Creedence fans “just want to have a good time” and it’s the band’s job “to give it to them.”
“We are a well-oiled machine and people come to have a good time and relax and we are there to make them have fun.”
