The Fortunate Sons live. Patronaat, Haarlem Friday 12 December 2025

Photo: WdN-vdB

Creedence Clearwater Revival was no longer a band before I had the chance to see any band live, with the exception of The Cocktail Trio that I perhaps even saw twice (and it did not play my favourite of the day, 'Li Wang Tai Fu'). The next band was Kayak in the gym of my high school and then David Bowie in Ahoy.

Two years ago, The Fortunate Sons competed in 'The Tribute: Battle of the Bands' and came in second that year, after a Bee Gees tribute. Both bands are touring a lot since. Yesterday. it was Haarlem's turn to enjoy this tribute. The four piece band comes incredibly close to the original. With his harsh voice singer-guitarist-pub owner in Almelo Toon Eppink is John Fogerty, The sound of the band is indeed "the real deal" as The Tribute juror Spike said. Arn Kortooms, bass, Ipo van Drooge, drums and Jan van Bijnen, guitar, organ and harmonica can take full credit alright.

CCR scored an immense number of hits in a very short period of time. Albums came out in a tempo that is beyond incredible. In my country, The Netherlands, it all started in 1969 with 'Proud Mary', a song many people associate with Ike & Tina Turner.and ended with 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' in 1973. By then the band had already folded. Brother Tom Fogerty had already left the band and the bass player and drummer thought they were successful  songwriters as well. Add the well-known issues with the record label and CCR came to an untimely end fast.

Around 1980 I had the money to buy most albums. I think I miss the last one, 'Mardi Grass'. Slowly but surely, the music became a pleasant memory but not something to actively enjoy. I saw John Fogerty live in the mid 00s and it was a great show but it didn't push me to play the records again. That happened Friday evening before the show. I put on 'Green River' and then 'Willy And The Poor Boys' and was truck by the quality of the songs, the energy and diversity in the music. My memory didn't serve me well, to paraphrase Bob Dylan/Julie Driscoll.

Photo: WdN-vdB

The Fortunate Sons played for close to two hours and all the hits and more came by. All, no, I missed 'Sweet Hitchhiker' and 'Someday Never Comes' but that was compensated by 'Rocking All Over The World', made famous by Status Quo of course. Singing along, dancing along, and enjoying myself tremendously. The Fortunate Sons is a machine of a band, that has a lot of fun on the side. Allowing the audience to sing in the right places and all. What I also realised really for the first time, how many songs by CCR my previous band, Flopsband', played, of which my favourite was 'It Came Out Of The Sky'. FYI, that band plays its 50th(!) anniversary show next month, with me returning for a last time for one set, including 'I Put A Spell On You'.

In 2025 a band like The Fortunate Sons can play in bigger venues like Patronaat easily on the strength of the material written by John Fogerty and/or played by CCR at the time. Fogerty is still touring at 80, with his sons. The Fortunate Sons will make a lot of people happy with its rendition of CCR. It all ended with 'Up Around The Bend', one of the two number 1 hits over here. What a song to go home with!

Wout de Natris - van der Borght