John Fogerty - The Legacy Tour — with Steve Winwood at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, Long Island, NY — September 12th 2026 & Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY — September 13th

John Fogerty - The Legacy Tour — with Steve Winwood

Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, Long Island, NY — September 12, 2026

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY — September 13, 2026

Review by Robert Corich

There was something rather appropriate about the name of this tour: The Legacy Tour.

Because if Steve Winwood’s performance was about looking back over an extraordinary musical life without becoming trapped by it, John Fogerty’s show was something rather different — a celebration, a reclamation and a full-on rock ‘n’ roll performance.

Fogerty spends quite a bit of time talking about how he has finally “got his music back” after all those years of disputes over the ownership of his catalogue. It is clearly something of enormous personal importance to him and, to his credit, you can sense the genuine satisfaction he gets from finally being able to perform these songs on his own terms.

The only slight problem is that listening to him talk about it, you could be forgiven for thinking it had happened only recently. In fact, Fogerty acquired a majority interest in his worldwide publishing rights back in 2023.

But frankly, who cares?

Because when the opening chords of “Bad Moon Rising,” “Up Around the Bend” and “Green River” hit Jones Beach, the argument was over.

This was John Fogerty.

And these are some of the greatest songs ever written.

There was no messing about. “Born on the Bayou,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” — one classic after another. Later came “Ramble Tamble,” “Keep On Chooglin’,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Travelin’ Band” and, inevitably, “Proud Mary.”

The extraordinary thing about Fogerty’s catalogue is that he can play a show consisting almost entirely of songs that most artists would kill to have written one of.

And yet there was something slightly more interesting happening than simply another greatest-hits performance.

Fogerty genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself.

At 81, he wasn’t standing there dutifully going through a catalogue that had become a burden. He was moving, playing guitar, barking out those unmistakable vocals and attacking the songs with an energy that made the whole thing feel considerably younger than the man delivering it.

The Fogerty family affair

His sons Shane and Tyler Fogerty are now an integral part of the operation, and they couldn’t be more different.

Shane is an exceptional guitar player. There is real authority and maturity to his playing, and when he steps forward for a solo he doesn’t sound like somebody simply filling the shoes of his father — he sounds like a musician who has developed a voice of his own.

Watching John stand back and let Shane take the spotlight is also rather lovely. There is clearly genuine pride there.

Tyler, meanwhile, is a completely different proposition.

He is wonderfully entertaining and, when he gets on the shakers, becomes almost manic. There are moments when you genuinely aren’t quite sure whether he’s going to keep it together or completely lose the plot — and that unpredictability is part of the fun.

Together, the brothers add a huge amount of character, personality and class to the show.

There is something rather charming about seeing John Fogerty surrounded by his sons while playing the songs that have defined his entire life. The man who spent decades fighting over his music is now standing on stage playing it with his family.

That is quite a story.

The Travelin’ Band

And the rest of the band is no slouch either.

Jesse Noah Wilson on bass and Richard “Richie” Millsap on drums provide exactly the sort of rhythm section these songs need — tight, powerful and completely locked in without ever becoming intrusive. Creedence’s music can sound deceptively simple, but getting that groove right is everything, and these two have it absolutely nailed.

Doug Lamothe is excellent on keyboards, adding colour and depth without cluttering up the arrangements.

And then there is Rob Stone on saxophone, who is in danger of going full Clarence Clemons if he’s not careful. Big sound, big presence and clearly having a ball, Stone gets some real opportunities to let loose, and when he does he adds another dimension to what could otherwise be a fairly faithful recreation of the Creedence sound.

Put Shane’s exceptional guitar playing, Tyler’s wonderfully unpredictable stage personality, Lamothe’s keyboards, Stone’s saxophone and that rock-solid rhythm section together and you have a band with considerably more character than the relatively conservative setlist might suggest.

Fogerty’s Travelin’ Band are a class act — pun absolutely intended — and they give this music real credence.

And watching Shane play, I found myself wondering whether he is recording his own material — because if he isn’t, he really should be. He is that good.

In fact, the whole band is good enough to make me wonder why John isn’t utilising this particular family affair for something beyond another run through the Creedence catalogue.

Why not make a new John Fogerty album with Shane and Tyler, Jesse Noah Wilson, Richie Millsap, Doug Lamothe and Rob Stone?

Imagine what that could sound like.

You’ve got an exceptional guitarist in Shane, a completely different musical personality in Tyler, a superb rhythm section, great keyboards and a sax player who sounds as though he’s permanently threatening to turn into Clarence Clemons. Add John Fogerty’s songwriting and that unmistakable voice and you’ve got all the ingredients for something genuinely interesting.

New songs. Never-heard-before material. A proper family affair.

Rather than simply looking backwards at the catalogue, this band could be helping to create the next chapter.

In fact, I’d go further: it would almost be a crime not to do it.

John Fogerty has spent years fighting to reclaim his musical legacy. Now that he has it, perhaps the next step shouldn’t simply be to celebrate what he has already done — it should be to create something new with a band that is clearly capable of doing it.

And judging by what I heard at Jones Beach, I’d certainly buy the album.

But here’s the problem…

Having seen Fogerty at London’s O2 in 2023, I couldn’t help feeling a considerable sense of déjà vu.

Three years on, remarkably little has changed.

The setlist has been shuffled around and a few songs have come and gone, but the basic template remains remarkably similar. Even some of the stories and banter between the songs felt familiar.

And this is where I have a criticism.

Fogerty has so much more to choose from.

The Creedence catalogue alone is enormous. Beyond the obvious hits there are some extraordinary songs that rarely, if ever, get an airing. Then there is his solo material, the Golliwogs history and everything else accumulated over an extraordinary career.

At the O2 in 2023 we had “Effigy,” “Lodi” and “Cotton Fields,” for example. By 2026 some of those had disappeared, but the replacements haven’t exactly opened up some great unexplored corner of the Fogerty catalogue.

And it’s not as though he doesn’t have the band to do it.

Quite the opposite.

The musicians aren’t the limitation. The catalogue certainly isn’t the limitation.

If anything, the band makes you wish John would open the door a little wider.

There is something slightly ironic about a show built around the idea of Fogerty finally reclaiming his musical legacy, only for the performance itself to feel so carefully preserved.

The songs are virtually indestructible, of course, and the audience isn’t complaining. Why would they? Hearing “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Proud Mary” and the rest played with this kind of energy is hardly a hardship.

But I couldn’t help thinking that John Fogerty has earned the right to be considerably more adventurous than this.

Two legends, two very different shows

The entire Eastern US leg of the tour was shared with Steve Winwood and his amazing band, making this a particularly strong double bill.

And while both artists are very much in the heavyweight category, their performances couldn’t have been more different.

Personally, I preferred Winwood’s set.

That’s probably no great surprise. Traffic, Blind Faith, the Spencer Davis Group and that whole wonderfully eclectic corner of British rock is simply more my kind of thing. Winwood also had only around an hour, but what he managed to pack into that hour was quite remarkable.

That isn’t intended to take anything away from Fogerty. Quite the opposite.

Putting these two artists together was a terrific piece of booking. Both are musicians of an exceptionally high calibre, both have catalogues stuffed with songs that have become part of the fabric of popular music, and both still have the ability to deliver them live.

For the ticket buyer, this was a genuine bang-for-your-buck double bill.

You got Steve Winwood and his superb band, followed by John Fogerty and a Travelin’ Band that are, pun intended, a class act and give this music real credence.

You could argue about which set you preferred — and for me, Winwood wins that particular personal battle — but there was no arguing with the value of the evening.

Two legends, two great bands and an enormous catalogue of classic music between them.

That’s a pretty good night’s work for the price of a ticket.

The collaboration that almost happened

There was one other thing I would have loved to have seen at either Jones Beach or Bethel: Steve Winwood joining John Fogerty on stage.

Sadly, that wasn’t to be at either of our shows. But a few nights later, in Charlotte, the two finally got together during Fogerty’s set for Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” trading vocals and instrumentation. They repeated the collaboration at St. Augustine in Florida.

Which rather proves my point.

Sitting there at Jones Beach, I had been thinking exactly how good it would be to see these two musicians actually play together rather than simply sharing the same bill. Fogerty’s guitar, Winwood’s keyboards and vocals — there was an obvious musical conversation waiting to happen.

Sadly, we didn’t get it.

But at least, somewhere down the road, they did.

And I sincerely hope John’s sound guys had those tapes rolling. Because if they captured it properly, there is surely something there worth preserving — and perhaps even releasing somewhere down the line.

I suspect everyone who saw these shows would love to hear what happened when two musicians of this calibre finally got together on the same stage.

I just hope Steve remembered his earplugs.