Creedence Clearwater Revisited returns

It all started with some “Jumpin’ in the Morning.”

One Christmas morning around 1959, Stu Cook’s brother was given tickets to a Ray Charles concert. Cook, around 12 at the time, tagged along.

“It was a knockout show and I was hooked from there on,” he says of how he got interested in music.

Cook is the bassist for acclaimed rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, which formed when he was in junior high. After nine years of refining their skills, he and his three bandmates made it big with the hit, “Suzie Q.”

In 1993, CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and two years later, Cook and CCR’s original drummer, Doug Clifford, created Creedence Clearwater Revisited as a way to keep the group’s musical legacy alive.

Fast forward to present day and Cook is a Sarasota resident about to play his second show at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

“Clifford and I put this project together in 1995 to get out of the house,” Cook laughs. “Simply put, the purpose is to celebrate and honor the music of the original band.”

Clifford and Cook are the only remaining original CCR members, but the group includes three other musicians — some friends and others friends of friends, all found through the extensive network that is the music industry.

Now in its 24th year, Creedence Clearwater Revisited plays to smaller crowds than CCR did, but it has become an international touring group with a fan base that consists of three generations.

“The songs aren’t locked into a certain era, so people can still enjoy the music regardless of what generation or age group they’re in,” he says. “It’s great to watch whole families of two or three generations together in the audience.”

Cook half-jokingly calls it their senior rock tour, referring to himself and Clifford as “veterans.”

Their Sarasota show is particularly fun for local Cook, who says it’s nice to play in Sarasota because he knows he’ll have plenty of friends in the audience.

“It’s great to play in your own hometown — I get to go home and sleep in my own bed,” Cook says. “We play so many places, some we play over and over, and some are fun to go back to, some aren’t, but this is a fun building to play.”