Along with ranking among the greatest of all-American rock ‘n’ rollers and contributing dozens of enduring songs to our national songbook, John Fogerty showed Thursday at Riverside Theater that he says “Thank you” better than anybody in rock history. (Actually, it’s more like “THANK EWWW!” The number of W’s varies depending on the amount of applause.) The man said it after practically every song, and while some aspects of the 64-year-old’s performance seemed a little overly hammy—the exaggerated grinning during every guitar solo, and the puffed out lips whenever anybody else soloed—you’d have to be an incredibly bitter cynic sipping on water from the river Styx to doubt the sincerity of the man’s enthusiasm. Close to 40 years after Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up, its former frontman can still pull into any town and rock a few thousand people with “Down On The Corner.” Thank you, indeed.

Fogerty is touring in support of his enjoyable new album The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, which comprises mostly covers of country songs and singer-songwriter classics that were contemporary with CCR’s late ’60s and early ’70s heyday, including Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Party” and John Prine’s “Paradise.” So even Fogerty’s “new” material was familiar to fans that hadn’t bought a new Fogerty album in decades. Speaking of which, Fogerty appears not to have aged in decades. Looking trim and suspiciously youthful in a green sparkly shirt and stylish blue bell-bottom jeans, Fogerty sports the same brown mop he had on all those old CCR LP covers, though the brown color (and the actual hair) may no longer be on the level. Not that it matters—Fogerty’s voice still sounds limber and funky, and it absolutely does justice to his towering canon.

What about those songs? Fogerty has tons of great ones, and most of them are radio staples that everybody knows. You can’t call yourself a rock ‘n’ roll fan and not enjoy hearing a kick-ass band tear through “Up Around The Bend,” "Born On The Bayou,” and “Looking Out My Back Door.” (Fogerty gets special bonus points for also playing the fantastic deep cut “Ramble Tamble,” which somebody special requested on this very site yesterday). Anchored by session superstars like drummer Kenny Aronoff and guitarist Billy Burnette, Fogerty’s seven-piece band was maybe a little too slick at times. How great would it be to hear Fogerty backed up a young and scrappy trio that could give his more well worn material a little of the old rawness? No matter. With a legend, perhaps it’s best just to say “THANK EWWW!” for all the wonderful music he’s given us.