Dan McGuiness said he did not like the musical direction his band was going, so in 2006 he took the drummer and bass player from that band and Bluemoon Swamp was born.

Bluemoon Swamp is a John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band. McGuiness said he has covered their music and multiple bands over the years.

“Actually, when I first started learning music it was because of those songs, and I decided to jump into the deep end and make a career out of it myself,” he said.

The band will perform at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Morton Park as part of Charleston’s Red, White & Blue Days.

McGuiness said he enjoys playing festivals.

“You almost prefer to do those because a lot of them are free to the public, so you get better crowds,” he said. “A lot of them we do are in smaller towns, to where it may be their one or two big events for the whole year.”

McGuiness said he prefers festival concert as opposed to a club show, but they tend to do more club shows during the winter months.

“I really focus on staying away from those because we do that in other projects,” McGuiness said. “With this project we do what we’re attributing. If they’re doing 90 minutes or two hours or whatever and they’re traveling around the country, that’s what we want to do.”

The band consists of McGuiness on vocals/lead and rhythm guitar, Pat Keiner on vocals/lead guitar/mandolin/ harmonica/pedal steel guitar, Joe Kunkel on drums/percussion and Mike McKeehan on bass/backup vocals.

McGuiness said he enjoys making the arrangements for the band’s performances.

“When you show up somewhere you’re abreast of everything that’s going on,” McGuiness said. “I rarely show up somewhere and go “Man I forgot about that.’”

He said another aspect about making the arrangements himself is finally meeting the people he spoke with over the phone and emails to make a show happen.

“Then when we show up, the fun part is performing,” McGuiness said.

McGuiness said they are looking forward to Red, White & Blue Days.

“Hopefully the weather is good and were going to have a lot of fun,” McGuiness said.

Marcus Smith can be reached at 581-2812 or masmith6@eiu.edu.