{"id":40648,"date":"2007-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/crossroads-eric-clapton-guitar-festival-2007-dvd\/"},"modified":"2007-12-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-15T00:00:00","slug":"crossroads-eric-clapton-guitar-festival-2007-dvd","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/crossroads-eric-clapton-guitar-festival-2007-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007 (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Clapton hosted a little get-together in Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on July 28. Thousands of people showed up to hear and see some of the best rock guitarists on the planet strut their wares. The proceeds of this two-disc DVD set are being donated to Clapton\u2019s Crossroads House, which is an alcoholic recovery facility.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>From MC Bill Murray\u2019s rendition of \u201cGloria\u201d to Buddy Guy leading an all-star ensemble through a rousing rendition of \u201cSweet Home Chicago,\u201d this DVD is a guitar aficionado\u2019s delight. This set clocks in at around three hours and can be exhausting just from the volume of the performances. Also, the DVD can be somewhat disjointed at times due to the constant coming and going of artists. Despite these two handicaps, though, there is a lot of good music to be found here. <\/p>\n

Sonny Landreth kicks off the first disc with his high-energy \u201cUmbresso.\u201d He immediately ramps up the energy and sets the bar high for the musicians that will follow. Landreth has a fascinating slide style of playing that is better to watch than to just hear. Eric Clapton joins Landreth for \u201cHell At Home.\u201d Halfway through the song Clapton takes center stage with an extended solo. <\/p>\n

This performance and several others to follow are the Clapton that I want to see and hear. I don\u2019t want the laid back Clapton who defers to others on stage. I want the Clapton who will wring his guitar\u2019s neck and play it into submission. <\/p>\n

I had not heard from John McLaughlin in a long while. Here McLaughlin performs \u201cMaharina\u201d in a typical performance. His jazz-tinged rock runs counter to the melody set down by keyboards, bass and drums. McLaughlin has always traveled his own musical journey and, like him or not, there is no denying his talent. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how many performances 81-year-old B.B. King has left in him. Here he has to remain seated while performing. His voice, however, sounds strong and his guitar has lost none of its technique or energy. His two numbers, \u201cPaying The Cost To Be The Boss\u201d and \u201cRock Me Baby,\u201d set a standard that artists 20 to 50 years younger can only hope to emulate. <\/p>\n

Much of the second disc it taken up with performances by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Steve Winwood. Beck looks relaxed as he leads his band through \u201cCause We\u2019ve Ended As Lovers\u201d and \u201cBig Block.\u201d He is one of the few guitarists alive who can match Clapton note for note. His daughter is now his bass player and is a chip off the old block. Her playing in general and extended solo on \u201cLovers\u201d was amazing. <\/p>\n

The heart if the second disc is three solo performances by Eric Clapton plus his four collaborations with Steve Winwood. Clapton and Winwood share a lot of history and here they meld together effortlessly. Their performances of \u201cPresence Of The Lord,\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t Find My Way Home,\u201d \u201cHad To Cry Today\u201d and the powerful \u201cCrossroads\u201d are worth the price of admission. Clapton\u2019s rendition of George Harrison\u2019s \u201cIsn\u2019t It A Pity\u201d is poignant and technically superb. Winwood even gives it a go by stepping out from behind his keyboards and picking up the guitar for a solo version of \u201cDear Mr. Fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other highlights included Susan Tedeschi and Sheryl Crow, who more than held their own against their male counterparts. The Derek Trucks Band was excellent on its own and served as Clapton\u2019s backup band during his performances. Buddy Guy and Hubert Sumlin aptly represented a living history of the blues. Even Vince Gill, of all people, comes across well as he moves his sound in a rock direction and adds a brass foundation. <\/p>\n

Only a few misses are here, most notably the out-of-place Willie Nelson, an ill-looking Johnny Winter and John Mayer, who looks like a deer caught in the headlights. <\/p>\n

If you like the guitar and are a fan of this era of guitar players, then Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007 <\/i>is for you. It finds many great guitar players, past and present, at the top of their game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":29128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5887],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40648","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eric-clapton","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40648"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}