Crossroads

Continuing my fascination with music, we focus this time on the Crossroads guitar festival hosted by The Dude on the guitar, Eric Clapton. This festival is a 3-day feast for the aural sense, and if there's anyone who completely disappears into his music, its Clapton, with his fiery blues rock solos that bring old gems to life in a suprisingly vivid manner. One only needs to view the YouTube video of his 'I shot the sheriff' solo to feel the same shivers as the audience must have felt that night when he blazed away on his psychedelically-colored beauty of a Strat as only he could. Of course, people have varied opinions on who's a guitar God and who's not, but I for one would like to stay away from such facetious comparisons. Now on to some scenes from this extravaganza. All you music lovers out there are missing something if you haven't watched this epic music event. Check it out, now.

Many of the guest artists at this festival have performed twice for Crossroads, in 2004 and 2007. These include blues stars like Doyle Bramhall II, Buddy Guy, B. B. King, et al, folk rockers like J. J. Cale & Vince Gill, and even present day stars such as John Mayer (if you look away from his pop-influenced music style, and tune in to his guitar playing, there's a pleasant surprise awaiting you). Clapton has ensured that this is indeed a motley crew, for we have 'The Soggybottom Boys' (the guys who sang that beautiful number, 'I am a man of constant sorrow' for George Clooney in 'O brother, where art thou?'), a blues artist who plays on a 13-stringed pedal steel guitar, from his Church of God days of playing the 'sacred steel' (Robert Randolph, stunning on this exotic-looking instrument). We also have a popular pastmaster that looks as if time has altered his senses somewhat for the worse, playing fluid rock solos and mouthing lines like 'This is for those who never had a song dedicated to them...what about those guys?' (The Eagles' Joe Walsh, as the audience cheers to the intro of 'Funk 49'). Sadly, Clapton himself doesn't quite participate in 2007 as much as he does in 2004, where he accompanies more than half the guests. So though its great to see legends like Buddy Guy with his showmanship intact, and B. B. King with a bawdy and full-spirited rendition of classics like 'Rock me, baby', Eric's presence is missed. The man has soaked himself to his hair ends in the blues, and hows how to mesh blues, jazz, and rock into one guitar solo seamlessly. For fans of this guitar superhero, I'd recommend his 1992 triple Grammy-winner 'Eric Clapton Unplugged', a collection of his famous hits (and those of his influences/idols, including Hendrix and Robert Johnson) in their acoustic version. Remember a sedate Kurt Cobain in a cafe, surrounded by a small rapt audience playing 'Man who sold the world?' Well, that's the spirit of the unplugged performance, and its a treat to watch Clapton go to the soul of the music without the distortion, delay, sustain, and other electric guitar effects that sometimes are used to distract you from an average tune. Clapton's about music and it shows in his performances.

However, this festival is a great place to discover artists you haven't heard of or haven't checked out yet. Take Doyle Bramhall II for instance. Maybe his left-handed playing has something to do with it, but his rendition of 'Rosie' and 'Outside woman blues' is terrific (check out his 'Queen of spades' solo too, it has the right blues pauses and build-up for a terrific blues performance). This guy is obviously steeped in blues traditions, and not every artist can affirm being taught by Stevie Ray Vaughan himself. Then, there's the masters of slide guitaring, Sonny Landreth and Derek Trucks. I hadn't heard of Landreth till I saw Crossroads, but he's perhaps too good for his audience, and a very innovative guitar player (check his Wikipedia entry for more). Derek Trucks, on the other hand, has gained some well-deserved prominence touring with the Allman Brothers band, rechristened Derek And The Dominoes, and playing alongside Clapton on many of his gigs too. Trucks is young and already an accomplished slide guitarist (check out his solo for 'Desdemona'). Here, he plays with wife Susan Tedeschi in her performance of 'Little by little'. Tedeschi is easy on the eyes as well as the ears, being a good example of another male fantasy, The Sexy Female Guitarist, as well has having rough-edged Janis Joplinesque vocals (her fans have always pointed this out), and the combination of Trucks' powerful and precise slide playing and Tedeschi's soaring voice is heady. We'd like to see more of the power couple in days to come.

This festival transports you back to a time when music was for it's own sake, and an artist merely an interpreter. I'm glad that today's easy means of promotion and distibution in virtual form was non-existent in those days, so people, the artists as well as the audience, maintained their focus on the only thing that really matters: music.

Clapton began Crossroads as a rehabilitation centre, and this festival is an extension of his humanitarian efforts, as the proceeds thereof go to the inmates at this center. Looking at Clapton and all the other greats, one feels a sense of impermanence, as if with the passing away of these greats, music as we love it is gone for good, and all we'll retain is CDs, DVDs, and media files of anthologies that are the only voice remaining of a great and inimitable past.

A new sound

Been listening to John Petrucci for a short while now. Been listening to his solo album, 'Suspended Animation', specifically. I keep playing 'Glasgow Kiss' in my mind again and again through the day, and its a melodic 7:48 minutes of bliss. The live performance of the song at G3 heightens the intensity, seeing John actually playing it. An Ibanez looks beautiful in his hands, specially the prototype with the Picasso-like color pattern that he used in his earlier days. He's the latest addition to my 'Fave Axemen' list that includes Gilmour, Knopfler, Satriani, Buckingham, Clapton, Page, Trucks...the list goes on. I started trying to play the guitar (the beauty above) about three months ago. I've learned some basic chords now, and I can play along to a few songs, though I need to refer to the lyrics and chords...trying to learn by ear, and its possible though guessing the right chords once doesn't mean you'll remember it automatically next time. As always, practise, practise, practise...

Its not easy to translate desire into action, and the guitar, especially the nylon-stringed classical that I borrowed from an ex-flatmate, can be really frustrating. But motivation is a strange thing, in that you can generate it anytime you want in any situation, if you believe in something without bothering about its feasibility. Many a times, I feel like putting the guitar away, and not think about playing it anymore. But I guess there's something beyond mere rationality that's spurring me, and part of it is the sound of this instrument.

Some may not think its a good idea for a beginner to pick up a classical rather than an acoustic, but the rationale (again, that anomalous word) behind it was that I should adapt myself to playing on a fretboard that seems magnified in height and width as compared to an acoustic, with enough gaps between the frets to make my fingers groan in unnatural stretches. This is supposed to make my fingers tough and flexible, and if I can consistently get clear sound from slippery nylon strings, the steel of an acoustic wouldn't bother me, nor would its smaller and more compact fretboard. I accepted this, but another reason for me to continue learning on a classical is the beautiful notes that emanate from its sound hole whenever you pluck or strum. The sound feels like the equivalent of playing a classical grand piano as compared to playing an electronic keyboard; there's something pure in it, something that engages you beyond the irritating sound of a chord not played correctly, or a wrong string plucked, or just a whining ringing instead of fluid strumming when you listen to your recorded playback.

Then the difference in sound when you strum with your thumb, your index finger, and a pic. So far, I feel more of a connection with the instrument when I fingerstyle. When you strum or pluck with your thumb, you get the most subtle sound from the guitar, and you get a good equivalent of the sound from playing with a pic when you use your index finger. When you use a pic, its more challenging. Due to not mastering the nylon strings yet, or managing chord-shifts well enough yet, my shortcomings are emphasized clearly in the background dissonance. Practice can get discouraging if you have to struggle too long and too hard to get rhythm. However, the results, and there will always be results if you really are keen on learning, are more than worth the efforts. As suggested in an ebook, one way of gaining a sub-conscious feel of the frets and change chords on time is to get a metronome and force yourself to play chords in sync with its beat. While not planning to purchase any equipment anytime soon, the simple act of understanding the feel of the guitar and making your playing more comfortable by making small changes in hand and finger positions, posture, experimenting with different strumming patterns, trying out different picks, all these beginner activities do bring a measure of satisfaction...

It requires a consistent flow of effort, energy, and commitment to get even a small degree of fluidity. I cool my frustrations with my playing by listening to the greats above, and every time, there's a fresh energy and intensity that I sense in their playing that encourages me to pick up my classical again. And I know this, even if I never learn how to play the guitar properly, I will always love the sound...