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.