Claptons Guitar Festival

Ok I'll start of by saying never in a million years did would I imagine one of the greatest concerts ever would come to Dallas Texas of all places but I'm glad it did. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'm referring to the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Music Festival. Some of the Featured artists included: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Santana, Steve Vai, Joe Walsh, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Jimmy Vaughn, ZZ Top, Sonny Landreth, Vince Gill, Bo Diddley, James Taylor, Neal Schon w/ Jonathan Cain, Robert Cray and some others I'm forgetting. Brian May was supposed to be there also but he had to cancel at the last minute for some reason which was really unfortunate because most likely I'll never get to see him play live now.

Anyways....I figured I would briefly touch on the main highlight of the concert. B.B. King was on stage doing his set and was up there accompanied by some backup musicians. After he's up there for a while, Eric Clapton comes walking onto the stage (the first time anyone has seen him all day) and the crowd errupts into cheers. Clapton starts playing the blues with BB king and I though that was all the crowd was gonna get...but there was more. Jimmy Vaughn gets up on stage and joins BB and Eric in some improvised blues. A minute or two latter Buddy guy gets on stage...so you have 4 guitar greats all up on stage playing the blues. BB King stuck mostly to vocals but filled on on guitar from time to time. BB would point to clapton and clapton would solo for a bit...then he would point to Jimmy Vaughn who would solo for a bit..then BB would point to Buddy Guy who chime in with another solo. This pattern went around several times and was such a treat for the audience. You could tell it was totally improvised because the musicians would at time whisper to each other, inbetween their huge smiles, to try and figure out what they were going to do next. After a while, John Mayor who really didn't belong up on stage with the rest of the guys came walking up with his electric guitar in hand. He plugged in...and BB King was like "Johnny...play the blues kid" and John Mayor started playing some generic blues licks. He looked totally scared up there on stage with those legends which was kind of cool. His playing wasn't great..but he definately didn't embarass himself up there. He could play alot better then I ever thought he could. He was only on stage for about 3 minutes before unplugging his guitar and bowing to Buddy Guy and walking off the stage while Buddy Guy continued playing. I would say their little improvised jam lasted somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. Luckily I had floor admission and I was about 20 feet away during all this. This description probably came off as a bit wordy it's just hard to describe how neat it was to witness that performance as it was happening. The whole concert was about 12 hours long and I'm sure there will be a DVD in case you weren't there because there were like 20 trillion cameras everywhere.

In addition to the actual show, there was a huge area set up with vendors selling all sorts of guitars and collectable stuff. They also had a Christie's acution featuring a bunch of famous guitars and stuff. The guitars were on display to the general public and you could walk within a few feet of them. Claptons "Blackie" guitar was on display and they estimated value they are going to get for it is $150,000 - $200,000 if anyone has some money they are looking to burn. They guitars won't actually be auctioned until I believe June 24th but I could be wrong about the date.

Damn. I was in Dallas last week... Shoulda stayed, I guess.

concert was Sunday June 6th at the Cotton Bowl...so amazing...

Dude, I was there...It was amazing. I even created a thread about it...

Damn that elusive search function....damn it forever. Here is Paranoid Androids review of the concert which is similar to mine.

Paranoid Android's Review

After reading your review...I totally forgot about the amazing version of "Badge" that Clapton did. It was probably close to 8 minutes long. Badge has always been a great song but it was always so short...in the version clapton did last week he pretty much played the song as it was originally recorded...then after the song ended Doyle Brammell chimed in again with the guitar riff that George Harrison originally wrote and then Clapton was playing some amazing lead over that part. Plus they had background singers, the rest of the band doing their thing and all that jazz. It sounded so "full" it was a totally magical moment. Oh, and I acutally really liked Santana's performance. He had 2 drummers, one on a drum set and the other guy playing like bongos and stuff so it was really percussion intensive...he didn't play any stupid pop crap, and he never tried to sing on any of the songs because we all know Santana can't sing to save his life. And that piano player for Santana was doing some crazy piano solos. Plus Clapton jumped up on stage with him for his last song and played along...I was totally digging all the unique duets and stuff that popped up from time to time during the day.

Good reviews, Riv and Paranoid, thanks.
What a dream concert! I'm going to get the first DVD that hits the shelf.

They always have shots of the crowd. Maybe you'll get the shot of me flicking off the camera. Heh heh.

Were you close to the stage? I was about 20 ft back inbetween the left stage and center stage. I was going to wear my yellow flash gordon T-Shirt that I got when I was in London last summer in honor of Brian May. But since he cancelled I got pissed and I decided to wear a boring white "I love NY" T-shirt instead. I'm sure I'll be in some of the footage the cameras took of the crowd because I was so close..I just wish I had that yellow shirt on because I would be much easier to spot that way. Although...being 6'5 should make me easy enough to spot anyways. I really hope they make a DVD of the show.

No damnit, I was in a seat. It sucked. I think I saw a guy wearing a I Love NY shirt. Freaky...

Then you'll have to get there before me!!!!!!!!!!

The DVD is now out if you life in the US...I'm not sure when it is coming out in Europe. I haven't bought it yet but I probably will pick it up in the next few weeks.

Whoa, where did you find it Riv? If you found it then Dallas then let me know where, because as you know, it's where I live.

I just read on the internet that it came out on DVD on Oct 19th. Here is the DVD setlist:

Disc one:
"Cocaine," Eric Clapton
"Love in Vain Blues," Robert Lockwood Jr.
"Killing Floor," Clapton, Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin and Jimmie Vaughan
"Sweet Home Chicago," Clapton, Cray, Buddy Guy, Sumlin and Vaughan
"Six Strings Down," Clapton, Cray, Robert Randolph and Vaughan
"Rock Me Baby," Clapton, Guy, B.B. King and Vaughan
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," Dan Tyminski and Ron Block
"Road to Nash Vegas," Tyminski and Block
"Copperline," James Taylor with Jerry Douglas
"Steamroller," Taylor and Joe Walsh
"Oklahoma Borderline," Vince Gill and Douglas
"What the Cowgirls Do," Gill and Douglas
"After Midnight," J.J. Cale with Clapton
"Call Me the Breeze," Cale with Clapton
"March," Robert Randolph & the Family Band
"Green Light Girl," Doyle Bramhall II
"Incident at Neshabur," Carlos Santana
"Jingo," Santana with Clapton
"City Love," John Mayer
"Your Body Is a Wonderland," Mayer

Disc two:
"Rag Bihag," Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
"Tones for Elvin Jones," John McLaughlin
"Josie," Larry Carlton
"Question and Answer," Pat Metheny
"Going Down Slow," Honeyboy Edwards
"Time Makes Two," Robert Cray
"Give Me Up Again," Jonny Lang
"Neighborhood," David Hildago
"Whispering a Prayer," Steve Vai
"Desert Rose," Eric Johnson
"Funk 49," Joe Walsh
"Rocky Mountain Way," Walsh
"I Shot the Sheriff," Clapton
"Blues in C," Clapton
"Cause We've Ended as Lovers," Clapton and Jeff Beck
"La Grange," ZZ Top
"Tush," ZZ Top

I can't believe the dvd doesn't include "badge" by eric clapton...the live version he did was like 10 times better then the original version.