Eric Clapton was the opening act of his own Crossroads Guitar Festival on April 12. He took the stage at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden just before the official starting time of 7:30, as if he couldn\u2019t wait to get the night going. Seated with an acoustic guitar, dressed in shades of gray and wearing glasses, Clapton performed a short set with his current touring band, starting with an earthy stroll through Charles Brown\u2019s \u201cDrifting Blues.\u201d He also set the tone for the next ten hours, spread across the 12th and 13th, by giving generous spotlight and solo time to his initial guests: singer-guitarist and ex-Clapton sideman Andy Fairweather-Low and country picker Vince Gill.<\/p>\n
It was a characteristic gesture for Clapton, one of rock\u2019s most self-effacing guitar heroes, and Crossroads itself, which featured sets and guest shots by more than two dozen other guitarists including Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Keb\u2019 Mo, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Robert Cray, Steve Cropper, Robbie Robertson and rising star Gary Clark Jr. Clapton, 68, is the founder and supervising spirit of the festival, which benefits his Caribbean addiction-treatment facillity of the same name and was held indoors for its fourth edition, after single-day outdoor extravaganzas in Dallas in 2004 and Chicago in 2007 and 2010.<\/p>\n
Clapton is also Crossroads\u2019 inevitable headliner. He closed on the 13th, this time on electric guitar and with a surprise guest, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. The latter looked fit and soloed with short, tart phrases in the Big Bill Broonzy-Little Walter chestnut \u201cKey to the Highway\u201d and the 1958 Chuck Berry B-side \u201cSweet Little Rock and Roller.\u201d Richards also took a moment to honor Clapton, with good rude humor, for doing \u201csuch a beautiful job\u201d with this shindig. \u201cSo let\u2019s give him the clap!\u201d Richards said with a hoarse laugh, putting his hands together.<\/p>\n
Blues and Fraternity<\/p>\n
But Clapton mostly curates and attends each Crossroads as a student, fan and genially competitive friend. On the first night at the Garden, after that acoustic set, Clapton came back out to swap breaks and smiles in a variety of settings: with the Allman Brothers Band; the jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; and a formidable row of bluesmen, including Cray, King and Jimmie Vaughan. The emphasis in that gang, all seated out of respect for the 87-year-old King, was on fraternity. \u201cIf you give them a big hand,\u201d King told the audience, gesturing to the others, \u201cyou make me feel good.\u201d In fact, although he played only intermittent guitar, King held up his vocal share of \u201cSweet Sixteen\u201d and \u201cEveryday I Have the Blues\u201d like an undiminished lion. And when it was Clapton\u2019s turn to solo in the latter, he turned up his heat as if called on in class by a master teacher.<\/p>\n
In his two songs with Rosenwinkle, Clapton demonstrated why he is \u2013 appropriately for such a reluctant star \u2013 still one of rock\u2019s busiest session guitarists and live sidemen: his ability to elevate another\u2019s starring moment with blending fluency. The up-tempo shuffle \u201cWay Down That Lonesome Road\u201d was closer to Clapton\u2019s usual stride, and he answered Rosenwinkel\u2019s rounded-treble be-bop charge with a slicing flair in his straight-blues runs. But in the ballad \u201cIf I Should Lose You,\u201d Clapton soloed with the right supporting distance in tone and ego, complementing Rosenwinkel\u2019s fluid poise with dextrous, understated melancholy.<\/p>\n
Later, with the Allmans, Clapton did it again in the Derek and the Dominos rush of \u201cWhy Does Love Got to Be So Bad.\u201d He and guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks all soloed in the song\u2019s long, closing sigh, their strong, individual voices meshing into a glistening, bittersweet tangle in the growing quiet. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eric Clapton was the opening act of his own Crossroads Guitar Festival on April 12. He took the stage at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews","category-jamsession-news","category-on-stage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sergiowalgood.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}