Turn It Up: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010

A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE WORLDS OF POP, ROCK AND RAP
BY GREG KOT | E-mail | About | Twitter | RSS

5 posts categorized "Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010"

June 29, 2010

Crossroads 2010 now a movie

Doyle Bramhall and Eric Clapton perform at Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. View more pictures from Crossroads 2010 HERE.

Haven’t had enough after 11-plus hours of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival last Saturday at Toyota Park in southwest suburban Bridgeview? Or perhaps you wanted to go but weren’t among the 27,000 fans who forked over $100 plus service fees for tickets (not to mention countless $5 bottles of water and $13 beers)?

If so, this movie – announced Tuesday – is for you: “Eric Clapton Crossroads 2010” will be presented in 475 theaters nationwide at 7:30 p.m. July 27. Chicago-area theaters scheduled to show the two-hour documentary include the River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St; ShowPlace ICON at Roosevelt Collection, 150 W. Roosevelt Rd.; City North 14, 2600 N. Western Av.; and Webster Place 11, 1471 W. Webster Av.

The movie will include performances by Clapton, ZZ Top, Steve Winwood, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, emcee Bill Murray and others. Tickets are available at theater box offices and online at www.fathomevents.com.

My review of the Crossroads festival is HERE.

greg@gregkot.com

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Eric Clapton Store

Posted by leisureblogs at 1:38 PM in Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010, Eric Clapton | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 27, 2010

Crossroads 2010: A few key moments

A few key moments Saturday from Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park:

11:45 a.m.: Emcee Bill Murray emerges to demonstrate that even he has learned a few things since the last Crossroads festival, in 2007, by playing a very out-of-tune version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” before a smiling Eric Clapton strolls onstage to rescue him. Everyone’s laughing, the sun is shining, and Clapton urges the audience to say “a quiet prayer” to keep the predicted thundershowers away.

12:07 p.m.: Clapton re-emerges to play call-and-response – or is it cat and mouse? – with Sonny Landreth’s guitar on “The Promise Land.” It’s fierce stuff, a good sign that Clapton is ready to mix it up (not always a given in the last two decades). “Well, how about that?” Landreth says after his lengthy head-to-head with Clapton ends. “Not bad for 12:15 in the afternoon.”

Continue reading "Crossroads 2010: A few key moments" »

Posted by leisureblogs at 1:35 PM in Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Steve Winwood | Permalink | Comments (23)

Concert review: Crossroads 2010

Eric Clapton performs at Crossroads Guitar Festival on Saturday. (Tribune photo by William DeShazer) View more Crossroads pictures HERE.

In the months leading up to his Crossroads Guitar Festival on Saturday at Toyota Park in south suburban Bridgeview, Eric Clapton had been saying it would be his last.

    But deep into Saturday’s 11-hour showcase for some of his ax-wielding mentors, peers and disciples, a smiling Clapton changed his tune.

    “This was going to be the last one,” he said, “but I don’t think it will be. … We’re gonna have to do it again.”

    You can guess the reaction from the sun-dazed capacity audience to that promise.

    It’s not certain why Clapton changed his mind, but I’m betting it had a lot to do with the way the third incarnation of his charity concert unfolded (for key festival moments, see my Crossroads 2010 diary HERE). In each of these festivals, the British rock icon has appeared energized, affable and a good deal looser than when simply playing his own shows. His multiple appearances Saturday only affirmed the notion that Eric Clapton was placed on this Earth to play guitar with his friends. Why quit now, especially when he’s still playing at such a high level, with such obvious enthusiasm? The key to gauging Clapton’s engagement: Watch those legs twitch and bend when he solos. On Saturday, the twitch was in full effect.

Continue reading "Concert review: Crossroads 2010" »

Posted by leisureblogs at 2:27 AM in Buddy Guy, Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood | Permalink | Comments (110)

June 21, 2010

Crossroads Festival 2010: Steve Winwood, the interview

Steve Winwood performs at the United Center in Chicago on June 17, 2009.( Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo)

Steve Winwood will be joining Eric Clapton at the Crossroads Guitar Festival next weekend at Toyota Park, aiming to reprise his terrific performance on that same stage in 2007.

It marks the resumption of one of the ‘60s most promising musical partnerships, a partnership that Clapton feels was undone prematurely by his decision to walk away from Blind Faith in 1969.

Winwood and Clapton were friends during the British rock heyday of the ‘60s, including a studio collaboration in 1966 as Powerhouse, before forming Blind Faith with ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Ric Grech. Winwood was only 21, yet already a seasoned rock veteran with stints in the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. Clapton was 24, and coming off the break-up of Cream. Both musicians were looking for a fresh start and an opportunity to do some lower key music, but those plans were quickly undone when the “supergroup” was booked for a stadium tour that left the musicians demoralized. Clapton walked away and he and Winwood went on to hugely successful solo careers. They wouldn’t reconnect musically until 2007, following up with a successful tour in 2009.

In an interview, Winwood recounts his early days with Clapton and the long road to playing again with his old running mate:

Continue reading "Crossroads Festival 2010: Steve Winwood, the interview" »

Posted by leisureblogs at 12:03 AM in Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood | Permalink | Comments (12)

February 10, 2010

Eric Clapton brings Crossroads Guitar Festival back to Toyota Park

Blues guitar legend Buddy Guy, left, performs with Eric Clapton at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007. (Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)

Eric Clapton is bringing his Crossroads Guitar Festival back to Toyota Park in suburban Bridgeview on June 26, promoters announced Wednesday.

Tickets ($100 plus parking and fees) for the daylong festival go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 20 via Ticketmaster. The lineup will include Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Steve Winwood, BB King, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy and John Mayer.

Besides the usual classic-rock and blues suspects, the lineup is notable this year for including British folk veterans Bert Jansch and John Renbourn and Brazilian legend Joao Gilberto.

The first Crossroads Guitar Festival was staged in Dallas in 2004, and then played Toyota Park, at 71st and Harlem in Bridgeview, in 2007. Here’s the confirmed lineup so far for this year’s festival:

Clapton, Winwood. Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Mayer, Crow, King, Beck. Guy, Jansch, Renbourn, Gilberto, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Sonny Landreth, Vince Gill, Joe Bonamassa, Albert Lee, Doyle Bramhall II, Gary Clark Jr., Keb Mo, James Burton, Hubert Sumlin, Earl Klugh, Pino Daniele, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos.

Profits will benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility founded by Clapton for chemically dependent persons.

greg@gregkot.com

Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee announces its 2010 lineup

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Eric Clapton Store

Posted by leisureblogs at 10:25 AM in Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010, Rock | Permalink | Comments (25)