July 30, 2007
Crossroads Guitar Festival Photos and Review - Part 1
We head out to Toyota Park with Craig and Al from California, who are also veterans of the last Crossroads Festival in Dallas in 2004. We swap stories of the last experience and speculate about the lineup combinations we could have with this version. The cab driver looks at us wondering what planet we came from with the variety of accents being tossed around.
We arrive about an hour before it is to start and the grounds are crawling with people and the lines at the gate are 30 deep. After getting a quick patdown by the security, we head off gandering at the Fender guitar displays and take a quick survey around the stadium.
( I apologize ahead of time for the pics in this article and in subsequent ones. My seats were at the opposite endzone of the stage, so I was relegated to taking photos of the video screens and using Ernie as a tripod. Sorry about that, but I will be looking for other pics to show on here that are more worthy.)
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It is about 80 degrees and partly cloudy, which is a nice break from the 100 degree scorcher we endured at the last one in Dallas. Bill Murray comes out, who is the emcee for the day, and makes a few jokes about Chicago and starts playing "Gloria" on his guitar that is obviously not used very often. Thankfully, Eric Clapton breaks up this musical travesty with his appearance and welcomes the crowd and thanks them for coming. He even throws down a subtle hint that this Crossroads might not be the last one….Nice.
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Sonny Landreth starts the day off and the homeboy from Louisiana shows he is quite worthy to stand on this stage with the great ones. It was a short set, as most were in the afternoon, but he gets it started with "The Promise Land", a song about leaving a trailer park back home in Breaux Bridge of same name. Sonny’s mastery of the strings has brought him great accolades from his peers but not near enough recognition from the general public but Eric comes shows his appreciation by coming out for "Hell At Home" by another Louisiana great, Jerry Lee Lewis.
John McLaughlin was up next and though he has a nice resume by playing with Miles Davis and Carlos Santana, the jazz fusion sound was not working for me today. I am a huge jazz fan and will be soaking it up this upcoming weekend at the Telluride Jazz Festival, but I guess I was in the blues mood this weekend after starting off with Buddy Guy last night. The same goes with Alison Krauss, who was up next to bat. She is very talented, great voice and easy on the eyes, but bluegrass is not my favorite and both artists just felt misplaced to me. I guess Eric was trying to cover all genres of music and I respect that. I will step off my soapbox now……I guess I am a moody music lover…
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The southpaw from Austin, TX and sidekick to Eric on his touring band, Doyle Bramhall II, took a seat center stage and played some down home blues before his playing mate on the road, Derek Trucks, came out and raised the bar and the applause from the crowd with his own style of wearing some strings down. His wife, Susan Tedeschi, appeared for "Little By Little" and then combined with Derek’s lead vocalist, Mike Mattison, for "Anyday", a nice tribute to Clapton from his days with Derek and the Dominoes.
Johnny Winter makes it out to the stage, hunched over and looking much older than a 63 year old. But once he took a seat, there was no doubt his hands can still work magic with a fantastic rendition of "Highway 61" with backing from Trucks’ band, as if he really needed them.
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Robert Randolph did his usual fine job on pedal steel and even though it is the 3rd time I have seen him this year, his short set was a nice intro into his touring partner for several months, Robert Cray, and his unique vocals. Hubert Sumlin, who was playing guitar before most of the guys on stage today were even born, makes his appearance and show his touch with "Sitting On Top Of The World".
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Then the elder statesman appears, grabs Lucille and BB King headlines this blues guitar summit by starting off with "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss". No doubt on who was in charge at the moment. He continues with "Rock Me Baby" with his usual gyrating of the hips and wide eyed look, which after all these years and seeing it many times in concert, still makes me laugh.
As Eric watches from off stage, BB then launches into heavy accolades for his fellow ax slinger and also of the audience in attendance. From my vantage point in looking at the video screen, it led to choked-up Eric as well as several in close proximity to me. I thought is was extremely classy of Clapton to not come out and play with BB so he could have his time in the spotlight, even though I am sure he was chomping at the bit.
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BB ends it with an old staple, "The Thrill Is Gone" and then walks around the stage and embraces each one of his fellow musicians and does his patented body hug for the crowd. "The King" might be 81 years old, but that thrill will always be there for me as long as he is able to grace a stage.
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With screaming acceptance from women all over the stadium, John Mayer is up and starts it off with "Waiting On The World To Change" as he stands there in his Converse sneakers, throwing his head back as he works the neck of guitar. He goes for some blues with Ray Charles’ "I Don’t Need No Doctor", for which he did an admirable job before ending it with "Gravity". He has certainly grown as a guitarist since I first saw him at Crossroads in 2004 and hopefully he can break away from his earlier sugary pop music days to set another standard.
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With Vince Gill coming on stage, it was a good time to find food in this overflow crowd and refect on what I have seen so far….
Filed under Crossroads Guitar Festival by Mel
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