Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007

Johnny Winter looks like death warmed over, and his playing isn't exactly lively. Sheryl Crow is a perfectly respectable artist, but what she's doing at a concert devoted to great guitarists is anybody's guess. And after, oh, two to three hours of primarily blues and blues-derived rock, even the most devoted axe-heads may find themselves reaching numbly for the fast forward button. So, Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 falls short of perfection. Still, there's a lot of superb music to be heard sprinkled throughout this 35-plus-song double-disc set. Staged in suburban Chicago in July 2007, the concert features several of the same players who were at the first Crossroads gig (2004, in Dallas), including Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mayer, Vince Gill, John McLaughlin, Robert Randolph, and, of course, Clapton. They're all in fine form—Clapton in particular has a way of rising to the occasion, and even if his reunion with ex-Blind Faith mate Steve Winwood doesn't generate much heat, his soloing is genuinely passionate and exciting. And then there's Jeff Beck, who has been the least commercially successful of the Holy Trinity of former Yardbirds guitarists, but is arguably a more original and adventurous player than either Clapton or Jimmy Page ever were (his version of Stevie Wonder's "'Cause We've Ended as Lovers," featuring a solo by the startlingly talented young bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, is maybe the single most stirring performance here). Other highlights abound, courtesy of Derek Trucks, Los Lobos, and the amazing country picker Albert Lee, to name three. And even if, in the end, one might wish there had been more good songs, as opposed to scaffolding for extended soloing, this great-looking, superb-sounding show (with DTS 5.1 and PCM stereo tracks) is recommended. Aud: P. (S. Graham)