Crossroads Guitar Festival

Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival
Toyota Park
Bridgeview (Chicago), IL
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Section 125, Row 14, Seat 20
$90.00

If you asked me five years ago what I thought of Steve Winwood, I would say I really liked Traffic. I saw them live on their 1994 reunion tour. But his solo stuff, nah. I remember once waiting in line overnight for tickets to see Yes at the Tower Theater and Winwood was playing that night. I didn't have any interest. But a few years ago, I read a review of his 2003 album About Time that said it had a real Traffic vibe to it. Really liked the album. Added him to my list of people I'd like to see live sometime. We almost saw him in 2004 in Florida in between two Yes shows, but the timing didn't work out.

He came to St. Louis in 2005. I saw it, and I ended up going to four of his concerts that year. He's that good. Winwood is hardly "new", but he's newly added to my list of favorite musicians. I think he's the first new addition since college. It's fun to get excited by someone new. Last year, he toured again, but I had just started a new position at my company and couldn't easily take off. This year, he did a short tour nowhere near St. Louis, but he was going to play at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival. Playing with Eric Clapton for the first time since Blind Faith. Doing Blind Faith songs. I was so there. After the show was announced, Clapton joined Winwood at a festival show in England. So this was really the second performance they've done since Blind Faith.

The concert was held in Toyota Park near Midway Airport outside of Chicago. The floor was general admission and the tiered seats were reserved. There was no way I was going to do standing general admission for this concert, it was reserved or nothing. We were successful, but the seats were about 2/3 of the way back. We were lucky to get seats. Toyota Park's website says they have a seating capacity of 28,000 for concerts and it sold out in less than a half hour.

The line-up for the festival was really incredible. I was just telling a neighbor about it and listing famous name after famous name.

Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck
Doyle Bramhall II
Robert Cray
Sheryl Crow
Vince Gill
Buddy Guy
BB King
Alison Krauss and Union Station
Sonny Landreth
Albert Lee
Los Lobos
John Mayer
John McLaughlin
Willie Nelson
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Robbie Robertson
Hubert Sumlin
The Derek Trucks Band with Susan Tedeschi
Jimmie Vaughan
Johnny Winter
Steve Winwood

The festival organization at Toyota Park was great in that parking was easy and free. Also, they had a revolving stage - the second band could set up while the first band was playing, so there was only a 5-10 minute layover between bands. It also sucked in many places - the schedule was never published, so we had no idea what band was about to go on until they were announced. The sound was spotty at times.

There were no in and out privileges so we were stuck there all day for an eleven hour concert once we entered. No food or beverages (even bottles of water) were allowed in on a July day. We snuck in some contraband - two baggies of peanuts and raisins and my umbrella. We walked up a raised pavilion to get to our seats, and it had extra vendors and real bathrooms. I read some horror stories online about the porto-potties and places running out of bottled water and food. We didn't have any trouble like that.

I learned at this festival that I didn't know as much about music as I thought I did. Looking at the list of bands playing, it seemed very diverse, but it ended up being primarily a blues rock festival. I don't mind the genre, but I don't know it very well. I totally didn't notice that I was seeing Robbie Robertson, I didn't hear the announcement that he was joining Clapton on stage and I didn't recognize him or the Band song he did. I also told Roy the show would have been better with some cover songs, but then I read online that there were lots of covers, just few that I recognized.

The show started a little early, around 11:50am. Bill Murray was the master of ceremonies and he introduced most of the bands. He had a guitar and said there was only one song he knew how to play on it. Gloria. He started playing it, badly, and then Eric Clapton joined him and started playing along. Clapton introduced the first act, Sonny Landreth, and later joined him for a song. It looked like Clapton watched most of the festival from the side of the stage, but he only joined a couple bands.

This was my first time hearing Sonny Landreth. I paid attention and liked it alright. Next up was someone I was really looking forward to - John McLaughlin. Roy knows more about his music than I do, but even I owned a Mahavishnu album before we moved in together. His set was noodly and never came together. It was nice to have a keyboard player also doing lead lines, and this set might have been a good change of pace later on. Here, I was expecting a lot and was disappointed.

I knew from other festivals that there was no way I could sit and listen to so much music. Roy and I both brought books to whip out when we weren't all that interested in watching the acts. An outdoor concert is really flexible, because we could hear everything and look up whenever we wanted to. I had planned to start reading for the third act, but it was Alison Krauss and Union Station and I wanted to see them. I'm not going to run out and buy her albums, but it was nice to listen to and watch.

After that started a string of blues rock acts. Some people from Clapton's band played their own sets, like Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II. I read and barely looked up.

BB King did three songs and had the whole audience in the palm of his hand. Just excellent communicating with us, as if he were playing in a small club and making eye contact with everyone. He played a couple songs I didn't recognize and The Thrill is Gone.

Roy got up and went for a walk when Vince Gill came out. His music didn't bother me, but it was just background music to me. Then he brought Sheryl Crow out. I know she can be a controversial figure because of way back with Kevin Gilbert and the way Tuesday Night Music Club was recorded, but I like that album. I saw her in concert back then. She did one song I didn't recognize, then If It Makes You Happy. Alison Krauss came back on stage and they dueted on Strong Enough from the Music Club album.

The audience had a real mix of people. You could tell the music fans from the partyers pretty easily. The music fans were all wearing hats for sun protection and comfortable clothing and drinking water. The partyers were talking through most of the bands and were already drunk by 1pm. I had a father and son (I think, the boy looked high school aged) next to me and they were listeners. The dad seemed really into Alison Krauss. They asked me when Steve Winwood would be on, after hearing me mention that he was my number one reason for being there.

Unfortunately, the people in front of us were partyers. This group of women talked and laughed loudly amongst themselves during some of the bands. A few of them were smoking. I hold a special hate for people who smoke in non-smoking areas, but I wasn't going to say anything until it got personal. They kept on filing out and coming back sitting in different arrangements. The smoker was now right in front of me and I got a breath full of her rudeness. An usher had already told them to stop smoking, so I just got an usher again. I think they tried to say something rude to me afterwards during a band, but I had earplugs in so I didn't find out. I did hear them calling me "narc girl" and pointing out all the other smokers later on. And the people behind me thanked me.

It sounds funny, but I really enjoyed the day even though I didn't like a lot of the bands. There was lots of people watching to do, it was a nice day to be outside, the atmosphere was nice, book was good, music playing in the background. Roy found a very refreshing treat - cut up watermelon in a cup mixed with lemonade. We had a few of those during the day.

Jeff Beck started, and we paid attention. This was Roy's favorite act of the day. He had a strong band with him, especially the young woman on bass. It just stood out so much from everything before it. He played A Day in the Life from the Beatles and his guitar was so lyrical. We sang along. Beck played longer than anyone before him, close to an hour.

At this point, I was wondering when Winwood would be on. I had read different things, that he'd definitely be playing with Clapton but I didn't know if he'd be playing with his own band or not. Before Jeff Beck was announced, I was hoping that would be his spot. Hopefully his solo spot would be on next. I left right after Beck's A Day in the Life to run to the bathroom so I wouldn't miss anything from the next act.

But no Winwood yet. The next slot was taken by Clapton himself. Uh oh. Does this mean Steve would only be out for the Blind Faith songs? Would I get to hear any Traffic songs tonight? Would it have been better for me to travel to one of his solo shows? He was doing the Blind Faith songs with his own band to practice for this big show.

Eric Clapton came out and did more blues rock. Roy described this as sounding just like all the music he had heard all day, except now it was dark and he couldn't read. He was "bored silly" and went on a walk for a little while. I've read reviews of people that just loved his setlist in the first half of the set, but I didn't know the songs. Clapton even did a George Harrison song that I didn't recognize. (Lots of breadth, little depth is my unfortunate standing.) He brought out someone, who I later found out was Robbie Robertson, to do a tribute to Bo Diddley, Who Do You Love. They also did a song I didn't recognize.

And then, my reason to be here. Eric brought out Steve with a nice introduction, saying they were old friends. Eric said he's been wanting to play again with Steve for 25 years (Blind Faith was 38 years ago, so there was either some bad math going on or he didn't want to play with Steve for the first dozen years after Blind Faith.) (Edited to add: I've been informed they did play together in 1983 at the ARMS charity concert. Woops. Please disregard my previous comment about bad math.)

Steve sat down at the organ. And started Pearly Queen! From Traffic! Relatively obscure! With Eric Clapton playing lead guitar on it! I was happy, but I was also relieved. Winwood really had an honored spot at this concert, not just being brought out to sing the Blind Faith songs. They didn't do Pearly Queen at their show together last spring. This was new and history making. The next song was Blind Faith's Presence of the Lord, with Steve and Eric traded off singing the verses. I turned to Roy and asked him if this wasn't a million times better than what came before.

Steve strapped on a guitar and they played Can't Find My Way Home. Steve sang lead and Eric did some backing vocals. They both played guitar. Then was Had to Cry Today. Steve sounded great and still could hit all the high notes. One of the best voices all day. He was a powerhouse on vocals on this song. These were the three Blind Faith songs they did live last spring, so I was expecting them.

Eric Clapton left the stage for the next song. So did all the other backing guitarists in his band. For one of the first times during this concert (the first?) there was only one guitarist on stage. With a pared down version of Clapton's band on drums, backing vocals, and keyboards, Winwood played Dear Mr. Fantasy. Those of us fans know that he plays the same solo every time. It's scripted, not improvised. But it's very cool. But the other 28,000 people there tonight either knew Winwood from his pop hits in the 80s or knew him as a keyboard player. Maybe their expectations were low. Or maybe it was just great to hear a set of real rock songs. But he wowed everyone. The applause for that song was the longest of almost anyone that day, maybe just except for BB King.

The review in the Chicago Tribune from music critic Greg Kot was glowing.

"His soul-dipped vocals elevated "Presence of the Lord" and "Can't Find My Way Home," and his underrated guitar-playing came to the fore on a spiraling version of Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy." Was it possible? A musician best known as a singer and keyboardist also walked away with the day's best guitar solo?"

I have yet to read a bad word about Winwood's performance. His section was far and away the highlight of the day for me. You never know how these reunions will go. It wasn't that this was the most mind-blowing performance of my life, but it was so special. And he clearly blew people's expectations away. I am so happy for him!

After the thundering applause for Dear Mr. Fantasy, Clapton and the rest of his band returned to the stage. They performed Cocaine, with Winwood getting a solo in. Then was Crossroads, with Clapton and Winwood sharing vocals. The two of them recorded this way back in 1966 under the name from Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse before Cream recorded it. I've seen Winwood do it solo as well.

They all bowed and left the stage quickly. Was that it? We could see people on the general admission floor leaving. I thought there would be a big song with everyone joining in.

Roy and I went through the listed performers and we still hadn't seen Buddy Guy. He came out next, totally anti-climatic. He did a few songs, then brought out Clapton and some other people, but not Winwood, and jammed on a song. I didn't know any of them. Then it was over. I feel like it should have ended on everyone playing a well known song like Sunshine of Your Love or Gimme Some Lovin' or Purple Haze. Maybe they were playing well known blues songs? And that was it. I wonder if this was the first concert where Winwood didn't play Gimme Some Lovin' since he was a teenager?

Roy and I went back to the hotel. On Sunday, we stopped at the airport to pick up my luggage. It was just sitting there, with no security. At least it was there. I was exhausted, so Roy drove all the way home. I took a vacation day the next day to catch up after being away from home for nine days.

I've been able to relive the concert very easily this time. The whole concert is streaming online at http://music.msn.com/crossroads. I watched the Winwood section again and it was still wonderful. :-)

I'm looking forward to a nice quiet weekend next week. Oh, that's right. Polyphonic Spree on Saturday at the Pageant and we're working the merchandise table for California Guitar Trio on Sunday at Blueberry Hill. At least these are both walking distance from home, no more far away concerts for a month.