Was pleased to see an announcement yesterday regarding Eric Clapton’s third Crossroads Guitar Festival, taking place this June at Chicago’s Toyota Park. I was fortunate enough to catch the first festival in Dallas in 2004, and it was a terrific show with about as top-notch talent as you can get in one place. You can of course watch portions of both the 2004 and 2007 shows on the Crossroads DVDs produced from the shows, but I can tell you there’s nothing quite like being there to see it for yourself.
This year’s lineup is another great one: in addition to Clapton himself, plenty of other legends will be on hand from the music world, including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Hubert Sumlin, the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, John Mayer, and Robert Randolph. While obviously not strictly a blues festival, the one-day show does offer its fair share of blues acts – joining those already mentioned will be Robert Cray, Keb’ Mo, Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr., Sonny Landreth, and Joe Bonamassa, to name a few. As in years past, profits from the festival will benefit The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility for chemically dependent persons founded by Clapton.
Where will you be June 26, 2010?