Light On Dark Water

52 Guitars: Week 6

Well, this was sort of inevitable, after Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues":

 

That's pretty much the definition of blues-rock, and probably my favorite single Cream track. As good as they were, much of their music, at least as it made its way onto records, seemed to lack something. This "Crossroads" is a live performance.

As good as Eric Clapton is, he's never been my favorite guitarist, and I think that's in part because he was sort of limited in Cream, and in part because he's put out an awful lot of very tame (at best) music over the years. But he's still got it. In searching YouTube for clips to include here I found a surprising number of really excellent live performances from the past ten years or so. Here are two, apparently from the same Crossroads Festival concert.

 

 

These are available on DVD and are well worth seeking out if you're a guitar fancier.

Maclin Horton
,

4 responses to “52 Guitars: Week 6”

  1. Charles Kinnaird

    Thanks for posting. Eric Clapton made the guitar truly sing in Concert for George.
    Wondering if you have any plans to include Phil Keaggy or John Michael Talbot in your 52 Guitars series.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    (Sorry, your comment was stuck in the spam catcher for several hours. It’s gotten a lot better but that still happens every few days or so.)
    Glad you like it. Phil Keaggy, yes. Hadn’t thought about John Michael Talbot. I haven’t heard that much of his stuff, but I don’t think of him as primarily a guitarist.

    Reply
  3. Grumpy

    I really want to listen but my cat is too freaked out by moving to hear this. I tried a couple of times……

    Reply
  4. Mac

    Yep, those are pretty noisy tracks, definitely not cat-calming material.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Instagram / TikTok / X

Designed with WordPress