Standing At The Crossroads Guitar Festival
Published June 11, 2004
Sunday, June 6, 2004, Dallas, Texas: The three-day Crossroads Guitar Festival culminated in an eleven-hour concert at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park last Sunday, with artists from Steve Vai to Vince Gill to Buddy Guy to the headliners, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, and ZZ Top. The concert didn't quite go as planned, eventually called because of bad weather, but it was still an amazing collection of artists and a fantastic showcase of guitar music.
Though the Cotton Bowl concert was clearly the main event of the day, there were also smaller auxiliary stages and displays. Since eleven hours is a long time to sit, I spent some time wandering and missed a few artists. With a schedule as rich as this one, that meant missing some really good artists, too.
There were some last-minute schedule changes, so here was the official lineup the day of the concert: Neal Schon & Jonathan Cain, Steve Vai, Sonny Landreth, Larry Carlton, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Robert Cray Band, Jimmie Vaughn, Hubert Sumlin & David Johnsen (vocalist), Booker T and the MGs, Bo Diddley, David Hidalgo, Joe Walsh, Vince Gill & Jerry Douglas, James Taylor & Jerry Douglas, B.B. King with Tilt-a-Whirl, Buddy Guy with Tilt-a-Whirl, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck with Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, and the grand finale with ZZ Top, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. Beginning just before noon, the concert was scheduled to end at 11pm.
Neal Schon opened things up on time, but the schedule slipped right away and never quite recovered, so by the time the event was called because of rain, the grand finale simply never happened. Early in the day, though, the weather looked good, and the ex-Journey member started things off with a bang.
Steve Vai was an early highlight, one of the better guitarists of the day. He is forgiven for taking longer than he should have! He simply tore up during his time on stage.
I wandered around a bit, missing Sonny Landreth, but found my seat in time for the "smooth jazz" section of the show.
Larry Carlton came out with a full band and a very impressive brass section. While it seemed a little out of place at a guitar festival, there is no question that Larry can play well, and his new album, Sapphire Blue will probably be a good one.
Pat Metheny started with a solo piece played on a guitar (if I can call it that) that appeared to have five sets of strings. Or maybe only four, but one set was really, really wide. While that was great, and his middle song was good, his third and final piece never seemed to end, even though he actually ended up five minutes closer to on-schedule than when he started. I actually consider myself something of a fan of Metheny's, but he clearly didn't fit the vibe of the day with his last song.
- Standing At The Crossroads Guitar Festival
- Published: June 11, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Blues, Music: Jazz, Music: Rock
- Writer: Phillip Winn
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Comments on this articleComments
P, very nice job and the pics are great! thanks!
Metheny's guitar is called the Picasso and is make by luthier Linda Manzer.
i want one.
Mark, That first song, played with the Picasso, was beautiful, so much so that occasionally I took my eyes off the guitar. Not for long, though.
That is one sweet instrument!
Eric, funny thing is, I have a nice digital SLR, but no real telephoto lens. The ZZ Top shot at the end is what the view was like from my seat with my camera.
But a guy sitting in front of me noticed I have a Canon digital SLR, so he pulled a nice 300mm telephoto lens out of his bag and let me use it for a while. We can thank this anonymous Canon user for eight of the photos on this page, because they wouldn't look like they do without that lens.
Now, I've got to get a 300mm lens!
...there is no question that Larry can play well, and his new album, Sapphire Blue will probably be a good one.
Been out since January. It's not bad I guess, but I get a little tired of everybody wanting to do a blues album. Overall, I find the album a bit too slick, but then I tend to prefer gritty blues. There are a few jazzy licks, which is what I buy Larry Carlton albums for, but it's not his best work.
phillip, i'd be willing to bet that he opened with "Into The Dream" from Imaginary Day.
i keep hoping he'll put out a whole record of stuff just using that guitar.
Mark, I haven't heard that album in quite a while, but you're right. I dug the CD out of the closet, ripped it, and it's a match!
So where is J.J. Cale? One of the absolute highlights (along with Joe Walsh), the one who influenced Clapton's career more than anybody else, one of the greatest guitar legends alive, who wrote songs like "Cocaine", "After Midnight", "Call me the Breeze", Cajun Moon", "Carry On", "Sensitive Kind", and many more, and you don't even mention him in one word! Do your homework, buddy!
TOny (#9), I mentioned every single person who played on Sunday -- JJ Cale played on Saturday, and I was not there.
Do your homework, buddy!
My god! What a brutal schedule for any human to survive. If I was there all day, by the time Carlos Santana or Clapton made it on I would be completely out of my mind!!!!! I wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on....
peaceloveguidance
Hiablo de il Venestini.
I am sorry I meant to post under Anthony.
Phillip,
How did you interlace your piece with pictures amongst the text?
Thanks,
Lono (the other Crossroad author)
My father was at the Crossroads Festival as a vendor. He is the founder of Rowan Custom Guitars, some of the most beautiful guitars I've ever seen. Please visit his website at www.rowanguitars.com
Thanks!
Hey all,
The DVD will be out October 19th. It's going to be a two DVD set.
lono
You lucky bastard. I felt blessed just watching this great festival on DVD. Nice review and great pictures.
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More than anything, this concert demonstrated to me that I need (1) a better telephoto lens for my camera, (2) to take a tripod or monopod with me everywhere, and (3) to get out of my seat and get closer to the stage, using my press pass like it was meant to be used.
I was too busy enjoying the show to want to argue with security guards, though.