CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL
I'm going to peel myself away from my PDR, Anatomy books, and the dead woman hanging upside down, waiting to be gutted in my walk-in freezer so that I can talk about something that's close to my heart: Waiting Room Music. People underestimate how much thought goes in to which music is blasting in a physician's waiting room while they're waiting to be disemboweled....err, examined. You can't just throw on any old Muzak-version-of-the-latest-crap-top-20-single, and expect your victims...umm, patients...to be happy campers. You have to research.
I can safely say that I have found the PERFECT music to play in the waiting room for the next several months. The
CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL is the most spectacular collection of blues-inspired performances this doctor has ever heard. The festival was taped in June 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, for a three-day festival to benefit ERIC CLAPTON's
Crossroads Centre in Antigua. Let's examine the line-up, shall we? Let's:
Disc one:
"Cocaine," Eric Clapton
"Love in Vain Blues," Robert Lockwood Jr.
"Killing Floor," Clapton, Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin and Jimmie Vaughan
"Sweet Home Chicago," Clapton, Cray, Buddy Guy, Sumlin and Vaughan
"Six Strings Down," Clapton, Cray, Robert Randolph and Vaughan
"Rock Me Baby," Clapton, Guy, B.B. King and Vaughan
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," Dan Tyminski and Ron Block
"Road to Nash Vegas," Tyminski and Block
"Copperline," James Taylor with Jerry Douglas
"Steamroller," Taylor and Joe Walsh
"Oklahoma Borderline," Vince Gill and Douglas
"What the Cowgirls Do," Gill and Douglas
"After Midnight," J.J. Cale with Clapton
"Call Me the Breeze," Cale with Clapton
"March," Robert Randolph & the Family Band
"Green Light Girl," Doyle Bramhall II
"Incident at Neshabur," Carlos Santana
"Jingo," Santana with Clapton
"City Love," John Mayer
"Your Body Is a Wonderland," Mayer
Disc two:
"Rag Bihag," Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
"Tones for Elvin Jones," John McLaughlin
"Josie," Larry Carlton
"Question and Answer," Pat Metheny
"Going Down Slow," Honeyboy Edwards
"Time Makes Two," Robert Cray
"Give Me Up Again," Jonny Lang
"Neighborhood," David Hildagov
"Whispering a Prayer," Steve Vai
"Desert Rose," Eric Johnson
"Funk 49," Joe Walsh
"Rocky Mountain Way," Walsh
"I Shot the Sheriff," Clapton
"Blues in C," Clapton
"Cause We've Ended as Lovers," Clapton and Jeff Beck
"La Grange," ZZ Top
"Tush," ZZ Top
How's THAT for a concert? Now, edited between the performances are great interviews with all of the performers, a few of which don't appear on the 2 disc set unfortunately. For instance, Neal Schon of JOURNEY performed on the disc (an amazing version of the 'Star Spangled Banner' which rolls at the end credits) is nowhere to be found on this disc. I would have liked to see more Steve Vai and Eric Johnson...especially given the fact that I need something a little meatier when I'm burying a hammer into a young gal's skull post-examination. However, this DVD in no way suffers. I really got a good head of steam going with the Larry Carlton, Johnny Lang, and ZZ Top selections. I mean, who else was going to close this festival than ZZ Top. Sure, Clapton shows up and blows everyone off the stage with his own set...but come ON... who hasn't jammed a scalpel into a man's eye and spilled ocular fluid all over the flud without listening to "La Grange"... see what I mean?
I raise my speculum to the
CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL DVD
If you're curious, here's a video clip of Clapton's performance of "Cocaine":
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_56.asx
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_100.asx
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_400.asx
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_56.ram
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_100.ram
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine_400.ram
http://www.rhino.com/videoplayers/EricClapton/cocaine.mov
