After a six-year break, Eric Clapton has announced that the Crossroads Guitar Festival is returning with a two-night event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on September 21st and 22nd. It’s the kind of guitar-master summit that only Clapton could put together featuring Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons, Derek Trucks, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt and many, many others. The proceeds will all go to to the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a drug and alcohol rehab facility founded by Clapton.
Here’s a look back at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois, where Clapton played an incredible set with special guests Jeff Beck and Steve Winwood. Clapton and Winwood had toured together just a couple of years earlier, and their rendition of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Voodoo Chile,” seen here, was one of the many highlights. (More than 40 years earlier, Winwood had played organ on the Electric Ladyland original.) They also played Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and Blind Faith’s “Had to Cry Today.” The night wrapped up with an all-star rendition of “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Clapton has kept a relatively low profile in recent years and has limited his touring to just about 10 shows a year, often with a pretty repetitious set list and the dreaded acoustic “Layla.” (It was a fun novelty back in 1992, but doing it all these years later as opposed to the real deal almost feels perverse.) But Clapton always steps it up for Crossroads and with all those guests on board, he’ll almost certainly deliver something amazing. Derek Trucks will be on hand and he’s quite experienced at playing Duane Allman’s guitar parts, so the electric “Layla” shouldn’t be a big lift.