Eric Clapton founded the Crossroads Centre in Antigua as a drug addiction and alcoholism treatment center. The following year, he and a few guests held a benefit concert for the center. Since then, he’s hosted the Crossroads Guitar Festival four times to benefit the center. These shows from 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013 featured many artists, mostly involving the usual suspects when it comes to Clapton’s circle. The performances had previously been available on DVD (some performances previous to 2013 were available on CD), but the new box set collects highlights from all four official festivals (without repeating the 2013 CD).
The obvious initial question: do we need yet another collection of Clapton and the Clapton people playing these songs? Clapton fans likely own multiple versions of “Crossroads”, “After Midnight”, and “Layla”, and have probably ventured into the hits of musicians like Robert Cray, B.B. King, J.J. Cale, and Jimmie Vaughan. So, no, the set isn’t strictly needed (though it would serve as a good overview to this musical family for a newcomer), but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t compile some incredible performances, which it does intelligently.
The mainstays are here in force, which makes the set a collection of a particular subset of blues and blues-rock. If that’s your thing, it would be hard to do better than much of this music. No one’s holding back, and performances like “Five Long Years” by Buddy Guy with Jonny Lang and Ronnie Wood are always a treat. Stacking all-stars behind B.B. King for “Paying the Cost to Be the Boss” doesn’t hurt.
The relative newcomers and somewhat unexpected acts fit in well (though the John Mayer performances could be replaced). Gary Clark, Jr. – not surprisingly – offers a number of standout performances, and his guitar tone is as impressive as his playing, even among this group of players. ZZ Top, Vince Gill and James Taylor don’t feel like obvious choices, but they fill out the sound of the disc nicely.
That expansive sound makes the three-disc set work across a long listen. Rather than put the tracklist in chronological order (the most direct choice, even with fitting four shows into three discs) or loosely by artist, the compilers have chosen a track sequence that feels random. What actually happens, though, is that the collection moves like a smart mix, never settling but never feeling disjointed. Disc one opens with “Sweet Home Chicago”, a memorable performance that functions as a mission statement, and the third disc closes with, of course, Clapton performing “Crossroads”. In between, the music shifts fluidly, adding a bit of country (often thanks to Gill, Sheryl Crow, or both) and then segueing smoothly into something like “After Midnight”.
The set does fail in its liner notes. It would be nice to have more detail on the festivals, the selections, and even the artists. The backing bands are uncredited and, while it might be obvious for fans, the individual songs should list the role of each performer (vocalists, guitarist only, etc). It’s a minor complaint, and one probably more relevant to listeners newly exploring these acts than for long-time followers.
By the end of the three discs, nearly all of these artists have reminded us of their skill, but it feels more like a decade-long collaboration rather than a series of individual demonstrations. There’s certainly some good music lacking (such as any Allman Brothers cuts or performances by lesser-known figures), but there are few missteps on the inclusions here. A collection of Crossroads Guitar Festivals largely is what it is, but careful selection and sequencing have made this compilation particularly strong.