Eric Clapton is sharing a preview of the "2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival", which will be released next month on DVD and Blu-ray and – for the first time ever – audio highlights on digital and CD.
The set features nearly 5 hours of music across 45 tracks, plus conversations with the artists and other behind-the-scenes footage from the event.
On April 12 and 13 in New York City, Clapton once again assembled an unparalleled lineup of the world’s most celebrated guitarists for the fourth incarnation of his legendary Crossroads Guitar Festival. While the previous three festivals were all hosted in sprawling outdoor stadiums, Clapton took the festivities indoors for the first time this year to Madison Square Garden.
Held every three years since 2004, the Crossroads Guitar Festival has quickly become the ultimate guitar-concert event, where the world’s greatest players perform together to raise funds for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. Clapton founded this treatment and education facility in 1998 to help people suffering from chemical dependency.
This year’s festival featured two different nights of music with performances by Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, Blake Mills, Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall II, Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Keith Richards, Keith Urban, Los Lobos, Robert Cray, Sonny Landreth, Steve Cropper, Vince Gill, Warren Haynes and more.
In addition to rousing performances of blues classics and renowned hit songs, many of the most memorable performances saw artists coming together for some stirring collaborations. Among the highlights were the surprise pairing of John Mayer and Keith Urban for the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” Vince Gill and Clapton taking on “Lay Down Sally,” Keb Mo and Taj Mahal covering the Sleepy John Estes’ song, “Diving Duck Blues,” Gill performing “Tumbling Dice” with Urban and Albert Lee and members of the Allman Brothers – Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks – joined forces for a haunting acoustic cover of Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done.”
As you would expect, Clapton features prominently throughout the show, including with his own band for “Tears In Heaven.” The legendary guitarist also tore through the Derek and the Dominos’ classic “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad” with the Allman Brothers Band, revisiting the time in 2009 when he joined the band during their annual residency at the Beacon Theater in New York.
The first Crossroads Guitar Festival was held in 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and gathered together an unprecedented collection of guitar icons from blues, rock and contemporary music. The sold-out show was chronicled in a two-disc DVD that has since gone on to become one of the world’s top-selling music DVDs, achieving the 10x platinum mark in the United States alone. The other two DVD sets met similar acclaim. The 2007 collection was certified 6x platinum, while the set from 2010 was certified 4x platinum.
"Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013" will be released on:
Nov 15 – Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands
Nov 18 – UK, Czech Rep., Austria, South Africa, Hong Kong, Poland, France, Denmark, Norway
Nov 19 – US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Italy, Spain
Nov 20 – Japan, Sweden
Check out the extensive tracklisting for the 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival here.
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