How Long Is Clapton's Show At The Garden

Crossroads Guitar Festival
Eric Clapton and Bill Murray kicking off the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007
Genre	Blues, country, rock, bluegrass
Dates	Summer
Location(s)	1999: New York City 2004: Dallas, Texas 2007, 2010: Bridgeview, Illinois 2013: New York, NY 2019: Dallas, Texas
Years active	1999, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2019
Founded by	Eric Clapton
Website	http://crossroadsguitarfestival.org/ [Official website]

The Crossroads Guitar Festival is a series of music festivals and benefit concerts founded by Eric Clapton. The festivals benefit the Crossroads Centre founded by Eric Clapton, a drug treatment center in Antigua. The concerts showcase a variety of guitarists, selected by Eric Clapton personally. To the 2007 audience, Clapton declared that each performer was one of the very best, and had earned his personal respect.

The first concert was held on June 30, 1999, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and there again in 2013. The 2004 concert was held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, while the 2007 and 2010 festivals were held at Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The festival returned to Dallas in 2019 at the American Airlines Center.

1999 festival [edit]

The first Crossroads Benefit concert was held at Madison Square Garden, New York on June 30, 1999. It was held under a different title which was Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert: A Benefit For The Crossroads Centre At Antigua. The first official Crossroads Guitar Festival did not happen until 2004.

Performers [edit]

Some performers at the 1999 Concert were David Sanborn, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan and Mary J Blige. Backup musicians included Nathan East (bass), Steve Gadd (drums) Andy Fairweather Low (guitars), Tim Carmon (keyboards) and Dave Delhomme (keyboards). Back-up vocals were by Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon.

2004 festival [edit]

Held at Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas, from June 4, 2004, to June 6, 2004. A two-disc DVD containing 250 minutes of footage of the 2004 concert was released in the same year.^[1] This became the first official Crossroads Guitar Festival even though the 1999 concert had a different title. It was also the first benefit concert under the Crossroads Guitar Festival name.

Performers [edit]

Some performers at the Crossroads Guitar Festival such as Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Neal Schon, and Styx were not included on the DVD.

Eric Clapton
Johnny A.
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
Ron Block
Joe Bonamassa
Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Doyle Bramhall II
JJ Cale
Larry Carlton
Robert Cray
Steve Cropper
Sheryl Crow
Bo Diddley
Jerry Douglas
David Honeyboy Edwards
Rocky Frisco
Vince Gill
Buddy Guy
David Hidalgo
Zakir Hussain
Eric Johnson
B.B. King
Sonny Landreth
Jonny Lang
Robert Lockwood, Jr.
John Mayer
John McLaughlin
Robert Randolph
Duke Robillard
Carlos Santana
Hubert Sumlin
James Taylor
Susan Tedeschi
Derek Trucks
Dan Tyminski
Steve Vai
Jimmie Vaughan
Joe Walsh
ZZ Top
David Johansen

2007 festival [edit]

The 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival was held at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois on July 28, 2007. Tickets were estimated as sold out for the 28,000 capacity park in twenty two minutes. A DVD of the concert was released on November 20, 2007.

Performers [edit]

Eric Clapton played alongside various performers, and there were many one-off collaborations during the show. In order of appearance, the performers on the main stage were

Bill Murray
Sonny Landreth
John McLaughlin
Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas
Doyle Bramhall II
The Derek Trucks Band
- joined by Susan Tedeschi and Johnny Winter
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
The Robert Cray Band
- joined by Jimmie Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin, and B. B. King
Aaron Loesch (winner of Guitar Center's 2007 King of the Blues contest)

John Mayer
Vince Gill
- joined by Albert Lee, Sheryl Crow, Peter Stroud and Willie Nelson
Los Lobos
Jeff Beck with Tal Wilkenfeld, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Jason Rebello
Eric Clapton
- joined by Robbie Robertson and Steve Winwood
Buddy Guy
Finale featuring Buddy Guy with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, John Mayer, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Winter, and Jimmie Vaughan

On the second stage at the Festival Village, performers included:

2010 festival [edit]

The 2010 Crossroads festival was again held at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL (outside Chicago) on June 26, 2010.

Performers [edit]

In order of appearance. Artists in bold have received star billing in advertisements.^[3] Comedian Bill Murray MC-ed.

Kirby Kelley (winner of Guitar Center's 2009 King of the Blues contest)
Sonny Landreth^*
Robert Randolph and the Family Band^* joined by Joe Bonamassa and Pino Daniele
The Robert Cray Band^* with Jimmie Vaughan^* and Hubert Sumlin^*
Bert Jansch
Stefan Grossman joined by Keb' Mo'
ZZ Top^
Doyle Bramhall II^* and Faded Boogie joined by Gary Clark, Jr. and Sheryl Crow^* and Derek Trucks* and Susan Tedeschi*
Vince Gill^* joined by Albert Lee*, James Burton^, and Keb' Mo'

Citizen Cope joined by Sheryl Crow
Earl Klugh with Yonrico Scott and Joseph Patrick Moore
John Mayer Trio^*
Buddy Guy^* with Jonny Lang^ and Ronnie Wood
The Derek Trucks* and Susan Tedeschi* Band joined by Warren Haynes, Sheryl Crow, David Hidalgo^*, Cesar Rosas*, and Johnny Winter* (This set replaced the originally scheduled Allman Brothers Band.)
Jeff Beck^* with Rhonda Smith, Narada Michael Walden, and Jason Rebello*
Eric Clapton^* with Steve Winwood* joined by Citizen Cope and Jeff Beck
B.B. King^* with The Robert Cray Band, Jimmie Vaughan and Eric Clapton
Finale set with many artists returning for a performance of "Sweet Home Chicago"

^ - artists who also performed at the 2004 festival. * - artists who also performed at the 2007 festival.

2013 festival [edit]

The 2013 festival was held April 12–13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.^[4]

Performers [edit]

Performers included:^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

2019 festival [edit]

The 2019 festival was held on September 20–21 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.^[7]

MC: Bill Murray

Performers [edit]

Performers included:

Outdoor Venue: Among the Village Stage performers will be surprise main stage artists, along with special guest guitarists such as Eric Johnson, Joe Robinson, Andy Timmons, Paul Reed Smith, Boscoe France, Bryan Ewald, Ryan McGarvey and Peterson Brothers, with others TBA. In addition, next-gen guitarists Jacob Reese Thorton and Brotherhood of the Guitar, the Ernie Ball Play Crossroads national contest winner, and Gibson's G3 trio will make their Crossroads debut on the Village stage.^[8]

References [edit]

^ "Crossroads Guitar Festival : June 4-6, 2004". Archived from the original on April 5, 2004. Retrieved 2015-12-21 .
^ "Tyler Bryant | abc7chicago.com". Abclocal.go.com. July 1, 2009. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
^ "Crossroads 2013". Crossroadsguitarfestival.com. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Crossroads Guitar Festival - 12-13 April 2013 Madison Square Garden!". Eric Clapton Music News. June 12, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
^ "Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013". Thegarden.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
^ Official DVD performer credits for Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013
^ Blistein, Joe (March 28, 2019). "Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival Returns With Gary Clark, Jr., Bonnie Raitt". Rolling Stone.
^ "ERIC CLAPTON'S CROSSROADS GUITAR FESTIVAL 2019 ANNOUNCES GUITAR CENTER VILLAGE". whereseric.com. 24 August 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

External links [edit]

Crossroadsguitarfestival.org was the official site for the Crossroads Guitar Festival. It now redirects to ericclapton.com
Official site for 2007 concert (archived)
IMDb site for the 2007 festival
2007 set list (archived)
Review of 2007 Crossroad Guitar Festival
Review of DVD for 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival with set list.