I had plans to catch Steve Poltz at the Beachland last night, but the crummy weather here in Cleveland made me think good thoughts about being home safe instead.

The recap of the initial Clapton/Winwood summit at Madison Square Garden makes me wish that I was in NYC instead. Being in attendance for last summer’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago was one of my all-time great rock and roll experiences. I had goosebumps at so many points throughout the day and night, but certainly hearing and seeing the two of them on stage for the first time on U.S. soil in so many years, singing Presence of the Lord, was unbelievable. At that moment, I forgot completely about any problems in my world, the pending drive back to Cleveland….none of it mattered!

It was one of the few shows that I’ve been to where for more than 12 hours, there was no room for bathroom breaks. Everyone from Johnny Winter to Vince Gill to Willie Nelson to B.B. King, to Steve and Eric, were amazing. And I can’t even begin to describe the knockout punch that Jeff Beck delivered. I’ve always had an awareness for Beck, but haven’t really explored his catalog as deeply as I should have. At Crossroads, Beck came out and delivered an hour long set that was mind blowing, and damn near threatened to upstage Clapton’s set.

Luckily, Clapton had Winwood as his not so secret weapon on that evening, and even without Winwood, Clapton’s current band, which features Derek Trucks and a host of others, are quite impressive, particularly Trucks, who is such an amazing young talent.

After being at Crossroads, and hearing that more Clapton/Winwood shows would be happening, I was excited to see what Clapton and Winwood would pull out for the MSG shows. The setlist from the opening show is anything but predictable, particularly on Clapton’s end, I thought Forever Man was an interesting and welcome inclusion. I would have loved to see their version of Little Wing, and Tell The Truth continues to be a favorite of mine in recent Clapton setlists – it smoked at Crossroads!

Little Wing (from the opening Madison Square Garden show)

They are filming for what will probably be a DVD release at minimum, and I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, Winwood heads out on the road this summer as the opener for Tom Petty, and will be supporting his new solo CD Nine Lives, which features an appearance by EC on the lead single Dirty City. Nine Lives hits stores on April 29th.

Dirty City preview

Winwood has moved away from a good amount of his 80s material in recent years, instead focusing on his 60s/70s output. For the Petty tour, I’d love to see him dig in deep for a hits heavy set – it would fit well with the night of music from Petty, and would go over huge with the Petty crowd. I have to admit though, that’s a tough setlist to make when you are trying to fit all of those decades of music into an hour or so!

Roll with It (live in 1988)

As for Clapton, you know he’s always up to something. Grab a copy of the Crossroads Festival 2007 DVD (and 2004 as well if you don’t have it,) and that will likely give you plenty of EC until he makes his summer plans for 2008!

Tell The Truth (Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007)