Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 (2010)
Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 is a 2010 music movie directed by Martyn Atkins, with a running time of 4h 39m. It stars Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Joe Bonamassa.
Chicago, late June 2010: one stage at Toyota Park, an all day bill, and a crowd past 27,000 who came to watch people play guitar. Eric Clapton has spent his career pulling other players into the room with him, and Crossroads is that habit built at festival scale.
The line-up spreads across generations. Jeff Beck and Robert Cray sit on the veteran side, Joe Bonamassa and Gary Clark Jr. on the younger one, and Sheryl Crow crosses in from songwriting. Clapton works as host as much as headliner, turning up inside other people's sets rather than saving himself for the close.
Rhino Records and Warner Music Group released the film on November 8, 2010, forty tracks deep on DVD and Blu-ray. Some pressings credit it to Various Artists, which fits the shape of the thing: the running order carries it, not a single name on the sleeve. It charted internationally and picked up sales certifications in several territories.
Come for the playing. The sets run long, the guests overlap, and the pleasure is hearing half a dozen approaches to the same instrument inside one afternoon. Blues and rock guitar listeners will get the most from it, along with anyone who wants to see why Clapton's peers keep saying yes to him.
Where to watch Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010
Stream: Qello Concerts by Stingray Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store
Buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store
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A few thoughts on Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010
The same day exists as a record: Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2010 gives you the performances without the video, which travels better in a car. For Clapton alone and turned down, Unplugged is the counterweight, a quiet room instead of a stadium bill. Riding With the King shows the same collaboration instinct in a studio, and The Concert for Bangladesh set the template for the all star benefit concert decades before Toyota Park.
On television, Austin City Limits has spent decades doing this job at club size, and CMT Crossroads pairs artists from different genres for a single shared set. George Harrison: Living in the Material World fills in the friendship running under a lot of Clapton's career.
All star concerts where the headliner shares the stage
Clapton puts his name on the Toyota Park bill and then spends the day turning up inside other people's sets, guest as much as host. These events work the same way: one name on the marquee, the stage passed around for a friend or a cause. Expect long bills, odd pairings and a few one-off collaborations.
Eric Clapton albums to play after the show
The 2010 Crossroads bill runs across generations, Jeff Beck and Robert Cray on one side, Joe Bonamassa and Gary Clark Jr. on the other. These records cover the host's own half of it: the live album cut from this festival, the B.B. King duets, the Royal Albert Hall residency and the acoustic session that became a standard.
Books on blues guitar and the players who shaped it
Crossroads makes guitar tone the main event, six players trading choruses on one Chicago stage in front of 27,000 people. These take the subject onto the page instead: blues history, gear and tone, and the lives behind Hendrix and Slash. Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars traces the host's own route to that festival.
Concert films that just let the band play
The Crossroads cameras stay on hands and fretboards, holding a shot through a solo rather than cutting to the crowd every eight bars. These films share that discipline, one band at a time: a set list, a room, a performance shot by people who want you to hear it. Clapton's own Albert Hall night sits among them.