Eric Clapton and his music

Former Blind Faith bandmate Steve Winwood, left, and Eric Clapton perform Monday evening Feb. 25, 2008, during the first of their three concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden.

For those going to the concerts later this week, this is a spoiler. If you don't want to know the set list prior to the performance, stop reading now. Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood played the first of their three shows to a sold out crowd at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Monday, 25 February. The two hour plus show, had lots of surprises in store for the audience. In addition to the expected Blind Faith and solo material, songs included "Them Changes", "No face no name" and "Voodoo Child".

Winwood / Clapton: The Band

Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals
Steve Winwood - hammond organ, guitar, vocals
Chris Stainton - keyboards
Willie Weeks - bass
Ian Thomas - drumbs

Winwood / Clapton: Set List for Monday 25 February, 2008

01. Had To Cry Today
02. Low Down
03. Forever Man
04. Them Changes
05. Sleeping In The Ground
06. Presence Of The Lord
07. Glad / Well Alright
08. Double Trouble
09. Pearly Queen
10. Tell The Truth
11. No Face
12. After Midnight
13. Split Decision
14. Ramblin On My Mind (EC solo acoustic)
15. Georgia On My Mind (SW solo hammond)
16. Little Wing
17. Voodoo Child
18. Can't Find My Way Home
19. Dear Mr Fantasy

Encore:
20. Crossroads

офигенно!

Eric Clapton Steve Winwood NYC snip FOREVER MAN


Eric Clapton Steve Winwood NYC snip AFTER MIDNIGHT


Eric Clapton Steve Winwood NYC 1st song snip Had 2 Cry Today


Eric Clapton hangs next to the stage for Steve Winwoods solo

2SergeK:

>офигенно!

Ну, вот. А ты на Стива ругался.-)))))

Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood soar again
Tuesday, February 26th 2008, 1:37 AM

They didn't actually bill themselves as Blind Faith.

But the band that played the Garden Monday night boasted the two most esteemed players from that sanctified '60s act, and they featured its signature material.

While the classic-rock pair in question - Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood - teased the world with a quickie warmup set at the Crossroads guitar festival in Chicago last July, they had not shared a stage for an entire evening since the dying days of Blind Faith in 1969.

The two appear again tonight and Thursday with their unnamed band at the Garden. No other dates are scheduled.

As such, the Garden shows have as much importance by definition as Cream's reunion concerts from two years ago, if not quite the earth-shattering resonance of the Led Zeppelin reunion from December.

So did the night live up to the epic expectations? In places, definitely.

Especially the Blind Faith songs. The rub is, there aren't many of them. The band produced only six in all (one a jam). Last night, the band offered four, adding a fifth piece left off the original LP (the rote "Sleeping in the Ground," instead of the far more revelatory "Sea of Joy.")

They opened the nearly 2-1/2-hour show with "Had to Cry Today" with both stars taking fierce leads.

Throughout the night, Winwood offered the more trenchant guitar work, hewing closer to the tune, while Clapton spun fancifully around it.

Winwood's voice showed no loss of its choirboy purity. The range of his vocals - the wind he can whip up - still dazzles.

On the Faith material, the players - which also included bassist Willie Weeks, keyboardist Chris Stainton and drummer Ian Thomas - cohered as an organic band. But in much of the rest, it seemed more like stars sitting in on each other's songs.

That quibble didn't hinder a rash of highlights. Winwood's highflying vocals added soul to Clapton's "Tell the Truth." The latter's solos brought Traffic's "Pearly Queen" to fuller fruition. And for Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," they both fell utterly into sync.

Peaks that stellar allowed the show's more workmanlike moments to be forgiven, and made one hope we don't have to wait another 40 years to see these two hook up again.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/02/26/2008-02-26_eric_clapton_steve...

Finding Their Way Home, or at Least to the Garden
By JON PARELES
Published: February 27, 2008

Back in the 1960s some of the most promising British musicians aspired only to sound as good as their collections of American blues and R & B records, or perhaps some Saturday-night gig along the old chitlin’ circuit.

The careers of Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood would go on to full-tilt jamming, psychedelic fusions, pop hits, rootsy rock and middle-aged soft-rock. But when they got together at Madison Square Garden on Monday night — for the first of three shows there that, Mr. Clapton hinted, may lead them to “do a bit more” — they still paid homage to their cherished old Americana. Half the set was American songs, from old blues to J. J. Cale’s “After Midnight” and an extended version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.”

Mr. Clapton and Mr. Winwood did play four of the six songs from the studio album that came out of their last collaboration: Blind Faith, the supergroup (with Cream’s drummer, Ginger Baker, and the bassist Rick Grech) that existed for only part of 1969, including a chaotic show at Madison Square Garden.

Monday’s set started with “Had to Cry Today,” which declares in its first words, “It’s already written that today will be one to remember.” Yet Mr. Clapton and Mr. Winwood carried themselves modestly, without bravado: just a couple of musicians doing their job.

They were looking for the mysterious spark that transforms capable, proficient blues or rock into something startling and exalted. It wasn’t always there. Old blues songs still came across as the work of skilled, dutiful students, chugging steadily through “Crossroads” or easing back for Mr. Clapton’s near-homages to B. B. King, Albert King and Buddy Guy in “Double Trouble.”

Mr. Clapton and Mr. Winwood were serious about songs like “Sleeping in the Ground,” which Blind Faith performed in 1969, with raspy vocals, splashy barrelhouse piano from Mr. Winwood and a stinging, Chicago-style lead from Mr. Clapton. But it was musicianship, not alchemy.

Fitfully, they found it: in a slow, aching version of “Georgia on My Mind” by Mr. Winwood alone at a Hammond organ; in Mr. Clapton’s Blind Faith song, “Presence of the Lord,” with two very different vocal approaches from Mr. Clapton and Mr Winwood; in the Traffic instrumental “Glad” topped by a frenetic raga-tinged solo from Mr. Clapton; and in Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” which built to a searing guitar solo by Mr. Winwood. If anything, it was Mr. Winwood’s night; his Blind Faith song “Can’t Find My Way Home” held both anguish and camaraderie as he and Mr. Clapton let their guitar picking entwine.

Whatever broke up Blind Faith 39 years ago seemed well behind them; Mr. Clapton also sits in on Mr. Winwood’s forthcoming album, “Nine Lives.” They shared many songs, trading off vocals on verses and sometimes playing simultaneous, overlapping lead guitars. The band was Mr. Clapton’s, with Willie Weeks on bass, Ian Thomas on drums and Chris Stainton on keyboards. It kept the songs earthy, helping Mr. Clapton put a bluesy bite into Mr. Winwood’s old Traffic song “Pearly Queen” and making Hendrix’s “Little Wing” sound as if it could have been a song by the Band — until Mr. Clapton’s guitar solo, spiraling skyward with wailing melodic lines and bursts of speedy filigree.

It was, despite all the musicians’ experience, the first full-length set together in decades for Mr. Clapton and Mr. Winwood. Understandably, they sometimes fell back on reflexes. The chitlin’ circuit toned up bands through steady work, something the Clapton-Winwood band could try for itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/arts/music/27clap.html...&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

2Pataphisist:
Так, там Стивом и не пахнет, поэтому и ОФИГЕННО! :)))

2SergeK:

>Так, там Стивом и не пахнет, поэтому и ОФИГЕННО! :)))
А вот репортеры считают, что пахнет ;)
"Throughout the night, Winwood offered the more trenchant guitar work, hewing closer to the tune, while Clapton spun fancifully around it."
"If anything, it was Mr. Winwood’s night; his Blind Faith song “Can’t Find My Way Home” held both anguish and camaraderie as he and Mr. Clapton let their guitar picking entwine."
Если серьезно, то, по-моему, в любом случае это очень круто. Надеюсь, DVD будет. (Кстати, на втором Crossroads мне Winwood очень понравился -- но меня там вообще всё порадовало, от начала до конца).

2The Word:
>А вот репортеры считают, что пахнет ;)

Если слушать репортеров, то давно надо было бы всем жизнь самоубийством закончить.
Как можно читать отзывы тех, кто ничего ни в чем не понимает? Это же самые поверхностные люди на свете! ;)

>мне Winwood очень понравился
А я на нем заснул, когда смотрел прямой эфир и считаю, что лучше бы его там не было, от этого сет только выиграл бы!

живое подтверждение... ну куда СВ полез... все только испортил!

Forever Man

2SergeK:
А мне все нравится: и сам Winwood, и второй Crossroads (больше, чем первый), и вот этот Forever Man. Стар, наверное, становлюсь :)

2The Word:
Да нет, просто "бело-занудные ритмы" нравятся, в отличии от меня :)

Неужели Клэптон чёрный???

February 24, 2008 in New York City

Actor Bruce Willis (R) and his girlfriend actress Emma Heming arrive at Madison Square Garden for the Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood concert February 25, 2008 in New York City.