“Limitless pleasures for any guitar-minded person”: The stars shine on Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023 collection

Eric Clapton‘s Crossroads Festival was expanded to a two-day event at LA’s Crypto.com Arena last year, now condensed(!) to a 4-CD (or 6LP) set, providing limitless pleasures for any guitar-minded person on their next lengthy journey.

There’s a bluegrass flavour early on with Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas, Bradley Walker and Sierra Hull before Eric Gales, Samantha Fish and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram introduce the blues with a rocked-up Smokestack Lightning.

From there it branches every which way, mixing in less familiar names – Citizen Cope, Molly Tuttle, Marcus King, H.E.R. and Brazilian duo Daniel Santiago and Pedro Martins – alongside old friends like Gary Clark Jr, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Taj Mahal, Roger McGuinn, Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin.

Clapton makes intermittent appearances throughout and closes the show with Stevie Wonder.