2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival and Clapton US Tour

Eric Clapton announced a major U.S. tour culminating into the fourth Crossroads Guitar Festival, where iconic guitar players will play and jam.

The 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival is all set to take on the famous Madison Square Garden this coming April 12-13, 2013.

This Festival is now one of the biggest events that guitar players look forward to, it hosts performances and impromptu collaborations from the world’s most legendary guitar players. Clapton and his band will start the excitement for the festival by touring a dozen cities across the United States beginning on March 14, 2013.

The tour will feature Clapton’s long-time touring partner musicians including Steve Jordan (drums), Doyle Bramhall II (guitar), Chris Stainton (piano and keyboards), and Willie Weeks (bass). Backup vocalists Michelle John and Sharon White will join the touring band again this year. Newcomers Paul Carrack (organ and keyboards) and Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar) joins in to complete 2013 US Tour lineup. This year, Clapton’s tour will feature a special guest – The Wallflowers.

2013 Eric Clapton Tour Schedule:

The tour will end with the two-night Crossroads Guitar Festival where Clapton will gather the past, present and future of guitar music onto one stage for a special musical event. All proceeds from the Festival will benefit The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility founded by Clapton for chemically dependent persons.

The festival was conceptualized by Clapton to be an event where he can jam with his friends and contemporaries for the benefit of a good cause. The two-night festival will feature collaboration and performances of known guitar pioneers with artists that cover both young and veterans. Just like the previous festivals, you can expect top class guitar work, surprise guests, impromptu jams and good old guitar music entertainment.

Clapton commented: “The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me, to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage. The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect.”

Current Crossroads Festival Artist Listing:

Here is the rest of the press release:

The first Crossroads Guitar Festival, in June 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, was an unprecedented collection of guitar icons from blues, rock and contemporary music. The sold-out show was chronicled in a 2-disc DVD that has since gone on to become one of the world’s top-selling music DVDs. The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 and 2010 were the second and third such concerts by Clapton and were staged at Toyota Park in Chicago. Both Festival were filmed for DVDs and met similar acclaim and achieved multi-platinum status. This will be the Festivals first-ever visit to New York and Madison Square Garden.

In addition to the concerts, the “Guitar Center Road to Crossroads Exhibition” will be featured on the Terrace level @ Madison Square Garden and will excite fans with an incredible guitar-centric celebration of past Crossroads Guitar Festivals. This exhibition will feature the “Legends Guitar Walk”, with some of the most valuable guitars in the history of Rock and Blues, including historic guitars from Guitar Center’s Legends Collection featuring Eric Clapton’s two most famous Fender Stratocaster guitars, BLACKIE and Brownie, Gibson ES-335 as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Lenny Fender Stratocaster, plus selections from Guitar Center, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Experience Music Project. Additionally, Fender, Gibson, Ernie Ball and Martin will host interactive exhibits where guitar lovers can plug in and play new products and classic favorites, while all visitors will be able to per use memorabilia and watch archival footage of once-in-a-lifetime performances from prior Crossroads festivals on video walls throughout the exhibition. The “Road to Crossroads Exhibition” will open at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 6:00 p.m. Saturday, and is free to all ticket holders.

Advanced selling for the customer is set to begin on November 26, 2012 at 12pm EST until November 29 at 10 pm. General public selling of tickets will start on November 30.

The 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival is sponsored this year by Chase. A ticket to this event would make a great gift for guitar players! For more information on the schedule, guests and tickets, you can visit Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Related News: