Music, Art and A Soon to Be New Blogroll Addition
Last night was the Eric Clapton concert I was so excited about. It was excellent! There was a lot more electric, a lot more of his old classics than I was expecting, but I enjoyed it (his sit down acoustic set was still my favorite part of the whole show). The fact that he closed with Cocaine bothered me. But Eric is a joy to watch, casual and meticulous at the same time, gentle but powerful. He sets the bar for guitarists the world over.I was surprised to find out that Robert Cray opened for him. I'm not a big fan of Robert Cray, but had never seen him perform live. And now, I'm even less of a fan. Technically, I suppose he sings the blues, but it is very sterile and sounds as if the songs are cut for pop radio. There's just no emotion behind the songs, not even live. That is, until he plays with Eric Clapton. They only sang one encore song together (Crossroads), but that one song gave Robert Cray a little more, I don't know, street cred or something. And I don't mean to dis old white guys, but here's an observation from last night...one old white guy backed by a solid team of black guys is much better than one black guy backed by a bunch of old white guys (Cray's keyboardist was better suited for a career as a courtroom stenographer). Just callin' it as I see it, that's all.
Meanwhile, back on the blogging front...
Here is a great article by a newly discovered (by me) blogger. John over at Blog Meridian awarded Hank a Thinking Blogger's Award and I went to check it out. As might be expected of an educator's choice in the thinking category, this post has it all: footnotes, and footnotes inside of footnotes, a bibliography, and fully cited references of all kinds, and a bit of art history, and something about naked women (which is what happens when you start talking about art history, let's face it). Plus it is just downright funny. Even if you don't like art, I think you might like to read about Hank's Blue Painting. It's worth the extra minutes to read the footnotes.
I also got a kick out of this post, partly because I like sailing (or at least the idea of sailing), but mostly because I like the word "insouciant," especially in this context.
Back to work...tick, tick, tick...
Labels: Art, Fellow Bloggers, Music
posted by Gwynne @ 9:46 PM
5 Comments:
You are really too kind!
Thank you so much.
And I couldn't agree more about Clapton. (I was turned off too and had to re-discover him in adulthood).
Gwynne,
You've made a fine choice regarding Hank's blog.
As for Robert Cray . . . I liked his first album, Strong Persuader, but otherwise I have to agree with you. "Sterile" is a good choice; "safe" would be another. Either way, the blues, to paraphrase Muddy Waters, cain't be satisfied, and Mr. Cray sounds satisfied.
Glad to hear that Mr. Clapton did not disappoint. His performances remind me of Buddy Guy's. Not so much for the style, but for the end results.
When he's on, there's hardly anyone better. When he's not, you're cursing yourself for the money laid out and the time spent thinking how great the concert was going to be.
Mr. Cray is a mystery to me. I caught him way, way back before he even had signed with a label and he was smoking. When his first album came out, I thought "Oh, Oh", this is not the way he sounded live. Gone was the nasty; gone was the drive.
Did Clapton do his version of "I Shot the Sheriff"?
Glad the concert went well! I've never heard of Robert Cray but it doesn't sound like I am missing out lol.
County Clerk, welcome! Thanks for stopping by. "Kind" would imply the compliments were not deserved. That's just not true. If you should come back, perhaps I should point you to my favorite sailing story here. ;-)
John, I was semi-convinced Cray was going to become the next B.B. King when he came out with Strong Persuader, but I became quickly bored. Yes, he's too satisfied. Of course, that's what Darko said about Keb' Mo' also, but I'm still enthralled with Keb.
Darko, I've only seen Buddy Guy perform once and it was a big disappointment. I've seen Eric twice and both times were outstanding. Not sure if these are the stats necessary to support an objective opinion but subjectively, Eric spins cartwheels around Buddy.
Re: Cray, it seems someone came and took his blues away. I suppose that's not all bad.
Yes, Eric did play "I Shot the Sheriff"...if I'm not mistaken, his playbook included all of the Cream of Clapton LP, and he played for a solid two hours.
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