The legend of Mississippi blues master Robert Johnson has served as a fountainhead for generations of blues and rock musicians, as well as a powerful fable for the dark, often violent mysteries of delta blues. Johnson's mythic deal with the Devil, in exchange for his extraordinary musical gifts, has become a fixture in blues lore and an example of the enduring pull of superstitions that can be traced back to Mother Africa and Yoruba deities. Producer-director Walter Hill (The Long Riders, Streets of Fire) sought to put this uniquely American mystery on film, but when he was unable to secure a script devoted directly to Johnson himself, Hill bravely decided to proceed with a more oblique, allegorical story that retold the Satanic bargain through a fictionalized drama set in the present day. In this 1986 feature, the hero is Eugene, a classically trained guitar virtuoso pulled toward the earthier powers of blues. When he stumbles across a lost blues legend, Willie Brown (a real blues figure and Johnson peer known for his partnerships with Charley Patton and Son House, among others), Eugene begins an odyssey back to the delta country and the crossroads of the title, where both Willie and Johnson had traded their souls for blues power, to help the surviving bluesman renegotiate terms.An opening sequence, shot in sepia-toned black and white, dramatizes Johnson's own supernatural encounter, as well as one of the bluesman's historic Texas recording sessions, and Hill's visuals combine with frequent collaborator Ry Cooder's reliably authentic slide guitar to offer a promising glimpse of cinematic conjury. Even the satanic villain--a grinning huckster named Scratch--honors the trickster figure familiar to African American superstitions, rather than a generic devil. Willie Brown (Joe Seneca) is likewise a convincing link to the blues past, but Hill's central casting choice--Ralph (The Karate Kid) Macchio--sacrifices all for marquee value, a Hobson's choice that casts a shadow of unintended parody across the film. Macchio's earlier character, not Scratch, haunts this film, and even a nifty duel between Eugene, his slashing fretwork supplied off-camera by Cooder, and Scratch's ax-wielding henchman, heavy metal virtuoso, and one-time Frank Zappa protégé Steve Vai, can't safely rescue the film. --Sam Sutherland
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Over the summer of 2010, Eric Clapton gathered a veritable Who's Who of the world's most talented guitar players at the third Crossroads Guitar Festival, an 11-hour celebration of the six string that attracted a sold-out crowd of more than 27,000 music fans to Chicago's Toyota Park. All profits from this daylong display of guitar virtuosity benefited The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility Clapton founded to help people suffering from chemical dependency.Available in either DVD or Blu-Ray formats, the show includes more than four hours of music, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage from this star-studded concert, including performances by Clapton, ZZ Top, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Bill Murray, who served as the concert's master of ceremonies."The Crossroads Festival is the realization of a dream for me, to gather a group of amazingly talented musicians to perform on one stage," Clapton said. "The Crossroads performers are all musicians I admire and respect."It's no surprise a festival named for a Robert Johnson song would include a heavy dose of the blues and Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 does not disappoint with remarkable performances by Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf's guitarist), Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth, Gary Clark Jr., Keb' Mo', and Buddy Guy, plus B.B. King who led an all-star jam of his classic "The Thrill Is Gone." The rock contingent was well represented by ZZ Top, Jeff Beck, the John Mayer Trio, Doyle Bramhall II, the Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Warren Haynes, and Steve Winwood, who teamed with Clapton for several performances including an epic cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile."Other styles find a home here too, with "Blackwaterside" by Scottish singer-songwriter Bert Jansch, an accomplished acoustic player; "One More Last Chance" and an amazing take on Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" by country picker Vince Gill who is accompanied b