Such guitar giants as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, and more will be highlighted online, as SBC Communications and Yahoo team up for a Webcast from the third day of Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival.
"We're pleased to join with one of the world's premier musicians to bring such a talented line-up to viewers and music enthusiasts nationwide," said SBC marketing executive director Michael Grasso in a statement. "As the presenting sponsor of the weekend event and the nation's leading DSL provider, SBC companies are bringing this level of high-quality entertainment to people's homes through broadband, with exclusive benefits for SBC Yahoo! DSL members."
The three-day festival (June 4-6) is aimed at raising funds for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a substance-abuse treatment facility Clapton – himself a recovering drug and alcohol abuser – founded in 1997.
Online fans can log in Sunday, June 6, beginning at 11:50 a.m. CDT (9:50 PDT), and catch it live from Cotton Bowl Stadium, Dallas, with live coverage available to the general public until 5 p.m. CDT on that day, when exclusive live online coverage moves to SBC Yahoo! DSL members only.
"We are constantly exploring ways to provide the most innovative broadband experience to our consumers," said Yahoo! senior vice president for broadband and mobile services Doug Garland, at the Webcast announcement. "SBC Yahoo! members are already customizing their music experience through streaming audio with LAUNCHcast Plus; this is yet another way we can respond to peoples' interests by giving them more of what they're 'listening' for."
This year's festival will also feature the Guitar Center Village, including interactive booths from leading guitar-makers, a buy-sell-trade vintage showcase, and a display of guitars donated from Clapton and others' personal collections for a June 24 auction at Christie's to benefit the center.
The Crossroads Guitar Festival concerts actually begin the evening of June 4 and continue on multiple indoor and outdoor stages in the area over the weekend, climaxing in an 11-hour concert June 6 at the Cotton Bowl.
Both the festival and the rehab center are named for a song written by blues legend Robert Johnson, "Crossroads," which Clapton made famous through his arrangement with Cream in the late 1960s. That and the Rolling Stones' subsequent version of "All My Love in Vain" triggered an ongoing revival of Johnson's musical legacy, climaxing in the unexpected best-seller status of Johnson's complete recordings in 1990. "Up until I was 25," Clapton wrote in the set's booklet, "if you didn't know who Robert Johnson was I wouldn't talk to you."
Clapton's latest album, Me and Mr. Johnson, features Johnson songs Clapton had never recorded before, including what many musicologists consider Johnson's most powerful song, "Hellhound on My Trail." Johnson died in 1938, at age 27.
