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Solid; Needs More

There is no question that this is an essential album for any fans of guitar, especially those with a diverse taste in music. This is just full on ingenius soloing, shredding, slide playing, and anything else you want to see done with a guitar.
As usual, we have some trademark performances from old stalwarts. Clapton delivers a impassioned jam on Have You Ever Loved a Woman and plays great alongside Carlos Santana. McLaughlin, of course, is possibly the greatest jazz guitarist ever, and proves it again with Tones for Elvin Jones. And ZZ Top are as usual just good fun and a fitting way to close up a Texas show.
Of course one of the best moments must be attributed to the absolutely unbelievable Robert Randolph. The vets are great and all, this guy is hungry and ready to prove himself which he does in spades. Check out Live at the Wetlands for some playing that will get you dancing and grooving late into the night.
Another new performer, whom I had never heard until this DVD, is Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. As a recently converted fan of Indian music, this blew me away. It is different and played early in the afternoon (the night crowds were out for Clapton) and he wakes everybody up with his custom made guitar, made specifically for the tones and rhythm of Indian classical. If you've ever enjoyed Ravi Shankar playing you need to hear this guy play.
Having said that, this could be much better. It is most egregious that you could NOT HAVE Jeff Beck on a guitar dvd, yet he played at the festival. Also some of the song choices were peculiar. How do Dan Tyminski, Vince Gill, and J.J Cale (mostly uninteresting performances) show up twice apiece while Buddy Guy, B.B King, and Hubert Sumlin (blues legends all) get one song each. Hell, they let Joe Walsh show up twice, and he was drunk (just look at him and you know). Furthermore, the superstar performances opening the dvd (containing Clapton, Guy, King, Cray, Sumlin and Jimmie Vaughan) are surprisinlyg devoid of life. There is no pulse to these jam sessions, and they all seem either bored or just out of time with each other. The least we could have were more solo performances for King and Guy (two of the most electrifying live blues players ever). In the case of Robert Lockwood Jr. (Robert Johnson's adopted son) and "Honeyboy" Edwards are given such short thrift, that they play interviews DURING THEIR PERFORMANCES! Yes history of blues is great, Vaughan, but could you let me listen for a minute!
I can't give this three stars for the compelling and intricate playing of Randalph, McLaughlin, Doyle Bramall, ZZ Top, James Taylor, and Cray. But if only for lack of more performances like these I can't give it 5 stars.