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In 1969 Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton along with Ric Grech and Ginger Baker formed the short lived group Blind Faith. A few years prior to that the two had played together briefly, with Jack Bruce And Peter York, in a band that released just three songs called Powerhouse. So it was that when the announcement came forth that the two would be reuniting for a three night stand at Madison Square Garden rockers everywhere stood up and took notice. Prior to last years "Crossroads Guitar Festival" in Chicago the two musical giants had not shared a stage together since 1982.

The night of the last of the three shows was bitterly cold by New York City standards. The evening temperature was a mere 9 degrees but inside the Garden things were red hot and cookin'. The two opened the show with "Had To Cry Today" sharing the lead guitar chores, as on the Blind faith album, and tore the house down. It just got better from there. This was not so much a rock n roll concert as it was an evening of blues and boogie woogie.

Along with drummer Ian Thomas, bassist Willie Weeks and keyboardist Chris Stainton, these five musicians, song after song, cooked up a magical musical stew that was boiling hot but went down smooth as butter. The evening included songs from not only Blind Faith and Traffic but included nods to Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, the recently deceased Buddy Miles and of course Robert Johnson. Two of the evenings highlights came when Clapton took an acoustic solo spot doing "Kind Hearted Woman" followed by Winwood soloing on "Georgia On My Mind."

All in all it was an absolutely perfect night.

Chris MacIntosh aka Grandfather Rock