Eric Clapton – Live in San Diego with Special Guest JJ Cale (2017) Blu-ray

Tracklist:
1. Tell The Truth
2. Key to the Highway
3. Got to Get Better in a Little While
4. Anyday
5. Anyway the Wind Blows (with JJ Cale)
6. After Midnight (with JJ Cale)
7. Who Am I Telling You? (with JJ Cale)
8. Don’t Cry Sister (with JJ Cale)
9. Cocaine (with JJ Cale)
10. Motherless Children
11. Little Queen of Spades
12. Further On Up the Road
13. Wonderful Tonight
14. Layla
15. Crossroads (with Robert Cray)

Bonus:
• Clapton and JJ Cale rehearsing for the concert, performing:
1. Anyway The Wind Blows
2. Who Am I Telling You?

Eric Clapton – guitar,lead vocals
J.J. Cale – guitar,vocals
Robert Cray – guitar,vocals
Doyle Bramhall II – guitar,backing vocals
Derek Trucks – slide guitar
Willie Weeks – bass guitar
Steve Jordan – drums
Chris Stainton,Tim Carmon – keyboard
Michelle John, Sharon White – backing vocals

• On March 15, 2007, Eric Clapton’s world tour stopped at San Diego’s iPayOne Center (originally the San Diego Sports Arena and now the Valley View Casino Center). The band lineup for the tour continues to be a firm fan-favorite, with Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II on guitars, Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon on keyboards, Willie Weeks on bass, Steve Jordan on drums and backing vocalists Michelle John and Sharon White During the set, EC’s long-time musical inspiration, JJ Cale, sat in for five songs, including three from their Grammy-Award winning album, The Road To Escondido, released in 2006.
• Eric Clapton recorded The Road to Escondido, a collaborative effort with his laconic idol J.J. Cale, in 2006 but the pair didn’t play supporting concerts due to Cale’s aversion of touring. He wound up showing up for one show: a date near his home in San Diego, playing five songs on March 15, 2007 at the iPayOne Center. That guest set forms the heart of 2016’s Live in San Diego, a double-disc live album released three years after Cale’s death. Effectively, this marks Clapton’s second tribute to Cale since J.J.’s passing — in 2014, he assembled The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale — but this brief mid-concert set perhaps illustrates the love and affection between the two men better than either The Breeze or The Road to Escondido. Mainly relying on chestnuts (although the new "Anyway the Wind Blows" kicks off the set), the chemistry is there along with a palpable affection between the two musicians, with Clapton following Cale’s lazy lead. It provides a nice contrast to the heavy blues that dominates the rest of the album. Working with a band featuring guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks plus drummer Steve Jordan, Clapton opens up with no less than five Derek & the Dominos numbers — including "Got to Get Better in a Little While," not released while the band was active — and then concludes with a bunch of blues covers (Robert Cray shows up for a closing "Crossroads"), along with his own "Wonderful Tonight" and "Layla," the only two big hits on the album. That kind of crowd-pleasing isn’t part of the intention of this particular concert. Instead, Clapton decides to devote the majority of his set list to the guitar, which helps offset the easy-rolling grooves of the Cale showcase. Combined, it amounts to one of his most satisfying live albums. –AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine