If I'm planning to record, I usually try to get the opening tune because every artist of course wants to hook you going in and therefore it's one of the more interesting tunes.  This one is no different.  I have three more videos in the can and will probably have them all up tonight.  This first one is very indicative I think of the intense greatness of last night's show because you just cannot nail down a genre........is it Blues?  Jazz?  Soul?  R&B?  It's an amalgam of all those.  I don't know if you want to devote almost 9 minutes of your time to this.  My others are much shorter.  

 

Gary Clark, Jr. has been known as mostly a blues guitar player.  My introduction to him was Eric Clapton's 2013 Crossroads Festival, and Clark does three tunes on the DVD (very few artists get three tunes!).  I watched it again Saturday night to re-introduce myself to Clark before the show, and was impressed all over again.

 

But trust me, if you were there last night, you would know that Clark has expanded his artistry way, way beyond the blues in the last twelve years.  Like the opener, it's impossible to pin him down, or to predict what you are going to hear next.  I was SO majorly impressed last night that I would say that he is without a doubt one of the more impressive touring acts out there right now.  I didn't get the most flashy guitar solos of the night..........it's hard to know when to turn the camera on, usually it's hit or miss.  Trust me, Clark can get the fireworks going with his axe whenever he wants to.  But I am happy with the five tunes that I did get because I think I am going to give you a great introduction to the wide breadth of his talent in 2025.  

 

 

There's plenty of Soul influence in Clark's music.  The second video above is living proof of that and as you will see, Clark has the upper range in his voice to sing that stuff.  This one is only 3:46 in length. Probably what knocked me back the most last night was the fact that everything he did was done with tons of emotion behind it.  And the show was a full 2 hours 15 minutes.  I never got bored, not once.  

 

An eight piece band including three female backup singers, keyboards, and a second guitar player.  The keyboard player on the left in the first video played bass for the rest of the night.

 

Gary Clark, Jr. is a Texan, he resides in Austin and he is part owner of the famous Austin club, Antone's.  Maybe that's why Gary chose to stop in El Paso, because very few artists do.  THANKS GARY.  I don't know what else I can say, other than this guy is taking off into the stratosphere and I highly suggest checking him out when you get the chance.