Exploring Sites In NYC And Crossroads Festival Part Two

4/13/2013 - New York, New York - The New York City adventure continued today taking in more sites and day two of the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Madison Square Garden. After a decent sleep we had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express at Herald Square and headed back down to Times Square. We shopped and viewed some sites stopping at Radio City Music Hall on are way to the Top of the Rock, Rockfeller Center, Observation Deck. We took in some awesome panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, including great views of Central Park and the Empire State Building. We then hopped on the subway and went down to the World Trade Center area. We could not see the 9/11 Memorial without tickets but we had closeup views of the new Freedom tower which is nearing completion. We went back to Times Square and grabbed dinner at Red Lobster. We stopped at Rudy's Music Stop and played some nice Taylor acoustics there then headed back to the hotel to get ready for day two of the Festival. We arrived early at MSG and our seats for day two were even better than the prior night. The show started promptly at 7:30 and would have a tough time living up to last nights show. Sonny Landreth opened with his awesome slide/chord style an excellent guitarist who was joined by Derek Trucks to complete his set. This was the start to another five hour jam packed nonstop concert. Lots of blues and acoustic sets in this evening including an awesome acoustic set by the Allman Brothers. Again a wide array of musicians played on this night from the prior night and some new ones. They mixed and matched jamming all kinds of tunes. The short list included Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo, Derek Trucks, John Mayer, Doyle Bramhall II and many more. The big sets built up from Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr and then Jeff Beck came out and did an excellent set. Eric Clapton came out and started a major set and was joined by surprise guest Keith Richards who jammed a couple tunes with Eric. Robbie Robertson came out for a couple of numbers and finally Clapton finished with Doyle Bramhall II helping finish his set. The finale had everyone on stage jamming but with some minor technical problems. Another fantastic show! After the show we headed back to Times Square for a late dessert and some night time photo ops. The next day we did some shopping and stopped at Sam Ash Music and played some amazing custom guitars, nothing less than $4k, tempting but NO purchases. We finally headed to Penn Station grabbed lunch and caught the Amtrak train back to Rochester an excellent getaway..... Day One Slideshow

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Robbie Robertson & Eric Clapton perform I Shall Be Released at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York on Apr 13, 2013