So what do you do when you’re a working musician, you’ve made arrangements for a set of special concerts, then at the last moment, forces beyond your control bring it all to a screeching halt? If you’re Eric Clapton, you invite everyone you were planning on playing with over to a lovely big house in the country, set up some microphones and cameras, and let everyone know what they missed. Which, as Clapton’s new album Lady in The Balcony: Lockdown SessionsAs you can see, it was quite a bit.
The canceled concerts (COVID, of course), scheduled for a run at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year, were to feature Clapton and a small backing band in a primarily acoustic setting. It was both a continuation and fresh interpretation of the motifs behind Clapton’s classic 1992 Unplugged album. Considering that Clapton had little to show artistically since mid-1960s, why don’t we try texture and songs again?
The album’s overall mood is warm. You can call it blues with a smile. It is high-quality, which can only be expected. Clapton’s singing and playing are energized and focused without a trace of weariness. It’s as if the artist was 26 instead of 76. However, no one with only a quarter-century under their belt could perform with the depth and soul Clapton’s three-quarters of a century on this mortal coil, living a life filled with both ultimate highs and the lowest of lows, brings to his performance. Clapton gives life and style to every song, whether it’s reworking classic tracks or adding new meaning to the songs of others. These songs are music created by people who actually live, and not only exist.
Eric Clapton’s work is a gift to us in an age when most musicians are either dead or have become pale imitators of the person they were. It is instead a joyous, quiet, intense, without being overbearing, romp through the world where real musicians make real music for people who long for it. In this satanic age it is something everyone can benefit from. At the beginning of his career, graffiti proclaiming “Clapton is God” was frequently spotted around London. Several decades later, he’s still one of the leading purveyors of God’s language. Real music. God Bless Eric Clapton
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