Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood

Live From Madison Square Garden (Reprise)

Blind Faith London Hyde Park 1969 captures Clapton’s spidery digits and Winwood’s blazing soul despite supergroup dynamics, but their 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival reunion and resultant DVD tore down to the ground. Fingernails are shorter at the UK godheads’ Madison Square Garden summit last year, unwinding Buddy Holly’s “Well All Right” into Otis Rush’s “Double Trouble,” with Clapton finally loosened on Derek & the Dominoes’ “Tell the Truth,” Winwood the perfect substitute for its co-writer and Austinite Bobby Whitlock. A 2-CD counterpart also preserves these double-disc visuals, although Winwood’s Strat mastery on “Dear Mr. Fantasy” bears witness. (Clapton & Winwood play Dallas, Tuesday, June 23, at the American Airlines Center and Houston the following night at the Toyota Center.)

This article appears in June 19 • 2009.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.