And the Wind Cries Hendrix
Guitar freaks take heed of the Experience Hendrix Tour, which pays tribute to Jimi via a six-city, seven-show tour that begins Oct. 16 at Washington D.C.'s Constitutional Hall and concludes with the second of two shows at New York's Beacon Theater on Oct. 22. Gibson Guitar is sponsoring the tour, which is curious insofar as Hendrix was a noted Fender Stratocaster man, but whatever.
Though Hendrix, who died in 1970, will obviously be in attendance only in spirit, the rhythm section that performed this version of "Fire" with him at Woodstock, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox, will be on hand, as will an impressive lineup of guitarists. Chicago's Buddy Guy and Howling Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin will tap Hendrix's blues roots. Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger will represent Hendrix's acid-rocking peer group. Hendrix acolytes will include gospel pedal-steel wizard Robert Randolph and Living Colour's Corey Glover. And bluesmen Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Doyle Bramhall II, and Eric Gales will likely be backed by the late Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble rhythm section of Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon. Gales is a left-handed African-American who, like Hendrix, also plays his guitar upside-down; and he seems directly connected to his source in this take on "Little Wing."