/// MISSION BRIEFING

One by One, the musicians climb on stage and take their places: B.B. king, Eric Clapton, Buddy guy, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Dr, john and Art Neville. Vaughan, standing at center stage, launches into "Six Strings Down," A moving tribute to his late brother, Stevie Ray, whose memory has drawn this group together. The guitarists fall in, each finding a corner of the song to call their own; King plays fills to Clapton's solo, Cray fires off economical, chiming counterpoint to Raitt's stinging slide, and Guy unleashes piercing single-notes bends to answer Vaughan, who's finger-picking the main theme on his battered Stratocaster. Suddenly, the song blasts into the stratosphere, a gorgeous mosaic of clarion guitar tones.