Still searching for the next guitar hero

The pedal-steel player may not wear a guitar or pose in a classic lead guitar stance, but the buzz about the player could be heard even over the cacophony of riffage at the trade-show area where concert goers eyed rows and rows of six-string instruments.

There was also plenty of fuss over Jedd Hughes, a 22-year-old Australian native who got a job playing with country star Patty Loveless two weeks after landing in Nashville four years ago.

"I've been working really hard and I still continue to work hard because you have to," says Hughes.

Originality and dedication was the mantra repeated by most players, including Michael Kelsey, who won the "Guitarmageddon" playoff at one of the smaller stages outside the Cotton Bowl stadium. He also won a new fan in Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, of Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan fame.

"People are going to see more of him," Baxter says. "This man is going to have the opportunity to communicate."

Surveying the broader musical landscape, Molenda is confident that other young guitarists will make a name for themselves.

When he attended Ozzfest, an annual tour of heavy-metal acts, he was astounded how good the youngest players were.

"If you look at the second stage at Ozzfest ... last year, it was like nu-metal bands that really couldn't play that well," he says. "This year, every single kid on that stage could just absolutely shred."

Rock music is missing someone who can wow crowds with his prowess, he notes. "Who knows what could happen in 2010? I think that there's stuff bubbling under the surface."

For the most part, the veterans at the Crossroads festival were enthusiastic about supporting new talent. Clapton personally chose most of the players invited to the festival, a fundraiser for his Crossroads Center for drug and alcohol addicts in Antigua.

Clapton also hired Randolph to perform as the opening act on his current tour, and gleefully watched from the wings as Randolph awed a large Saturday night crowd. Randolph later came out to perform with Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin.

Sumlin represents the old, old guard. Like James "Honeyboy" Edwards and Robert Lockwood Jr., he's one of the blues boys who helped popularize electric guitars, and who served as the inspiration for Clapton, Beck, Page, and Richards - pioneers of the the British blues boom who adapted their sounds from American blues players and became guitar heroes in the process.

Dave Weiderman, director of artist relations for Guitar Center International, says he saw Clapton in the audience Friday night watching Edwards and Lockwood, so he plugged in a guitar and told Clapton it was ready if he wanted to use it.

But Clapton responded, "Oh, I couldn't do that. I would be embarrassed to do that. Those guys are legends."

J.J. Cale, for one, sees room for similar gatherings of guitar heroes well into the future.

"I don't think the guitar star is gonna go away," he says. "But who knows? I don't know nothin' about the future ... it might be piccolos next."

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