New Layla

My friend sent me a link to this video, and it features some of our favorite musicians, all local treasures. It's Bobby Whitlock and CoCo Carmel doing "Layla". Bobby Whitlock had quite a bit to do with the original Layla, as he was a member of Derek and the Dominoes (keyboards, vocals), and was one of 2 people who played piano on the original (Jim Gordon, a co-writer of the song, was the other).

This track has Eric Johnson and David Grissom as a powerhouse guitar section, Stephen Bruton on rhythm and Brannen Temple on drums. It also features Bobby's wife Coco on sax. Gotta love it!! Also guesting on the CD coming out on Feb. 14 is Willie Nelson.

Layla is a true classic rock song, it even has a wiki. Here's another page on it which is pretty informative but has some things misspelled, and at the bottom of the page is a comment section that illustrates the things that go wrong with music-oriented forums. Anyway, it's safe to say that Layla is a love song written by Clapton for George Harrison's wife, Pattie, who Clapton later married. I enjoyed this bit and learned something from the wiki entry on the inspiration for using the name Layla:

The title, "Layla", was inspired by the Iranian love story, The Story of Layla / Layla and Majnun, by the Persian classical poet Nezami. When he wrote "Layla", Clapton had been told the story by his friend Ian Dallas who was in the process of converting to Islam. Nezami's tale, about a moon-princess who was married off by her father to someone other than the man who was desperately in love with her, resulting in his madness (in Arabic and Persian, Majnun, means "madman"), struck a deep chord with Clapton.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music