“Monster lineup here”: Eric Johnson and Michael Landau honor Jeff Beck with a fretboard-burning Freeway Jam cover

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(Image credit: GTR🎸ULTRA YouTube)

Fresh from burning frets on the G3 reunion tour, Eric Johnson has joined forces with session great Michael Landau for a rich and soulful cover of Jeff Beck’s Freeway Jam.  

The pair recently wrapped a four-date Tone-A-Rama tour, which played host to the improv-heavy jam that saw both Stratocaster masters tip their hats to the late Jeff Beck on the opening night at House of Blues, Dallas.

They stutter and start, generating a palpable push and pull with Eric Johnson’s band, which features Keith Carlock (drums), Roscoe Beck (bass), and Sean Giddings (keys).

His hand, however, is never far from the whammy, as he makes his notes flutter with a real Beck-like panache throughout, occasionally pulling back to harmonize the track’s main motif.

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Unsurprisingly, the Beck tribute performance has gone down rather well with fans. "Monster lineup here!" writes on YouTube commenter. "Ok, THAT was really good," offers another.

While the G3 tour may now be history, Johnson has excited fans by saying that a live album is in the works.

Elsewhere, Landau has previously spoken about why he feels the Stratocaster – which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2024 – is the “ultimate couch guitar.” 

He’s also spoken to Guitar World about recording guitar in front of David Gilmour – something you’d no doubt need nerves of steel to pull off.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.