Kurt Rosenwinkel Gives First Live Preview of COVER ZONE at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival

 
 

Kurt Rosenwinkel Gives First Live Preview of COVER ZONE at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival

Rosenwinkel introduces three songs from the forthcoming album in Austin before joining Eric Clapton and John McLaughlin on stage.

September 28, 2026, Austin, Texas

 

Guitarist and composer Kurt Rosenwinkel has given the first live preview of COVER ZONE, his forthcoming recording project, at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

He presented three songs from the album alongside one of his own compositions:

  • Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears)

  • Ordinary World (Duran Duran)

  • Careless Whisper (George Michael)

  • Kurt Song (Kurt Rosenwinkel)

He was joined by Jonathan Maron (bass), Earl Harvin (drums), Jason Lindner (keyboards and synthesizers) and Matthew Rotter Lynn (guitar).

Familiar songs, different perspectives

COVER ZONE is a new project created by Kurt Rosenwinkel with co-producers Paul Stacey and Jochen Wilms, built around a simple question: what happens when songs we all know are placed in the hands of extraordinary musicians and rediscovered from the inside? Familiar music becomes a point of departure, opened up through new arrangements, harmony, rhythm, sound and improvisation. The listener already carries a memory of the songs, and COVER ZONE starts from that memory.

"These songs already live somewhere inside people. That is what makes them interesting to me. We are not trying to reproduce the original recordings — we are discovering what else exists inside the songs and exploring the shared emotions."
— Kurt Rosenwinkel

Human interaction at the center

The project is not a statement against technology or artificial intelligence. It celebrates interpretation, intuition, imperfection, risk, and the musical decisions that emerge when exceptional musicians play together in the same room.

A special Crossroads moment

Later in the evening, Rosenwinkel returned to the stage at Eric Clapton's invitation to join him and John McLaughlin for "Stormy Monday" and "Cocaine," then once more for "Going Down," the festival-closing encore. Clapton described Rosenwinkel and McLaughlin as his "heroes."

The 2026 festival marked the 28th anniversary of Crossroads Centre Antigua, founded in 1998 to provide treatment and education for people affected by alcohol and substance dependency and their families.

The album

  • Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar

  • Tim Lefebvre: bass

  • Earl Harvin: drums

  • Jason Lindner: keyboards and synthesizers

  • Co-produced by Kurt Rosenwinkel, Paul Stacey and Jochen Wilms

  • Recorded in Berlin, 2026

  • Label: Heartcore Records, distribution: The Orchard

  • Release: February 2027

The complete visual identity, official photography and further music and audiovisual material will be unveiled later in 2026.

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photo credit: Guitar Center