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The Joy Of Making Music: Jeff Thorneycroft

January 20, 2015

Jeff Thorneycroft at The Family Wash, Nashville – Jan 14, 2014

Olympus OM-D E-M1 w Olympus 45mm f/1.8, ISO 1600, 1/45sec @ f/1.8

It’s been a while since I’ve had an assignment to photograph a live performance, so it was nice to start the New Year out with a chance to shoot my friend Jeff Thorneycroft as he played bass with Tom Mason and The Blue Buccaneers at the Family Wash in East Nashville last week.

The Family Wash is not my favorite place in town to shoot a live performance. No, I take that back, it is my least favorite place (along with several others…) to shoot a live performance. There’s really no stage lighting whatsoever – just a few bare bulbs hanging over the center of the stage, in such a way that the featured performer on the front of the stage is actually back lit. And those that are back on the stage are lit mostly from above, which can cast some pretty nasty shadows.

But, hey, my calling card says “capturing the joy of making music – regardless of the lighting conditions. Yep, that’s my job!

So I brought my very fastest lenses with me – my 17mm, 45mm, and 75mm, all f/1.8 (these are Olympus Micro 4/3s lenses, their 35mm equivalent focal lengths are 35mm, 90mm, and 150mm). And since I don’t like to push my cameras past 1600 ISO, I didn’t even feel like I could afford the the loss of a stop to f/2.8 in order to use my 12-40 (24-80 equiv) or my fancy new and hardly-used-yet 40-150 (80-300 equiv) zoom lenses.

But there was one moment when I situated myself in the hallway toward the back of the stage. Jeff turned around to make eye contact with the drummer and fiddle player… and I got the shot! Several of them, in fact. And there are some good shots of pirate Tom Mason and the rest of his scurvy crew, I’ll post some of those starting next week.

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Are you a performer? Need some quality shots of your live show? Visit

http://thejoyofmakingmusic.com

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More ‘Joy Of Making Music’ – Sid Griffin Album Cover

October 1, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

JOYMM, music, photography

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sidgriffinCD Way back in February of this year, I got a call from my friend (and partner in The 1861 Project) Thomm Jutz inviting me out to his studio in Mt. Juliet to photograph a recording session with somebody named Sid Griffin.

I was not familiar with Sid at the time, but have since learned that he’s quite a fixture in the world of Americana and bluegrass music. He’s the front man for the critically acclaimed group “The Coal Porters” and, according to Billy Bragg, “Sid Griffin was playing ‘Americana’ music before that term was invented…”

I didn’t hear much from Sid after the session and shoot. So imagine my surprise when I discovered yesterday that not only has Sid’s new CD “The Trick Is To Breathe” (Spotify / iTunes) been released, but he’s used one of my photos for the album cover!

Needless to say (though of course I’m saying it anyway) I’m thrilled to see my work being put to good use. I’m particularly pleased with the shot that Sid selected. It’s one of only three that I shot with him standing in the doorway entrance to Thomm’s studio control room. Window light.. God’s own lighting (maybe next time a reflector? or… maybe not…)

I can hardly wait to get a copy of the CD for myself to see what else he might have used inside. In the meantime, here’s a slide show of the photos form the session, featuring Thomm at the controls along Justin Moses on banjo and fiddle and Sierra Hull on mandolin.

Watch the slides and listen* to Sid’s take on The Youngblood’s “Get Together,” and anthem from the days when we was all young and idealistic…

* that’s assuming that by the time this slide show goes public, Zenfolio will have fixed an issue on their servers that’s keeping the music from playing as I create this post. If not, well, enjoy the silence…

New Venue for Music City Roots

July 9, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, music, photography

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If Nashville is the world’s center for “Country” music, then nearby Franklin is in the midst of a bid to be the center of “Americana“

That effort started a year or so ago when a tobacco billionaire from Kentucky named Brad Kelly acquired The Factory a sprawling retail and entertainment complex not far from the center of Franklin.

Not long after the acquisition, he did whatever it took to get Americana/roots music mainstay Sugar Hill records to move its offices from Nashville to Franklin. Not long after that the Americana Music Association moved its offices from Nashville to The Factory, too.

Now Music City Roots has relocated from the Loveless Barn on the outskirts of Franklin to Liberty Hall, a large performance space also in the Factory.

The new venue was kicked off Wednesday July 9 with a show that included Verlon Thompson, the folk/roots band Humming House, and the national treasurers Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. seen in the photo above (shot with iPhone’ I wasn’t working that night).

@NashvilleTN @InstaNashville @nashvillemusiclifeFULL HOUSE @MusicCityRoots debut at The Factory in Franklin TN with Rodney Crowell and #Emmylou

More “Joy of Making Music” – Ron “KrashOBang” Krasinski

July 8, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

clients, Digest, JOYMM, music, photography

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Too bad he’s not Irish, then he could be “Krash O’Bang”

Back in April, I had the good fortune to spend an afternoon at Azalea Studios in Brentwood photographing singer/songwriter Joy Zimmerman and a terrific group of session players as they laid down the tracks for Joy’s new CD.

Among the players was drummer Ron Krasinski. I got a good chuckle when Ron and I exchanged emails and I discovered that his email address starts with “KrashOBang@….”

I”m pretty sure “Krasinski” is not an Irish name..

More at TheJoyofMakingMusic.com

Deep Thoughts on #SaveStudioA / #SaveMusicRow

July 8, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

commentary, Digest, music, music 3.0

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In which I ponder the endangered Nashville species called ‘Music Row’

(originally posted on July 1; reposted July 8)

“The past went that-a-way. When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”
–Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is The Massage

Here’s a little-known fact about me:

The first summer I spent in Nashville (1994), I had a ‘job’ as a tour-guide and entertainer on the Nashville Trolley.

For several hours on weekend afternoons, I’d sit with my guitar in an alcove-like space next to the engine housing in the front of one of those tottering, wheeled behemoths as it lumbered along a serpentine course from Riverfront Park, up Broadway to Music Row and back.

My job was to recount the history of the landmarks along the route, and between the landmarks and history lessons I’d play my guitar, sing songs from the Nashville canon – and try to be heard over the roar of the diesel engine beside me.

I don’t remember much about my repertoire now but I’m pretty sure that somewhere along Music Row I’d sing Alan Jackson’s Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow (Spotify):

I made it up to music row
Lordy, don’t the wheels turn slow..

It must have been quite a sight: a by-then middle-aged Jewish kid from New York singing country songs from a perch alongside a whining diesel.

I’d had to pass an audition and some vetting to earn this lofty position, but the job only payed whatever tips I could wheedle out of the tourists as they got off the trolley. So on the floor in front of me I placed a large jar with a label that read, “Garth Brooks and them play for millions – the rest of us play for tips.”

Little did I know at the time what a prediction that was for the future of the music business.

Needless to say the jar was never very full after a shift… and I didn’t last very long at that particular ‘job.’ I guess my ambitions lay elsewhere… Read More

From The Annals of “The Joy Of Making Music” – John Anderson

June 18, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, JOYMM, music, photography

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It’s been a while since I posted one of these…

…but I was just sending somebody a link to some of this work when I saw this one for the first time in a long time and thought… not bad…. I should show it to somebody…

John Anderson recording "The Turning Of A Field" - the first track of Volume 1 of The 1861 Project.

John Anderson recording “The Turning Of A Field” – the first track of The 1861 Project.

This was from one of the very first recording sessions Thomm Jutz produced for The 1861 Project. Renowned country music recording artist John Anderson (Seminole Wind, Straight Tequila Night) came in and laid down the vocals for “The Turning Of A Field,” and I was there, peering through the glass window in the door of Thomm’s studio with my Nikon to capture the scene.

Need a concert or studio session photographed? Visit http://thejoyofmakingmusic.com for details.

Listen to “The Turning of A Field” on Spotify:

What A Fucking Racket – You’re Screwed Edition

April 25, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, music

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Were you dutifully waiting for tickets for Paul McCartney to go on sale this morning at 10AM?

Tough noogies, sucker.

Yes, I already have tickets to see Paul McCartney at the Bridgestone Arena on June 25.

But, like a lot of people, I went to Ticketmaster.com this morning when the box office “opened” at 10AM to see if any seats were still available.

I entered the only options the website permitted: QTY (2), Ticket Type (Full Price, whatever that means), Price & Section (Best Available), and clicked “Search.”

And the site tells me “High demand! No matches…” Here, see for yourself:

That's right, the box office JUST OPENED and there are NO TICKETS.

As I fully suspected would be the case, the box office just opened… and there are NO TICKETS at any price other than the Premium packages which are $700 – $2,000 EACH.

I feel badly that I actually have tickets – but only because I first went off on this rant when I saw that somebody had scored tickets in a presale offer earlier in the week. That same somebody – bless her heart – took pity on my whining soul and shared the secret password with me yesterday so that I could get in and get seats while they were still available. It was $100/ea for seats near the rafters, but it’s inside the arena, which was all I really cared about. I figure the sound is gonna be awful wherever I sit (the sound at the Bridgestone Arena is always gawdawful), and I’ve got some really powerful binoculars.

So I will have my “once in a lifetime” experience.

I’m 63 years old. I’ve never seen/heard a Beatle sing Beatles songs with my own eyes (my wife has seen/heard the Beatles, in Dallas in 1965. Well, she saw them. She says she couldn’t actually hear a thing through all the screaming. And she forgot her contacts, so she didn’t really see them either…).

Now I guess I will have that opportunity, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

But only because providence – and a kind friend – shined upon me and I found a way to ‘game the system.’ I know a lot of others were not nearly so fortunate.

– – – – – – –

Update at 11:00 AM. As of a few minutes ago there ARE in fact some seats available on the website. However, it appears that the ONLY seats that are available now are the $297.82 seats on the floor or in the lower level of seating. Less expensive seats in the mezzanine or “nosebleed” levels are indeed sold out.

So, yeah, I suppose you can argue that the show is not entirely sold out before the box office opened. But if you thought you might be able to get inside the arena with a mate for something less than a month’s rent, well then, sorry. The show was sold out before the tickets went on sale.

What A Fucking Racket (Updated) Redux

April 24, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, music

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I have tickets. Send me an e-mail or a private message if you want the secret handshake.

It’s a long story, and I don’t want to go into the details now, but a little bird me told me a secret password and I managed to get into the site and score a couple of nosebleed level seats for $107 each.

But just to give you some idea how fucked up this is: the tickets are not officially “on sale” yet, but if you want a seat in, say, the first section off the floor, the $200 seats, good fucking luck: the “best available” today – 24 hours before the tickets “go on sale,” is behind the fucking stage.

That’s great if you’ve always wanted to see Paul McCartney’s ass.

What A Fucking Racket (updated)

April 21, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

"industry", Digest, music

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Yes, the show will be sold out before the tickets go on sale.

I missed Billy Joel when he played at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashvile a few weeks ago. I saw him a couple of times in Los Angeles in the 1970s, but after hearing from people who went how great the show was I’m sorry I didn’t see it.

And I let Bruce Springsteen come and go last week. Him I saw the last time he was here, and frankly was disappointed in the show. I do not know entire Springsteen canon by heart, and the sound was pretty awful to my ears. I guess that’s how it goes for arena shows (although the sound for U2 at the Vanderbilt Stadium one hot July night several years ago was OUT-fucking-STANDING, due largely to “the claw” stage and sound system).

I also missed Paul McCartney the last time he came through Twangtown. The tickets were pretty well sold out before I could get to them, and when I looked at the after-market prices, I was looking at nearly a grand for nosebleed seats.

McCartney is coming back to Nashville in June, and not to be morbid or anything, but anytime he’s in the vicinity is quite possibly the last opportunity I will have in my lifetime (or his?) to see an actual Beatle sing Beatles songs. So I have made a note that the tickets go on sale Friday at 10 AM and have arranged to be at my keyboard-and-screen when the time comes.

According to the Bridgestone Arena website, the tickets for this show will be priced from a low of $29.50 to a high of $254.50. I’m sure something in between would make sense and even if all I can get is “nosebleed” seats, at least they’re in the arena.

But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I just noticed a friend posted to Facebook that she already has her tickets “in hand.” She got them through “American Express card holders pre-sale.”

Well, I don’t have an American Express card. I got out of the credit card habit years ago, I now have ONE credit card and ONE debit card an neither of them is American Express. So no surprise I was not offered a “Pre-Sale” opportunity.

But the whole operation is fucked up from the get go. I fully expect that there will be not tickets available when I go online on Friday. Because even though the tickets will be “going on sale” at that time, much of the venue will have been “pre-sold” before the tickets become available to the general public.

Or, I could just jump the gun on the after-market and pre-buy them from an outfit called “Ticketdown” which is also offering “pre-sales” tickets at something between 3 and 4 times the ‘rack rate’ listed on the Bridgestone site. Tell me, how is an after-market website able to offer tickets BEFORE they ‘go on sale’?

The whole set-up is kinda like saying “the tickets will cost $X. Unless you actually WANT one. Then it will be 3- or 4- times $X. And that’s assuming know the secret password and handshake.

Because it’s a fucking racket.

I dunno, maybe I’m jumping the gun here. But based on my past experience, and what I’m hearing from private channels and seeing online, I expect pretty much the same. I’ll get online at 10 AM on Friday and there will be no tickets available.

Stay tuned. Or, if you’re reading this and you know somebody, just please tell me who to call so I can be part of the fucking racket, too.

– – – – – – –

Update 140423: My Facebook friend who snagged her tickets via the American Express Pre-Sale offer has informed me that she paid no premium for the tickets, they were sold at the rack rate that the Arena is showing on their website. OK, fair enough. She also told me that she’d purchased the $85 seats – arguably the sweet spot in terms of pricing and seating – and then adds, “…there are $55, $201, & $297 seats [still] available….” which sounds to me like the $85 seats are gone. I’ll find out Friday. I’m pretty well resigned to sitting in the “nosebleed” seats if I can get inside the arena at all. Good thing we have a pair of great binoculars….

Can It Get Any More Cynical ?

March 17, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

commentary, Digest, music

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And who on earth am I to wonder such a thing?

But after reading David Carr (my new favorite NYTimes columnist) critque the shenanigans at last week’s Austin Clusterfuck (aka “SxSW), you do have to wonder…

You may have heard by now that pop-star performance artist Stefanie Germanotta – aka Lady Gaga – was this year’s marquee performer and keynote speaker, following in the steps of such luminous predecessors as Bruce Springsteen and David Grohl. Maybe you’ve heard that the whole thing was a big shill for Doritos. Or maybe you heard that who got in to the big show in was determined by a raffle held via Twitter.

I guess this is what we missed:

We missed quite a spectacle, from what I can see in video clips and news reports. Lady Gaga was smeared in barbecue sauce and mock-roasted like a pig and then, with the ink on the check from Doritos barely dry — and with millions destined for her charity — she bit the tortilla chip that fed her. “I won’t play by your” — insert street-cred adjective — “rules,” she said.

She then wagged a crooked finger at her fans who were shooting pictures on their phone and had tweeted their way in at her instruction: “When you leave this earth, no one is going to care what you tweeted. Don’t let the machine and don’t let technology take you from this earth.”

Note the use of the word ‘spectacle.’ A word that often comes to my mind when watching the Grammy Awards. Who can forget Pink and her Cirque de Soleil routine?

Apparently we are supposed to overlook this latest exercise in spectacle-borne hypocrisy because Ms. Gaga donated the Doritos money to her charity. Well, Gagme.

Carr continues:

At her keynote address on Friday, Lady Gaga thanked Doritos and said plainly, “Without sponsorships, without all these people supporting us, we won’t have any more festivals because record labels don’t have any” money.

And, given the nature of this particular performance, that would be a bad thing because….??

Still, she’s probably right about anybody caring what I tweeted.