Return with us now to those colorful days of yesteryear… colorful, because everything was photographed with a magic film stock called “Kodachrome.” Yes, the very same film immortalized in the Paul Simon song that will play when you click the “play” in the lower right corner of the player window that pops up when you click on the image below:

"Ground Strike" - Columbia, Maryland - Summer, 1973

Most of the photos in this collection were shot with a Nikon F2.  State of the art at the time, and I’ve still got it in a drawer, but it’s an antique now.  The photo of the lightning strike above was shot with my first “serious” 35mm camera, a Konica…. something, I don’t even remember the full designation now.  It was considered very advanced because it had a built-in light meter and was capable of aperture-preferred automated exposure control.

I took that Konica with me when I moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1973.  In January of ’74 I met Georja Skinner, and she introduced me to the marvels of Nikon.  Later that year when my parents went to Hong Kong they brought back a Nikon F2, which was my primary camera until I got my first digital SLR in 2003 – a Nikon D100.

After living in Los Angeles for a little over a year, I started really jonesing for the colors, smells, and cool air of autumn.  So Georja and I made a camper of sorts (no bed) out of a 1968 Volkswagen and headed east.  We stopped in New England, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland, and then wound our way back west along a southern route through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Most of the photos in this collection are from that trip, the “Ozone City Circus Continental Crusade.”  I’ll have to see if I can find the black and white photos of us in our circus outfits we made along the beach in Santa Monica before we left.

The last few photos are from the trip we made to England for 5 weeks in May of 1976.  There are probably a lot more from that trip, but these are the only ones so far that I  have scanned-and-Photoshopped back to life.

Over the weekend of August 1, Ann and I were privileged to accompany our friend and client Dana Cooper as he opened two shows for his old friend Lyle Lovett in Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri. During both of his shows, Lyle brought Dana back out on the stage to join him a duet of Dana’s song Needless to Say (from Dana’s 1992 CD Stone by Stone).

Click the photo below to open a window with a slide show compilation of photos from both nights; Click the “play” button in the lower right of to start the slide show and play Dana’s recording of Needless to Say.

Dana Cooper joins Lyle Lovett for "Needless to Say" - Kansas City, Aug 1, 2010

Saturday, May 15, 2010.  First stop, Douglas Corner Cafe for David Olney. This CD Release event was originally scheduled for Norm’s River Roadhouse, but as you can see from the previous slide set, it’s gonna be awhile before anybody plays at Norm’s again, so the show was restaged as a benefit for Norm’s at The Douglas Corner Cafe.  We could only stay for about half of Dave’s first set, because then it was time to go to The Rutledge for Tom Mason’s “Alchemy” CD release party.  We got there in time to catch the opening set by The Gypsy Hombres, in whom the spirit of Django Reinhart and Stephan Grapelli is alive and well in Music City.  Tom Mason came on after that and offered one of the most entertaining shows we’ve seen in a while.   When it was over, a friend who’d seen Olney first as well was overheard to say, “this is the sort of night that makes your really appreciate living in Nashville…”

Click the photo below to launch the slide show, click the “play” button (arrow) in the lower right corner to start the slide show with “The World is Drunk” from Tom Mason’s CD “Alchemy.”

Tom Mason and Co at The Rutledge - Nashville

Dana Cooper appeared on the Music City Roots program, “Live from the Loveless Cafe” on the outskirts of Nashville on Wednesday, May 12. Click the image to launch the slide show; click the play button (arrow, lower right) in the slide show to start the show accompanied by “Leave A Little Mark” (from The Conjurer)  recorded live during the show:

Dana Cooper LIVE on Music City Roots

As some of you may not know (because it’s not gotten a whole lotta coverage in the national media), this past week Nashville and much of middle Tennessee suffered catastrophic floods after a weekend of torrential rains – more than 13 inches in less than 48 hours. Thousands of homes were inundated, along with much of the city’s downtown and major parts of its economic infrastructure.

Our house, which is on very high ground, was spared any damage, though the entrance to our development is not far from one of the rivers that flooded its banks and numerous homes in our neighborhood were not as fortunate.

This morning Ann and I went out to help with the clean up of a place called Norm’s River Roadhouse, a small bar/restaurant and basement listening room/venue not too far from home that we have visited often. Here are some photos from the clean up effort. Click this picture to open the slide show:

After the Deluge - Norm's River Roadhouse

…then click the play button arrow in the lower right hand corner to start the slide show with accompanying music.

If you would like to get a better idea what all happened here over the past week (the rain started on Monday, May 1), then check out this YouTube video.

Click

Last month, I had occasion to spend an evening with Ken Bonfield and Steve Davison, two world-class finger style instrumentalists who travel and perform as “Artistry of the Guitar.”

Click this photo to see a slide show of Ken and Steve performing at the Third Street Coffee House in Roanoke, Virginia.  Click the “play” button in the lower right corner of the player to listen to Ken’s recording Zephyr and start the slide show.

Ken Bonfield and Steve Davison = "Artistry of the Guitar"

Part musical theater, part performance art, all metaphysical kirtan acoustic rock & roll… maybe the most original thing happening in Nashville these days.  Here are photos from three shows in 2009, with a preliminary mix of one of the songs from the show, “Oh Wey Oh.”

Pru Clearwater taps into the Infinite Field

Click the photo above to open the slide show; click the |> play button to start the photos and audio playback.

Guitar virtuosos Joseph Brunelle and Barry Coggins – known collectively as “Duology” – record a live performance at Norm’s River Road House on the outskirts of Nashville on January 21, 2010.

Click the image below to launch the player, click the |> button to start the slide show with accompanying sound track, the title track from the Duology CD “Like Water Falls.”

Joseph Brunelle and Barry Coggins = Duology

Visit Duology at Myspace.com

Dana Cooper plays the Flatrock Cafe in Nashville – January 9, 2010.  Click the photo to open the slideshow, click the “play” for slideshow with music:

Dana Cooper at the Flatrock Cafe - Nashville, TN - January 9, 2010

Visit DanaCooperMusic.com

I discovered Bonnie Bishop shortly AFTER missing her during the Americana Music Conference in Nashville in October.  I’d gone to see Sarah Siskind in a showcase at the Rutledge, an left when Sarah was done; the next week, I started going through the listings of the showcases I’d missed, and listening to what I could find on Lala.com. I got to Bonnie Bishop, and her album Things I Know pretty much knocked me out, especially the track Lucky Ones. It was another two months before I had a chance to see her live, and here are some photos I shot of the show.

Bonnie Bishop - Live at The Rutledge - Nashville, TN - Dec. 8, 2009

Click the photo above to open the slide show; click the |> play button to start the show and hear “Lucky Ones” by Bonnie Bishop

Selected photos from our tour of the Blue Ridge Mountains in late October 2009. Click the image to see the slideshow:

Fall Tour in the Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains - October 2009