Here's a review I did of legendary blues performer John Hammond which appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette's Soundboard web site:
John Hammond, Armstrong Hall, Colorado College, 1/29/2010
"Two degrees of separation." That thought crossed my mind shaking hands with John Hammond Friday night at Colorado College. Here's a man that is one of only 3 or 4 white blues players who is still touring and making albums who was there at the beginning of the 60's blues music revival. You may get to see him Sunday night on television if you watch the 2010 Grammy Awards - his latest (33rd) album "Rough & Tough" (Chesky Records/Jan 2009) is nominated for "Best Traditional Blues Album".
Hammond has been nominated 6 other times for Grammy's and won a Grammy in 1985. By the way, Hammond has also won 3 Blues Music Association awards, twice for "Best Acoustic Blues Artist", once for "Best Acoustic Album". He's known and played with many blues greats including names you might have heard of: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. He's also played with Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, The Band, Dr. John and is the only person in the world that can say this mind-blowing factoid: he had Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in a band together on stage at the Gaslight Cafe in New York City.
It's hard not to talk about the past when talking about John Hammond. His style is very traditional in the country or delta blues vein - characterized by the use of acoustic slide guitar or dobro and harmonica. And while he may channel blues legends like Robert Johnson and Son House, Hammonds gritty down and dirty vocals while demonstrating a total mastery of his instrument brings his own flavor to traditional and original work.
Warming up the crowd at Armstrong hall was singer Fairlight Moriah accompanied by keyboardist Ken Jantzen. Fairlight's blend of bluesy spiritual tonal work was uplifting and at times moving, such as in the piece "Make It Up To You" about watching kids growing.
John Hammond opened his solo 90 minute set with "I'm Just A Fool", a mid tempo 12-bar blues shuffle with crazy riffs and licks alternating vocals and harmonica with ad-libbed harmonics on the guitar. He followed this up with his song "Heartache Blues" done in a slower traditional style throwing in his own lead riffs during the versus and blowing the harp with what I swear sounded like multiple single lead notes over consonant drone base notes on the harmonica - it was amazing work.
A Lightnin' Slim number, "The Mean Old Lonesome Train", "That’s Alright" by Jimmy Rogers, some Howlin' Wolf, and some Robert Johnson all followed demonstrating Hammonds mastery and encyclopedic repertoire. "You Know That’s Cold" by Hammond and "Love Changin' Blues" by Blind Willie McTell (featuring some truly amazing slide work by Hammond) came next. A Hammond original "Come To Find Out", another mid-tempo delta blues styled offering with a walking bass underpinning accented by staccato strum attacks and harmonica fills had Hammond also singing in a reflective vocal style unlike some of his other work.
Numbers by Sleepy John Estes, Little Walter, and Hambone Willie followed. Between many of the songs, Hammond gave a little history or background on where he was when first learned the song (in many but certainly not all cases from the original authors). He told an extensive and humorous story about meeting and playing harp with Big Joe Williams in Chicago (who he was introduced to by friend Michael Bloomfield and who - according to Hammond - knew everybody that was anybody in Chicago Blues) before wailing into a very raucous Big Joe Williams number featuring heavy slide work with high pitched accents. Songs by Tampa Ray, Dion DiMucci (of Dion and the Belmonts fame, a huge blues fan believe it or not) and a "Buddy Guy" recording that was written by Robert Geddins and a Tom Waits song followed. Another Hammond original followed which had its story-line basis from when Hammond got his first paying gig by pumping gas for Hoyt Axton who let Hammond play his Martin guitar after noticing Hammond staring at it sitting case-less in the passenger seat! (You can't make this stuff up!).
Hammond finished the night with Son House's "Preachin' Blues" and left the stage to the audience standing and applauding for 5 minutes. An amazing performance by one of what may be the last great troubadours in American blues history.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Rampart High School Basketball - Those Unstoppable Rams. (Update: Well: They Got Stopped!!)
The Rampart High School Rams varsity basketball team here in Colorado Springs is now number 1 in the state of Colorado (I think - they've been trading places with Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, outside of Denver).
I've shot several games the Rams have played at including the kick-ass game where they scored a whopping 105 against Liberty High School a couple weeks back. That was the highest scoring High School basketball game I've ever seen!
With a record of (as I write this, it may change tomorrow) 15 wins and zero losses, they are definitely the ones to beat.
If you can.
Here's a shot of Reuben Riggs-Russell, consistantly the high scorer for Rampart - going up against three guys from Fountain Fort-Carson trying to fight him back. Click on the photo to see a few more at my Flickr site, or go to www.HighSchoolSportPhotos.net to see (and purchase) the full set from this game and others.
So, like, they play Palmer High School thursday night and lost by like 26 points. I thought I was in an alternate universe or something! Palmer's fans chanting "Over-Rated!". (Of course, some Rams fans there started chanting back: "You're Not Rated!")
So where oh where will this saga end? Don't know, but I'll hopefully be there to shoot it either way!!!
I've shot several games the Rams have played at including the kick-ass game where they scored a whopping 105 against Liberty High School a couple weeks back. That was the highest scoring High School basketball game I've ever seen!
With a record of (as I write this, it may change tomorrow) 15 wins and zero losses, they are definitely the ones to beat.
If you can.
Here's a shot of Reuben Riggs-Russell, consistantly the high scorer for Rampart - going up against three guys from Fountain Fort-Carson trying to fight him back. Click on the photo to see a few more at my Flickr site, or go to www.HighSchoolSportPhotos.net to see (and purchase) the full set from this game and others.
UPDATE
So, like, they play Palmer High School thursday night and lost by like 26 points. I thought I was in an alternate universe or something! Palmer's fans chanting "Over-Rated!". (Of course, some Rams fans there started chanting back: "You're Not Rated!")
So where oh where will this saga end? Don't know, but I'll hopefully be there to shoot it either way!!!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Leann Rimes & me (& 2800 other friends)
Here's the review that ran on the Gazette's Soundboard Page over this past weekend from the LeAnn Rimes concert:
PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY BUTCH LEITZ
LeAnn Rimes, Friday 1/22/2010, Arnold Hall, United States Air Force Academy
By the time she was 21, LeAnn Rimes had already recorded eight music albums, won Country Music Association and Grammy awards, had songs or whole albums listed in various top-10 music industry charts, and then proceeded to release a Greatest Hits album. Her styles over those years and since have been identified as influenced by Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand, Wynonna Judd, and Reba McEntire, and she has crossed out of Country Music into Pop, released at least one rock album overseas, and crossed back into country. More than once.
So when Rimes appeared at Arnold Hall at the Air Force Academy Friday night, she came with the poise, polish and repertoire of entertainers twice her age. Sometimes looking the perfect representation of a mature female performer, other times looking like (and dancing around the stage like) a high school-age babysitter with a cute and infectious charm and smile, she delivered a nearly flawless and solid 90 minute performance to a near capacity crowd.
Criticized several months ago while on tour for being drowned-out by her band, on Friday night her voice was strong and pure and delivered exceptionally well over her accompaniment, even during raucous up-tempo numbers.
Opening with “Criminal” off her new yet to be released next album, she methodically moved through “Something’s Gotta Give” followed by “Family” and “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way.” She talked to the audience a little bit, mentioning she was working on two albums soon to be released, one being produced by Vince Gill. One of the songs on the new album called “Gasoline and Matches” started off sounding more like a boogie-woogie number you’d hear from a blues performer on the Chitlin‘ Circuit, but it quickly evolved into a full-on Country motif followed closely by “Good Hearted Woman”. A stool was brought out for LeAnn to sit on during “What I Cannot Change” which utilizes some heavy steel guitar work in an attempt to mask this pop-ballad as a country music song (can you say “crossover”?). “God Takes Care of Your Kind” followed before breaking into “Can’t Fight The Moonlight,” a popular fan-favorite song featured in the movie “Coyote Ugly” (in which LeAnn sung the four or five numbers lip-synched by the star of the movie).
The band was (so far) perfectly tight, and the production quality of the performance up until this point so perfectly reproduced songs from LeAnn’s recordings, that I was getting lulled into a sense of complacency about the concert. But when she hit the chorus of “Moonlight” I realized it actually gave me the willies and made the hairs on my arms stand up!
Songs from old and new albums continued including “Commitment,” “I Need You,” “Nothin ‘Bout Love Makes Sense,” “How Do I Live (Without You).” It was around this point that I realized her song selection contained pointed and direct references to her recent marital problems and love-life that have been so much in the press the last six months.
The other thing that really interesting: although LeAnn Rimes is known for her “emotional expression,” a term describing a style of singing that in her case encompasses a vast range of high and low pitches, she definitely has a tonal sweet-spot in her voice. Her high-end is good, but her mid-range is absolutely perfect and most of her songs play to this strength.
The night was not without some rowdy cadet behavior encouraged by LeAnn herself, and at one point a cadet threw a T-Shirt on stage with a hand-written invitation to “Ring Dance,” the formal dress ball that two-degree Air Force Academy cadets (juniors) throw themselves on the day they receive their class rings. LeAnn seemed stunned at first at then shyly admitted she had never been to a prom before “and I just might have to take you up on that. I’ve got your number!” resulting in cataclysmic hoots and applause.
Only occasionally did LeAnn’s voice falter as she went through a Patty Griffin cover, “Let Him Fly.” She dedicated the up-tempo ballad “Strong” to the service men and women there in the audience, and then sang “Got You To Get Me,” and “Nothing Better To Do,” a fantastic number. LeAnn’s fun “youthful” side was coming out as she increasingly bounded and danced around stage during instrumental parts of these songs.
LeAnn pulled out a “Challenge Coin” and said somebody needed to bring her a drink if they didn’t have their coins with them — something that two cadets willingly obliged her with moments later, handing her two different drinks onstage within seconds of each other. Another new song “You Ruined Me” followed as the final number until LeAnn and her band were called back out for an encore.
LeAnn treated everyone with “Blue,” her first really big hit which invokes the spirit and vocal emotion of Patsy Cline, before finishing the evening for good with a big-finish version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison.” This was a great night of covers and original material that everyone I talked to afterward had been very happy to be part of.
PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY BUTCH LEITZ
LeAnn Rimes, Friday 1/22/2010, Arnold Hall, United States Air Force Academy
By the time she was 21, LeAnn Rimes had already recorded eight music albums, won Country Music Association and Grammy awards, had songs or whole albums listed in various top-10 music industry charts, and then proceeded to release a Greatest Hits album. Her styles over those years and since have been identified as influenced by Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand, Wynonna Judd, and Reba McEntire, and she has crossed out of Country Music into Pop, released at least one rock album overseas, and crossed back into country. More than once.
So when Rimes appeared at Arnold Hall at the Air Force Academy Friday night, she came with the poise, polish and repertoire of entertainers twice her age. Sometimes looking the perfect representation of a mature female performer, other times looking like (and dancing around the stage like) a high school-age babysitter with a cute and infectious charm and smile, she delivered a nearly flawless and solid 90 minute performance to a near capacity crowd.
Criticized several months ago while on tour for being drowned-out by her band, on Friday night her voice was strong and pure and delivered exceptionally well over her accompaniment, even during raucous up-tempo numbers.
Opening with “Criminal” off her new yet to be released next album, she methodically moved through “Something’s Gotta Give” followed by “Family” and “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way.” She talked to the audience a little bit, mentioning she was working on two albums soon to be released, one being produced by Vince Gill. One of the songs on the new album called “Gasoline and Matches” started off sounding more like a boogie-woogie number you’d hear from a blues performer on the Chitlin‘ Circuit, but it quickly evolved into a full-on Country motif followed closely by “Good Hearted Woman”. A stool was brought out for LeAnn to sit on during “What I Cannot Change” which utilizes some heavy steel guitar work in an attempt to mask this pop-ballad as a country music song (can you say “crossover”?). “God Takes Care of Your Kind” followed before breaking into “Can’t Fight The Moonlight,” a popular fan-favorite song featured in the movie “Coyote Ugly” (in which LeAnn sung the four or five numbers lip-synched by the star of the movie).
The band was (so far) perfectly tight, and the production quality of the performance up until this point so perfectly reproduced songs from LeAnn’s recordings, that I was getting lulled into a sense of complacency about the concert. But when she hit the chorus of “Moonlight” I realized it actually gave me the willies and made the hairs on my arms stand up!
Songs from old and new albums continued including “Commitment,” “I Need You,” “Nothin ‘Bout Love Makes Sense,” “How Do I Live (Without You).” It was around this point that I realized her song selection contained pointed and direct references to her recent marital problems and love-life that have been so much in the press the last six months.
The other thing that really interesting: although LeAnn Rimes is known for her “emotional expression,” a term describing a style of singing that in her case encompasses a vast range of high and low pitches, she definitely has a tonal sweet-spot in her voice. Her high-end is good, but her mid-range is absolutely perfect and most of her songs play to this strength.
The night was not without some rowdy cadet behavior encouraged by LeAnn herself, and at one point a cadet threw a T-Shirt on stage with a hand-written invitation to “Ring Dance,” the formal dress ball that two-degree Air Force Academy cadets (juniors) throw themselves on the day they receive their class rings. LeAnn seemed stunned at first at then shyly admitted she had never been to a prom before “and I just might have to take you up on that. I’ve got your number!” resulting in cataclysmic hoots and applause.
Only occasionally did LeAnn’s voice falter as she went through a Patty Griffin cover, “Let Him Fly.” She dedicated the up-tempo ballad “Strong” to the service men and women there in the audience, and then sang “Got You To Get Me,” and “Nothing Better To Do,” a fantastic number. LeAnn’s fun “youthful” side was coming out as she increasingly bounded and danced around stage during instrumental parts of these songs.
LeAnn pulled out a “Challenge Coin” and said somebody needed to bring her a drink if they didn’t have their coins with them — something that two cadets willingly obliged her with moments later, handing her two different drinks onstage within seconds of each other. Another new song “You Ruined Me” followed as the final number until LeAnn and her band were called back out for an encore.
LeAnn treated everyone with “Blue,” her first really big hit which invokes the spirit and vocal emotion of Patsy Cline, before finishing the evening for good with a big-finish version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison.” This was a great night of covers and original material that everyone I talked to afterward had been very happy to be part of.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Head Full Of Zombies : Photoshoot to Poster = 2 Days
Here's the first product from a photoshoot with Head Full of Zombies we did last week. Shot on Wednesday night, Dave (in the center with glasses) did the layout thursday and had it printed friday and hanging in fine windows everywhere. (Everywhere that Dave could afford to pay to let him hang it!!! LOL)
This gig represents the zombies first gig of 2010 with new member and frontman Amy Sue Hardy (chewing on the frame here). (Don't get in -her- way!!!).
I took individual shots of all band members in a couple wardrobe changes each (Amy Sue got 3 wardrobe changes cause she's special) and some group shots. This old frame was leaning against the wall in the corner of the studio, so we incorporated it into several of the shots.
In this poster, I particularly like the positioning of the framed zombies with other classics like Mona Lisa and Dogs Playing Poker!! lol!
For something fun to do, Google "Amy Sue Hardy" for some interesting background.
This gig represents the zombies first gig of 2010 with new member and frontman Amy Sue Hardy (chewing on the frame here). (Don't get in -her- way!!!).
I took individual shots of all band members in a couple wardrobe changes each (Amy Sue got 3 wardrobe changes cause she's special) and some group shots. This old frame was leaning against the wall in the corner of the studio, so we incorporated it into several of the shots.
In this poster, I particularly like the positioning of the framed zombies with other classics like Mona Lisa and Dogs Playing Poker!! lol!
For something fun to do, Google "Amy Sue Hardy" for some interesting background.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Coco Montoya at the Crystola Roadhose
Here'a review of Coco Montoya I did for the Gazette that appeared in their Soundboard section December 13th 2009:
REVIEW AND PHOTOS BY BUTCH LEITZ
It takes alot more than a bad PA system, a cold, and an amp acting up to mess with Coco Montoya, the fiery blues guitar player whose band played at the Crystola Bar and Grill Saturday night. But throw in one adoring fan who kept heckling Montoya about songs to play on top of all the other things going on, and it might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I have a theory that adversity drives emotions that when channeled through the hands of a master blues player with a Fender strat can alter the time space continuum.
The blues may not be your thing. But to the audience packing the sold-out roadhouse, this was the next best thing to nirvana, despite a few minor annoying setbacks. Opening with “Back in a Cadillac,” a classic up-tempo 12-bar blues number with staccato accents and power fills by Montoya featuring the first of several breaks with keyboard Brant Leeper handing the audience powerful leslie organ riffs, the band had to stop moments into the song when a microphone wasn’t coming through right. After a few awkward moments and an apology from Montoya, they took it from the top and made the audience forget all about the earlier false start.
“I Need Your Love In My Life” — a rocking number with southern party-blues feel to it featured solid lead guitar work from Montoya. A funky drum intro opened “Women Have A Way With The Blues,” waking the audience up to the fact that Randy Hayes on drums is somebody not to be messed with. Heavy-handed with smoldering blues riffs demonstrated Montoya’s background as an Albert Collins protégé. The notes were tight and succinct with little of the tonal clutter characteristic of less-worthy guitar players masking over their deficiencies.
A series of numbers followed mixing up tempos and blues approaches, some slow with Montoya playing slide, some featuring Montoya and Leeper mixing it up between organ fills and searing guitar riffs, and at one number with a syncopated “second line” backbeat to it straight from Bourbon Street that evolved into a party rock blues number that had the dance floor packed and everybody bouncing up and down. A nod to Montoya’s former boss John Mayall followed with “Have You Heard About My Baby” that many people may associate with Eric Clapton’s guitar work, but Montoya clearly owned this tribute leaving people asking “Eric who?” as Montoya mercilessly sawed away at his guitar.
Since every review and biography I’ve ever read makes a big stinking deal about how the left-handed Montoya plays his guitar upside down (literally: a right handed neck strung for a righty turned over on a lefty strat body so the bass strings are at the bottom instead of the top), I’m not going to dwell on it. I think watching a blond woman in the crowd of dancers slow dancing with a post kind of said it all!
A boogie-woogie organ solo from Leeper opened “Tumbleweed,” adding in turn some heavy drums from Hayes, thundering bass from Nate Brown, and Montoya grinding out some heavy swinging blues riffs over it all had everybody eating out their hands. At the next song break, while we had already had a few interruptions from one fan shouting out song titles, now everything stopped while Montoya had a back-and-forth with them about them being annoying. After a few protracted moments, Montoya responded the best way he could by just grinding ferociously through the next couple songs totally blowing away the weird vibe that arose during the pause.
After a set break, Montoya played an amusing song featuring little guitar riffs made to sound like what you’d hear through the walls in a cheap motel while a husband and wife argued. Everybody was still laughing while the band churned into a heavy version of “Just Like Me” and through a couple more numbers. The big finish was Albert Collins “Put The Shoe On The Other Foot” used as the basis for an extended jam featuring a jazzy bass solo by Nate Brown and a thundering drum solo by Randy Hayes adding some more searing blues work by Montoya to close out the night.
All-in-all, a great night for fans lucky enough to get a ticket on the Coco Montoya blues train.
REVIEW AND PHOTOS BY BUTCH LEITZ
It takes alot more than a bad PA system, a cold, and an amp acting up to mess with Coco Montoya, the fiery blues guitar player whose band played at the Crystola Bar and Grill Saturday night. But throw in one adoring fan who kept heckling Montoya about songs to play on top of all the other things going on, and it might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I have a theory that adversity drives emotions that when channeled through the hands of a master blues player with a Fender strat can alter the time space continuum.
The blues may not be your thing. But to the audience packing the sold-out roadhouse, this was the next best thing to nirvana, despite a few minor annoying setbacks. Opening with “Back in a Cadillac,” a classic up-tempo 12-bar blues number with staccato accents and power fills by Montoya featuring the first of several breaks with keyboard Brant Leeper handing the audience powerful leslie organ riffs, the band had to stop moments into the song when a microphone wasn’t coming through right. After a few awkward moments and an apology from Montoya, they took it from the top and made the audience forget all about the earlier false start.
“I Need Your Love In My Life” — a rocking number with southern party-blues feel to it featured solid lead guitar work from Montoya. A funky drum intro opened “Women Have A Way With The Blues,” waking the audience up to the fact that Randy Hayes on drums is somebody not to be messed with. Heavy-handed with smoldering blues riffs demonstrated Montoya’s background as an Albert Collins protégé. The notes were tight and succinct with little of the tonal clutter characteristic of less-worthy guitar players masking over their deficiencies.
A series of numbers followed mixing up tempos and blues approaches, some slow with Montoya playing slide, some featuring Montoya and Leeper mixing it up between organ fills and searing guitar riffs, and at one number with a syncopated “second line” backbeat to it straight from Bourbon Street that evolved into a party rock blues number that had the dance floor packed and everybody bouncing up and down. A nod to Montoya’s former boss John Mayall followed with “Have You Heard About My Baby” that many people may associate with Eric Clapton’s guitar work, but Montoya clearly owned this tribute leaving people asking “Eric who?” as Montoya mercilessly sawed away at his guitar.
Since every review and biography I’ve ever read makes a big stinking deal about how the left-handed Montoya plays his guitar upside down (literally: a right handed neck strung for a righty turned over on a lefty strat body so the bass strings are at the bottom instead of the top), I’m not going to dwell on it. I think watching a blond woman in the crowd of dancers slow dancing with a post kind of said it all!
A boogie-woogie organ solo from Leeper opened “Tumbleweed,” adding in turn some heavy drums from Hayes, thundering bass from Nate Brown, and Montoya grinding out some heavy swinging blues riffs over it all had everybody eating out their hands. At the next song break, while we had already had a few interruptions from one fan shouting out song titles, now everything stopped while Montoya had a back-and-forth with them about them being annoying. After a few protracted moments, Montoya responded the best way he could by just grinding ferociously through the next couple songs totally blowing away the weird vibe that arose during the pause.
After a set break, Montoya played an amusing song featuring little guitar riffs made to sound like what you’d hear through the walls in a cheap motel while a husband and wife argued. Everybody was still laughing while the band churned into a heavy version of “Just Like Me” and through a couple more numbers. The big finish was Albert Collins “Put The Shoe On The Other Foot” used as the basis for an extended jam featuring a jazzy bass solo by Nate Brown and a thundering drum solo by Randy Hayes adding some more searing blues work by Montoya to close out the night.
All-in-all, a great night for fans lucky enough to get a ticket on the Coco Montoya blues train.
Monday, November 23, 2009
erica in black and white, with coke
This is funny - this is one of my daughters posing with a coke in the studio one day a couple years ago. I didn't think much about it at the time - kind of a random shot among many as I was playing with some new studio strobes I had gotten. I don't remember the specifics, but I'm guessing this was shot with one strobe to my left against white seamless paper.
A couple months later I was doing some self training in a couple aspects of photoshop I wanted to spend more time on, and I used this photo as a test for one of the things I wanted to play more with: masking. Not a very exciting photo (I thought). But when I converted it to a low contrast black and white image, it looked better to me. I masked in the coke bottle colors, posted this image on flickr, and immediately got alot of comments about it including some constructive feedback about the areas with color I masked back into the photo. (I also had some fun at a friends expense who didn't realize the model was my daughter!)
I went back and edited it a little more, made some notes about the edits and reposted this at flickr - and got many more comments.
Right now, a couple years later, despite all the other images I have posted on flickr I think are much better, this remains one of my top two most viewed (and commented on and "favorited") images on flickr (the other being a photo of USA Olympic Boxer Deontay Wilder).
Go figure.
A couple months later I was doing some self training in a couple aspects of photoshop I wanted to spend more time on, and I used this photo as a test for one of the things I wanted to play more with: masking. Not a very exciting photo (I thought). But when I converted it to a low contrast black and white image, it looked better to me. I masked in the coke bottle colors, posted this image on flickr, and immediately got alot of comments about it including some constructive feedback about the areas with color I masked back into the photo. (I also had some fun at a friends expense who didn't realize the model was my daughter!)
I went back and edited it a little more, made some notes about the edits and reposted this at flickr - and got many more comments.
Right now, a couple years later, despite all the other images I have posted on flickr I think are much better, this remains one of my top two most viewed (and commented on and "favorited") images on flickr (the other being a photo of USA Olympic Boxer Deontay Wilder).
Go figure.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
jimmy thackery, crystola roadhouse
Here's a review of Jimmy Thackery I did for the Gazette a week or so ago when he played the Crystola Roadhouse in Woodland Park:
Jimmy Thackery is slowly making his way through the crowded room in the Crystola Bar and Grill toward the stage in relative anonymity. He can easily be mistaken for somebody’s uncle: amiable, chatting with a few friends, in no hurry to get anywhere. As he gets up on stage and pulls out his beat up ‘64 strat and slips into a pair of sunglasses he adopts a serious game face that leads bassist Mark Bumgarner and drummer Russ Wilson through a set of songs including covers and material from across several of Jimmy’s albums.
This is my first time seeing Thackery live, and it doesn’t disappoint me: the blend of tones and styles that have made Jimmy Thackery a legend in the blues community is all there. Known to be hard to classify musically, Thackery pulls in elements of bluesy surf rock using classic vibrato and reverb through numbers that feature him playing fast rock riffs complete with southern rock harmonics as accents. Not to ignore the blues purists, measures of primitive clean notes that somehow merge with slow meaningful weeping blues show that he’s internalized not just the notes but the passion of past great blues players.
His eclectic styles verge on the bizarre, but they all seem to work: westernized surf-rock, blues mixed with country, Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix, Thackery’s all over the board. Dragging shuffles, cowboy honky-tonk, boogie-woogie, Texas swing, upbeat 12-bar blues, it’s was all there and the crowd loved it!
Splitting about half the numbers between instrumentals and songs with vocals featuring Russ Wilson or Thackery himself, the band is totally comfortable working the crowd. Between songs the band good naturedly heckles back and forth with members of the audience, and right in the middle of one song featuring Wilson in a slow heartfelt vocal number, he stops to admonish a group of women who laughed over something at their table leading to a moment of pretend-pouting by Wilson which gets the crowd (totally laughing and encouraging him to get back to the song) totally engaged. In a later segue between numbers, Thackery played a long extend soulful blues solo that ended with some blistering riffs blowing the hair on people in the back of the room when he stopped and pulled a James Brown fainting shtick stumbling back into the drums as laughter and cat-calls mixed with heavy applause.
The snow outside, the warmth and cheer inside, and solid music made this night rowdy, raucous, and fun!
Jimmy Thackery is slowly making his way through the crowded room in the Crystola Bar and Grill toward the stage in relative anonymity. He can easily be mistaken for somebody’s uncle: amiable, chatting with a few friends, in no hurry to get anywhere. As he gets up on stage and pulls out his beat up ‘64 strat and slips into a pair of sunglasses he adopts a serious game face that leads bassist Mark Bumgarner and drummer Russ Wilson through a set of songs including covers and material from across several of Jimmy’s albums.
This is my first time seeing Thackery live, and it doesn’t disappoint me: the blend of tones and styles that have made Jimmy Thackery a legend in the blues community is all there. Known to be hard to classify musically, Thackery pulls in elements of bluesy surf rock using classic vibrato and reverb through numbers that feature him playing fast rock riffs complete with southern rock harmonics as accents. Not to ignore the blues purists, measures of primitive clean notes that somehow merge with slow meaningful weeping blues show that he’s internalized not just the notes but the passion of past great blues players.
His eclectic styles verge on the bizarre, but they all seem to work: westernized surf-rock, blues mixed with country, Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix, Thackery’s all over the board. Dragging shuffles, cowboy honky-tonk, boogie-woogie, Texas swing, upbeat 12-bar blues, it’s was all there and the crowd loved it!
Splitting about half the numbers between instrumentals and songs with vocals featuring Russ Wilson or Thackery himself, the band is totally comfortable working the crowd. Between songs the band good naturedly heckles back and forth with members of the audience, and right in the middle of one song featuring Wilson in a slow heartfelt vocal number, he stops to admonish a group of women who laughed over something at their table leading to a moment of pretend-pouting by Wilson which gets the crowd (totally laughing and encouraging him to get back to the song) totally engaged. In a later segue between numbers, Thackery played a long extend soulful blues solo that ended with some blistering riffs blowing the hair on people in the back of the room when he stopped and pulled a James Brown fainting shtick stumbling back into the drums as laughter and cat-calls mixed with heavy applause.
The snow outside, the warmth and cheer inside, and solid music made this night rowdy, raucous, and fun!
Monday, November 2, 2009
unintended consequences
I had a senior session last week & while editing the images I had a mistake happen in one of my photoshop editing actions I had created some time ago. The mistake made this alarmingly cool but stark black and white image (and it wasn't supposed to!) so I went back and tried to duplicate it.
I couldn't get the action to "break" the same way again. I used to have a saying back in my tech days: "software doesn't break". This is generally true, but the data given any piece of software may cause it to have unintended consequences.
As I went back and reedited this photo from scratch, I applied about half of the effect of the action that broke... doing it manually step by step again.
Sometimes working on a photo, you drift into the feeling of the image so much that the edits kind of force themselves into a certain direction. I got to a point with this photo where I just needed to stop. There was alot of direction I could have gone with this image, but just extrapolating from the whole vibe here, her expression, the glare, the reality of the harshness of light and perhaps other subtle things going on under the surface, I decided the image itself dictated it's edit to me, so I felt it showed "unintended consequences".
Monday, October 26, 2009
Dotsero
Dotsero
Stargazers Theater & Event Center
Ok, I might be in love with Stargazers Theatre, it's a great venue. Perfect size for those mid-tier acts that need a "bigger than a bar, smaller than an arena" performace center. Pikes Peak Center is the next step up in size locally, I guess, but Stargazers is just about perfect for everything else.
Owners John and Cindy Hooten have been consistantly updating things a little at a time since taking it over in early 2009. The building's been around since the 60's, originally built as a Lowes Theatre, but in later years becoming a church, the "Colorado Opry", an all-night rave location and a church again (I think that's the order). It's considerably cleaned up.
Stargazers can be set up for dining in the main auditorium just in front of the stage, cocktails, dancing, or just for additional seating. When set for just seating I think they max out at 500 seats. I've been there 3 times in the last month for a blues act (Tommy Castro), a rock/blues act (Jake Loggins) and one jazz act (Dotsero), and I could see incremental improvements every time I've been in there.
Stargazers can be booked for business and civic events, too.
For more info, and to see their upcoming schedule of event see their web site here: http://www.stargazerstheater.com/.
Owners John and Cindy Hooten have been consistantly updating things a little at a time since taking it over in early 2009. The building's been around since the 60's, originally built as a Lowes Theatre, but in later years becoming a church, the "Colorado Opry", an all-night rave location and a church again (I think that's the order). It's considerably cleaned up.
Stargazers can be set up for dining in the main auditorium just in front of the stage, cocktails, dancing, or just for additional seating. When set for just seating I think they max out at 500 seats. I've been there 3 times in the last month for a blues act (Tommy Castro), a rock/blues act (Jake Loggins) and one jazz act (Dotsero), and I could see incremental improvements every time I've been in there.
Stargazers can be booked for business and civic events, too.
For more info, and to see their upcoming schedule of event see their web site here: http://www.stargazerstheater.com/.
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