I've been watching the the new Ken Burns documentary, “Country Music,” lately on PBS. The show suggests that country music has a common thread that spans each its iterations. The music offers lyrics that make the listener become an active partner. Such stories were originally found in everyday life, though they gradually became cliché. Around the late 1960s or early … [Read more...] about Top Hat: Lucero and its disruptive country; pop music should take note

Dirtwire is a band of three musicians who met in their student days at the California Institute of Arts. Each are members of other bands, including Beats Antique, The Dogon Lights and Jed and Lucia. As a result, they're steeped in the experimental world of electronica music. As Dirtwire, the three bring the live stage experience a step further by playing a multitude of … [Read more...] about Dirtwire “steeped in the experimental world of electronica music”

When you're a street musician busking in the subway of New York City, you hope to get cash to pay some bills. Maybe you dream of getting noticed and playing on a stage. Perhaps you get lucky and a random passerby records a video of you playing, and he or she posts it to Youtube. True story. When you're a fan of music living in Montana, and you're turned on to an … [Read more...] about Too Many Zooz brings a touch of NYC to Missoula with jazz, funk, Cuban mix

Ahead of the season's first winter storm, the night was cold, windy and threatening rain, but a sold-out audience didn't care. Robert Plant had come to town. Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters warmed the hearts and memories of the Baby Boomer crowd. Plant, of Led Zeppelin fame, has not rested on that history. Over the years, he has collaborated with … [Read more...] about Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters land in Missoula

I am always looking for compelling visual imagery when photographing live music concerts, whether coming form the lighting effects or the energy a performer projects from the stage. The challenge for me is to show the feeling that the crowd experiences in the moment. The major performers of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) will almost always come to town with great lighting — … [Read more...] about The bright lights of EDM band Rufus du Sol “made my camera happy”