Posts Tagged ‘bluegrass’

For the past few years I’ve taken a “Photo Trip” on New Years Day. Never really having a plan, I’ve ended up everywhere from Eastern Kentucky to Southern Indiana. I’ve recently run into a problem in that I’ve taken so many one day trips that I’ve “day tripped” to every state and county within 150 miles of Fort Thomas. So this year I decided to skip my normal New Years Day trip and planned a 2 day West Virgina trip. I spent a week or so planning my route and decided on hitting 16 Mail Pouch barns throughout West Virginia. Starting directly east of Cincinnati via route 32, then shooting north to Morgantown, West Virginia the first day, then around Morgantown and southwest towards home the second. The first day was not so successful as I discovered barns were missing and I had bad GPS data for some so I thought my 16 barns in 2 days was just a dream.

The first day ended with a visit with my bluegrass friends Trae and Jamie Lynn Buckner. I met Trae and Jamie Lynn a few years back when they played at Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival and have become a big fan of their band “The Hillbilly Gypsies” ever since. If you like traditional “ol’ tymie” bluegrass you should check them out!

Day two of my trip took me searching north of Morgantown. Day two also taught me that West Virginia in not so friendly to iPhones. After locating and shooting a couple of barns I was headed to my third “subject” of the day when I totally lost my signal and ended up in Pennsylvania. Once I had a decent signal I was 20 miles into Pennsylvania and decided to Google my way to some Pennsylvania barns. I soon discovered that southern Pennsylvania is full of Mail Pouch barns so I decided to forgo my planned route. Deciding to discover Pennsylvania was a good choice because the barns I shot there took me over my original 16. I ended up shooting a total of 21 Mail Pouch barns in 2 days!

I’m aware that most of you reading this story are not as into Mail Pouch barns as I am, and typically a road trip like this one would include some other nice countryside shots. But this trip was all about getting as many Mail Pouches as I could, so for those people I say “Get over it”, I’m sick that way! And as I tell Betsy, “It could be worse, I could have a lot worse hobbies”.

Here’s my 21 Mail Pouch barns gallery. Enjoy!

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Fall is the bluegrass time of year for me. I just got back from Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival, and shortly before that I was at Mandolin Farm Bluegrass Festival.

Since I’ve been around so many of my bluegrass fans recently I thought I’d post a link to a bunch of past galleries from festivals and shows I’ve shot. I have been asked if I have a place where you can go to see photos from “just bluegrass shows”. I’m not sure if that means they don’t care for my other photography, or they just love bluegrass, but I’m happy to oblige.

The link below is to a gallery of quite a few shows. I’ll be digging out from my archives and adding to it until everything I’ve ever shot is uploaded. Stop back often and check up on where I am in the process. I’ll be adding shows from 1998 up until just tonight’s show at the Richwood Opry.

Be sure to pass this along to any of your friends, family or festival owners.

Here’s my entire Bluegrass Music Collection. Enjoy!

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Mandolin Farm Bluegrass Festival is back! Despite missing last year due to personal reasons, and this year’s 100º Labor Day weekend weather, owner and promoter Willie Jarrells pulled off another great weekend of bluegrass entertainment.

Although Mandolin Farm is a fairly young festival, it has become one of the favorites of festival goers looking for great bluegrass music in a family friendly setting. From the moment you pull up to the main gate at Mandolin Farm you know you’re among family. After all, who, other than family, would actually help you set up your camper? Or for that matter set it up all the way for you, as you sit and watch? And the staff doesn’t disappear after they set you up. Help is always within a few minutes away at “The Farm”, from Willie’s dad helping out with electric to his uncle taking deposits for your site next year.

Beyond a first-class staff, you’ll also find top-notch bluegrass music at Mandolin Farm. Rhonda Vincent, IIIrd Tyme Out, Mountain Heart, Ralph Stanley, Marty Raybon and Dailey & Vincent are among the many great acts that have entertained crowds at Mandolin Farm. And in case you’ve not had enough bluegrass after the music stops on stage, you can always catch one of the many jams throughout the campsites. This year one of the favorites were the Weary Jammers. As host band, the Jammers entertained the crowd on stage for two shows on both Friday and Sunday as well as playing late into the night off stage.

If you’re looking for a great festival with the best of facilities, great music and a staff that make you feel like family, then you should put Mandolin Farm on your list of “must attend” events.

Check out the entire gallery here. Enjoy!

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Bluegrass friends have told me for years that I should check out the Appalachian Uprising Bluegrass Festival. So when I saw that Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, one of my favorites, was playing at the Uprising I decided this was my year to check it out. Great decision! I have been to both very large and very small festivals and I’d put this one right in the mix of the top festivals in the country. The lineup was, and always been great for a festival of this size. You’d have to be a bluegrass fan to understand, but I’m always amazed that national acts play at such small venues. To those not into bluegrass, it would be like, say the Eagles playing at your county fair. The main difference is of course the Eagles would not come out afterwards and jam with their fans. But that’s just bluegrass!

The one thing that stood out to me about this festival was that it was attended by not just bluegrass fans, but due to the lineup also included a rather “different” crowd. I’ve never been to a Grateful Dead show, but after the Uprising, I feel like I’ve experienced something rather close to one. A good part of the crowd was “Deadhead Like”. The other thing that stood out to me was that a lot of the younger non-bluegrass types brought their children. There were tons kids running around all weekend. Not teenagers, but younger. As you’ll see in the galleries, the kids really caught my eye. Not that kids aren’t at most bluegrass festivals, but as you’ll see in the photos, the “bluegrass kids” have never stood out to me like these kid.

Lastly, I should mention that the lineup met every expectation. As I noted, Nitty Gritty Dirt band is one of my favorites so there are a ton of shots of them playing. John McEuen (banjo player) even came over to me during one of the songs and asked that I get a shot of him showing the head of his new Deering banjo. Then gave me his business card to send it to him. Sam Bush was great as usual. And of course Del McCuory Band was great. Del even played with Sam Bush for a few.

If you’ve never been to the Uprising, put it on your list of must see shows!

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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Ok, so that’s a goofy reference to a Willie Nelson song. But since it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to BluegrassPhotography.Net  I thought I’d start this post out goofy.

It’s been a while because the weather here in the Cinicinnati Tri-State area has been horrible. Although we know it could be worse. All we’ve had to deal with is rain every day. If we think that’s bad, we need to think about the people in the mid-west that have had everything taken away from them by Mother Nature’s furry.  As a matter of fact, this post is dedicated to them!

Back to the photograph….. For some unknown reason, I find myself shooting the “Big Mac” bridge quite often. I have no idea why. It’s not like I have a thing for McDonald’s. As a matter of fact, unless I’m desperate I won’t even eat there. I do however drive past, or over the “Big Mac” every morning so I guess it catches my attention. On this particular morning I approached the river and saw the fog, so I decided to head towards the riverfront in Bellevue and see if there was a good shot to be had. I ended up on Don Pablo’s deck at 7:30 in the morning to grab this image.

For those “photo geeks” out there, this image is comprised of 20 vertical shots stitched together to create a 13000 x 4000 pixel image at 72 dpi! For those non-photo geeks, it’s big enough to make a 200″ x 60″ photograph!

Again, as we complain about our weather…. it could be worse! Please keep the mid-west tornado victims in your prayers and if you find it in your heart to help financially you can do so here.

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I never win anything! Except… John Prine tickets in Ashland, Kentucky.

A FaceBook friend turned me on to a radio contest in Morehead, Kentucky to win tickets to the John Prine show in Ashland so I signed up thinking, “Here’s just another way of someone getting my contact information, to be used to fill my spam box for the next 10 years”. But no, I actually won. As I said, I never win anything like this so I was really excited. I mean, John Prine, and I won something.

So the debate started. Who should I take? My wife, who knows not one John Prine song? My son, who loves John Prine? My buddy Ken, who is such a fan he’s seen John Prine before most of us knew who John Prine was? Ken’s seen his share, Michael has had his share of free shows with dad, so once I made Betsy a “best of John Prine” CD and she thought it was “good”, the wife was the choice!

Unfortunately, since I was honest and asked about bringing in my camera, and turned down, you don’t get to see any shots of the actual show. But if you’ve been here before and read any of my posts, you know I shot images along the way. Since I’ve driven the AA highway dozens of times most of the shots are from right around and in Ashland. I really didn’t have a ton of shooting time but thought I’d share what I did end up shooting. Of course there’s a Mail Pouch Barn. But there’s also some shots of the Paramount Theater, the venue the show was at. The Paramount was an awesome theater that I would have loved to shoot interior shots of, but again, they wouldn’t allow me to take my “professional” camera in even though there were hundreds of people shooting during the show, with “amateur” cameras. There’s also a few shots of downtown Ashland as well.

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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Every September for the past 12 years I have ventured off to the Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Morehead, Kentucky. I started off the first year as a “Poppy Virgin” only going for the closing weekend but over the years have become the “Poppy-razzi” on the mountain. As the “official” photographer I once again went nuts with the camera this year. Although still haven’t come close to my record 2400 shots taken a couple of years ago.

I’d like to thank Marty Stevens for bringing back our old Poppy Mountain! We have missed it over the past few years. I’d also like to thank all my friends on Poppy for putting up with me always having my camera in their face. Especially the jammers trying to play music with my flash going off!

Lastly, I’d like to dedicate this year’s gallery to our old friend Ralph Smith! He was missed this year and will always be in our hearts.

You’ll find all the photos here. Enjoy!

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This should have been posted a while ago! To many photos to edit, not enough time!

This was the second annual summertime festival held at Mandolin Farm, in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. Once again Wille Jarrels put on a great show. Smaller than the regular fall festival but just as enjoyable, this weekend was filled with great music on-stage and in the campground. Nothing beats listening to great jam sessions at Mandolin Farm!

See all the photographs here. Enjoy!

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