Every month or so the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine hosts a concert with some of the best musicians around. October’s show was on Halloween night and there was certainly a bit of fun with the theme (it also provided the perfect context/excuse for numerous death ballads…) Special guest for the evening was Kathy Mattea, accompanied by Bill Cooley. Also sitting in with the Stone Mountain Boys, direct from Ireland, was Frank Gallagher. I’m privileged to have permission to photograph these shows.
Photos from the show can be found on my SMAC gallery page.
The SMAC stage isn’t brightly lit, so photography is always a challenge. Through a combination of planning and good fortune I was able to move a bit during the show (normally I’m very much stuck in one spot) and that allowed for some angles I’ve never been able to shoot from before. (With all of the music stands, it was the only way to get pictures of some of the band.) During my review of the photos from the show a number of them were calling out to me to live as black and white images. Some worked in both color and black&white, but for a few the presence of color was just a distraction.
A few of my favorite portraits of these wonderful artists in action are here and you can see the full set (just over 20 photographs): Stone Mountain LIVE Artist Portraits
I hope you enjoy this slightly different take on the evening’s performances.
That’s Duke Levine and Kevin Barry at the top of the page followed by Duke’s Telecaster.
By far my favorite photo of the evening was this picture of Frank Gallagher playing the violin. Bill Cooley’s guitar caught my eye.
Kathy Mattea and Bill Cooley.
Kathy Mattea and Chris Cote.
SMAC’s owner and host for the evening, Carol Noonan.
As always my thanks to Carol for allowing me to photograph the show, to the SMAC staff for sitting me in my preferred perch, to the band and artists for a great night of music, and finally to Kathy Mattea for her kind permission to photograph her performance at SMAC.
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