Tuesday, January 25, 2011

JJ Grey & MOFRO, The Variety Playhouse, and my iPhone

This past Saturday I was at the sold out JJ Grey and MOFRO show at the Variety playhouse with my friends Melissa and Laurie. It was such a good time for all of us I think -- they put on a amazing show -- and we were literally right up on the stage. Like me, JJ Grey is from North Florida -- so he sings about things I can relate to -- like loving ho cakes. He has a loyal fan following; and those fans seemed to be pretty mellow people, my kind of people. I haven't had that much fun at a concert in a long time. Check out these shots I took and edited with my iPhone while there:

All shots are seen here in the reverse order that I took them in. To view the shots a little larger just click on them:

He is singing a song here called "King Hummingbird". It's a lament to a hummingbird he needlessly shot and killed as a kid. So soulful and beautiful. Here is a link to him performing it live -- but I highly recommend you go to iTunes and download it. You can thank me later. It's so gorgeous and sad at the same time. The whole album is worth buying really.

He has a awesome horn section; they were getting down with it.

One of my favorite shots of the night.
He is a great guitar player, singer and harp player. I think he plays drums and piano too, he just didn't at the show. You can see how much of himself he puts into it when he plays though. The dude is a amazing musician.




This is him describing how his mom looked the first time she heard a song played on the radio that is on his new album; while he was in the car with her. It's called Slow, Hot & Sweaty. It's probably the dirtiest song you will ever hear that has no curse words in it.  "Get your girl pregnant just listenin' to it..."

Another favorite shot from the show.




And another favorite shot from the show.

His pedal steel and slide player -- he is not lacking in talent either.

You just gotta love a company that decides to call themselves "Trailer Trash".
Trailer Trash, LLC = Funny



Laurie ask me to get a shot of his boots -- so this one is for her.

Another favorite shot.





My first shot of the night taken during the first song of the set. Also a favorite.

As you can see, I was literally right up on the stage to have gotten these shots with my phone. It amazes me what kind of work you can do with an iPhone these days. Sure I could have made them better had I shot them with one of my actual cameras and edited them in Photoshop -- but it's much faster and fun when you do stuff like this with a iPhone. 

They were filming for a live DVD at this show, and I suspect my face is gonna be seen in it more than a few times since there was a stationary camera pointed right at JJ Grey's back and my face the whole time. I will be buying that DVD though -- how could I not considering that it was such a good show, right?

Also check out the local Atlanta band that opened for them called Ponderosa -- they put on an excellent show too. I was impressed enough with them that I bought one of their albums after the show.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! Keith AMAZING photos as usual! My favorite, the first one of the night you took. You have quite a gift, my friend. Wish I was there!

Unknown said...

Keith, thank you for sharing your review and photos from that show! wow, an iphone does take some pretty fantasic shots!! I love black and white. I was wondering if I could copy and paste this link on The Front Porch (the fan's forum) at www.mofrofans.com ? It is an amazing website for the fans of JJ Grey & M*O*F*R*O and hope you stop on by and pull up a chair!

Peace,
Sunshine

Keith Taylor Photography said...

Thanks Anonymous, whoever you may be. You're comment has me thinking about who all I know that says, "my friend"in conversation with others. The compliment is appreciated regardless though.

Karla, I like to think that I am the one that takes the fantastic shots -- the iPhone just allows me to capture what I have in my head reasonably well considering it is a tiny camera built into a phone that does all sorts of other cool stuff. Please do feel free post the link on The Front Porch. I will check out the forum too -- thanks for making me aware of it.

Unknown said...

I hope I didn't offend you when I said the iphone takes good photos, I am an avid amataer photographer myself and realize that the photograph in indeed created in the mind of the photog and captured with the camera itself.

And thanks for letting me post your link!

Peace
Sunshine

Keith Taylor Photography said...

Haha, no Karla, it takes much more than that to offend me. Professional photographers have people say to them, "Wow, your camera takes great shots!" all the time. So it's something we joke about. And it's important to point out to people that a good camera can help -- but it's ultimately who is shooting with it. Some people are just not aware of this. It's kinda like somebody that is a crappy guitar player thinking that a better guitar will make them sound better. The sound comes more from the guitarists fingers than anything else. If you suck at playing on a crappy rig -- you will still suck at playing on the best guitar and amp money will buy.But a good guitarist (like JJ Grey) should be able to pick up a piece of crap guitar and make it sound amazing as long as the basics of the guitar are in working order.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Keith....I was standing right behind you for the show. These are amazing! It was a great night and an awesome show! Thanks for posting these.

Keith Taylor Photography said...

Hey Missy! Thanks for the compliment on my shots and you're welcome. It was good to meet you and Brooke there -- that show was a good time for sure.

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Anonymous said...

I love your photos Keith, especially the one of the Panhandlers. You have a special talent that I really admire. That's why I chose you to be my teacher....gk