Shaky Knees Festival - Day 3

As the final night of the 2015 Shaky Knees Festival wound down it was clear that this is a festival that has come into its own at a fantastic new location here at Central Park in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta. There were so many stellar sets all weekend that it was hard to pick favorites, but today, sets by Ride, The Both, Xavier Rudd and the United Nations, Ryan Adams and today's headliner, Tame Impala were far and away some fan favorites. As the final notes of the weekend echoed off the midtown buildings the crowd filed out already making plans for next year.

CNN story

Would love to work with a great local blog or paper, but there's not a lot of them. Maybe it's time to start one? Anyone have any favorites here in Atlanta they're a regular reader of?

Gear: Nikon D810 / Lenses: 24mm-70mm f/2.8,

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Shaky Knees Festival - Day 2

The second day of the Shaky Knees festival had such a strong lineup of bands that I made sure I got there when the gates opened so I didn't miss a thing, and even then with multiple bands playing at the same time I was bound to miss a few favorites. As it was I got to see Wilco, Interpol, Social Distortion, Black Lips, Real Estate and a ton more.

CNN story

Would love to work with a great local blog or paper, but there's not a lot of them. Maybe it's time to start one? Anyone have any favorites here in Atlanta they're a regular reader of?

Gear: Nikon D810 / Lenses: 24mm-70mm f/2.8,

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Shaky Knees Festival - Day 1

Tonight was the first night of the 2015 Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, GA. It featured almost 30 bands including The Strokes, Pixies, TV on the Radio, Mac DeMarco and Atlanta's own Mastodon, The weather was hot and sunny and the crowd soaked up the sun, sampled the food trucks and danced until the very last note.

I had a blast shooting these bands and I met a ton of great folks. I submitted this set to CNN and they picked it up!

CNN story

Would love to work with a great local blog or paper, but there's not a lot of them. Maybe it's time to start one? Anyone have any favorites here in Atlanta they're a regular reader of?

Gear: Nikon D810 / Lenses: 24mm-70mm f/2.8,

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A Few Pics from the Weekend in Florida.

I really should've dragged my camera around this weekend. I went down to FL to catch up with Family and to shoot some portraits for That One Guitar! We did a bit of cleaning out in the garage and rode all over town doing a little sightseeing.

25/100

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Sweetwater 420 Festival

Last weekend I had the opportunity to cover the Sweetwater 420 Festival at Centennial Park here in Atlanta, GA. There was a great lineup of music all weekend, so I jumped at the chance. Almost immediately it was clear that with all the rain, the weekend was going to be a muddy mess, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of everyone that attended one bit.

With all the rain and mud the biggest challenge was keeping the camera dry and safe, but with a good rain coat and a few gallon size Hefty zip lock bags I was able to keep things mostly high and dry. The only thing I lost to the mud this weekend was a pair of jeans and Chuck Taylors.

Cameras: Nikon D810, Fuji x100s

Lenses: 24mm-70mm f/2.8, 70mm-200mm f/2.8

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A Proper video from the BeAtlanta House Show

From the BeAtlanta Site: 

This video was recorded by our great friend Robert Valentine (of Atlanta Film Scene) last Friday, March 27th. It was the 2nd house show in our charity unplugged series this year. The video is the singer, John McNicholas, of Atlanta band The Sunset District playing to an intimate crowd of Beatlanta fans. Needless to say it was quite an awesome night filled with some very awesome music and good times with new and old friends. The Beatlanta House on FacEBOoK.

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SHOW TONIGHT UP IN SUWANEE, GA! FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL!

Hey friends, just a quick note to let you know we'll be playing a full band show up in Suwanee, GA! Here's all the details.

TOWN CENTER MUSIC IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE 2015 SUWANEE FOOD TRUCK FRIDAY CONCERT SERIES!

It would be an understatement to say that Suwanee’s Food Truck Fridays have been a hit- the first Friday of the spring to fall months has become a fixture on many foodie calendars to come and enjoy some of the best mobile edibles Atlanta has to offer. In that spirit, we wanted to offer you the best local music Atlanta has to offer. We’ve booked some of the coolest local bands to be the soundtrack to your noshing. 

littlebrother - 7:00pm
The Sunset District - 8:15pm

Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/towncentermusic/sets/2015-food-truck-friday-concert

The tentative food truck line-up for April includes Atlanta Chamos Grill, Down the Bayou Cajun Cuisine, Freckled and Blue, Happy Belly, King of Pops, Mac the Cheese, Pressed for Time, On Tapa the World, Tasting Maine, Tracy's Tasties, and Yolis Street Food.

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The Good Graces Go West! New Orleans! SXSW! Austin!

We loaded up the Honda Element with gear and hit the road with The Good Graces about 10 days ago and headed out to play some shows for folks in New Orleans and Austin, TX. We played a long set and had a great first night at Igor's Checkpoint Charlie with our new friends, Polly Pry. Beers were had, dogs were kissed,  music was played and someone gave us a $200 tip. We stayed at a very cute AirBnB with a cute old Silverstream-like trailer in the front yard.

Pictures from New Orleans

 

The next day we rolled into Austin, Texas in the evening, grabbed some pizza at Home Slice and rested up for our show the next day. Up and at it early, we headed over to El Sapo where we met everyone from Music for Listeners and settled in with some amazing drinks and just as fantastic food. So, so good. We had a great time playing and hanging out all day. After our set we grabbed a table and saw Be Forest, Spring King, Hinds, The Parrots, Wilsen, and Emmy the Great. Everyone was fantastic! After the day party ended we headed back to the house, unloaded the car and headed out to see Bookclub, our friends from Atlanta perform at Love Goat. Feeling totally exhausted by the ended the night we finished up our Austin experience with some late night tacos at Guero's. Such a fun trip. Hope we can get back out this way again sometime soon.

Check out some pic and a video or our set.

21/100

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House Party Video from the BeAtlanta Show

Hey! I played a house party for BeAtlanta that benefited Wounded Warriors, we raised a bunch of money and I donated 50% of mercy proceeds to the cause. If you missed it have a look and listen to the video below. It would be weird to just look, but if that's your thing I won't judge you.

20/100

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New headphones at work = sanity restored

Back in the 90s when I worked at Thoroughbred Music I won a sales contest, a set of AKG K-44 headphones. Since I already had a pair of good studio headphones, which I still have and use for recording, I kept these in the box until this morning. Man, these sound really good and I can't hear any of the non-stop talking that going on here in the office. Why did I wait this long? New headphones at work = sanity restored. 

18/100

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2 solo shows this week!

Hey friends, I've got 2 singer/songwriter shows in the next week. Swing by if you can and if you can work in the phrase "greased lightning" I'll buy you a beer. Shhhhh... don't tell anyone.

Here's the deets:

Monday, February 17th @ The Roswell Tap in Roswell, GA - 9:30pm - 10:00pm

Sunday, February 22nd @ Keegan's Public House in Kennesaw, GA - 9:00pm - 9:30pm

Both shows are free and both places have great food and drinks.

 

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The Good Graces live on WREK

Hey, we played live on the radio! The mini-Good Graces with me, Kim and Monica headed over Tuesday night, got set up and strummed some tunes for you on the air. I especially loved the Q&A at the end of the show. The students did a great job!

17/100

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The Good Graces North Carolina Mini Tour

It's always a good weekend we you can jump in the car and play some music for some new friends in some new towns and this weekend was no exception. On Friday The Good Graces headed up to Brevard and Shelby, North Carolina to play a few multi-set shows at the Oskar Brewery and the Dragonfly Wine Market in Brevard and Shelby respectively and bring the music to the masses.

Friday night, The Oskar Brewery was alive with a boisterous vibe with the beer flowing freely, hearty laughs with buckets of peanuts on every table. Ken Voltz from the Brevard Area Music Scene came out and shot a video and took a few pictures. He and his wife were very nice.

After the show we immediately headed to Shelby, NC and stayed with Kim's parents. They are so incredibly nice! The next day we kicked around a bit. I helped Kim shoot some footage for a Theme Music song she was working on out in a big field. Check out the video below.

Next up we headed into downtown Shelby where we stopped by the Shelby Music Center for strings where we got a big story about the guy that runs the factory, before arriving at the Dragonfly Wine Marker to get set up and partake in their beer tasting event. 

After setting up we walked around downtown a bit, took some pics and then returned to play a few sets. Super fun and the folks that own that place could not have been nicer. 

16/100

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