The Late Show: Lowry - Transmission Fields

The talk about Saturday nights late show started Friday night a week ago, as friends were gathered and looked forward to the next great weekend of music at The Evening Muse. Don and Laurie Koster both beamed as they looked forward to seeing Lowry, while Michele and the ladies from TripleS went on about the Rock band Transmission Fields.

As I have said before, it's always wise to listen to the voices of experience! This was truly a complete night of musical bliss - and what's better is that each performance was unique!

In short, Lowry was fantastic! I find it hard to describe their sound. It was a folky, rock, country, soulful, electric kind of sound that resulted in us buying 2 CD's - which I find myself listening to on this Monday morning while I process photos and write these thoughts... The lyrical creativity of Alex Lowry is very fresh while the melodies provide the complexity desired and expected from a talented group of musicians. Heidi Sidelinker provides just the right harmony to Alex's voice! Together the band produces a beautiful sound! Check 'em out on their MySpace page - link below.

For some reason or another I have missed various shows by Transmission Fields - a local Charlotte Rock band. Having heard of them for quite some time now, this was an excellent opportunity to catch a show. An added bonus on this night was the fact that they were being joined on stage by singer Reeve Coobs and rock guitarist Adam Middleton of the Stellas. A good rock'n set was a great way to close out this awesome night and Transmission Fields delivered!

Here's a few links:

Lowry performance photos

Transmission Fields performance photos

Lowry MySpace

Transmission Fields MySpace

Carolina Music Connection - so you'll know what's comin' up!

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

The Early Show: Amy Speace - Andy Friedman

Saturday night, the 25th, was a great night for music at Charlottes "Evening Muse". It seems that every fall the music just gets better all around Charlotte!

The Early show at the Muse featured Amy Speace as the artist first up at 8PM. Amy and her band, The Tearjerks, performed many of the tunes found on her CD "Songs For Bright Street", which we of course purchased at the show!

Photos of Amy Speace can be seen via this link.

Following Amy was fellow New Yorker Andy Friedman & The Other Failures. Andy and his band of muse brothers played some ole slow folk country for the local crowd.

Photos of Andy Friedman can be seen via this link.

Until next time..

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Shana & The Swizzlers

Shana and The Swizzlers returned to The Evening Muse Friday night to a packed house who were treated to an awesome show of bluesy soul singing by Shana Blake.

Shana's voice is powerful, yet elegant, as she covers a wide range of American rock ballads and blues favorites. What a wonderful talent Charlotte has in this lovely young lady.

If you've never been out to see one of this bands shows, you owe it to yourself to get out do so. You'll be rockin!!

Some photos from the show can be found at this link.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Musicians Portfolio

Jupiter One

"Let's stay up late!" - The battle cry from my friends Don and Laurie Koster from Carolina Music Connection. When they recommend a band you can bet it's worth stayin' up for!

Tonight was no exception. The chairs at The Evening Muse were moved to one side to clear the floor for some dancing and jumping around. NYC band Jupiter One rocked the house with many of the tunes on their CD entitled "Jupiter One".

Led by frontman singer/songwriter/Vocalist on the guitars/violin/piano K Ishibashi are band members Zac Colwell (guitar, vocals, flute), Pat Dougherty (Bass) and Dave Heilman on the drums.

Here's a link to some photos from the show.

Monty Chandler
Musicians Portfolio

Jessica Lea Mayfield

Jessica Lea Mayfield performed most every song from her new CD titled "With Blasphemy So Heartfelt" Friday night at The Evening Muse. A unique sound of near-term despair ironically comes from a teenager of perhaps 19 who has a pretty and cute little smile.

It's probable we'll still be listening to Jessica in 20 years time.

A few photos from the show can be seen via this link.

Cheers,

Monty

Musicians Portfolio

Reinvent the Wheel?

I've recently been confronted with some challenging questions from new acquaintenances. They have involved some really good people asking some really good questions of me to which I have really not had very good answers. The questions - very tactfully put - have revolved around when, if, or why, I haven't made it easier and more transparent for people to buy prints of my images if they want to. Or even to buy the image so they can make their own prints if they want to, under appropriate license of course.

My approach to this has been that I like to deal with the folks that buy a print to ensure they are satisfied with the result. Kind of the personal touch if you will. Turns out some folks don't see it that way. What I've been told is that the touchy feely stuff is really good during the time of taking the photos, but once taken, processed and posted, my new friends point out that selecting and printing is a commodity process that they feel more comfortable doing without needing to deal with anyone else.

I have to admit that I was uneasy, but I listened. What's more I think I understand and get it! So, what I've been researching is various ways to make the business end of purchasing as transparent as possible. That's where the title of this entry came from. I found that I could reinvent the wheel by setting up my own web-based store and merchant processing account - or - I could use some existing services. I'll be honest, I didn't like most of the 3rd party providers I looked into.

That's when I ran into a site called Smugmug. I know the name is corny, but the service is superior to anything I have seen to date. Not only do they support a professionally outsourced printing agency, but they support the online acquisition of the digital image along with personal and business use licensing, as well as a variety of gift products that go very well with photographic images.

So the short story is that I have bought into Smugmug and have begun loading images up to the site. It'll take some time to get my portfolios up there, but I wanted to let folks know that I've started this process and would love for people to visit the site and provide me with their feedback.

I hope that you find this a pleasing method to view my images as well as find it a viable option to acquire any prints or products you find desireable.

Here's the link! http://montychandler.smugmug.com/

Cheers,

Monty

Scoot Pittman

Watching and Listening to Scoot Pittman perform is a lot like putting on your best jeans or your favorite tennis shoes. They just plain fit and define comfortable.

Scoot and his music are just that. They fit us and are aligned to our culture and he creates a festive atmosphere where everyone is comfortable and engages in the creative lyrics Scoot most often chooses for his music.

Definitely a southern singer/songwriter and one than has defined his own path, his songs bring about fond memories of growing up in a place where family and togetherness defined the center of your world.

Saturday night was one of those times for me as I heard songs like "Grandpa's Shoes" again and others that reminded me of Sunday after church lunch back in Texas.

I'm fortunate to call Scoot Pittman a friend. I'm certainly a fan of the music he generates and his entertainment work ethic - his shows are all about you.

Here's a link to a page of some photos of Scoot I've taken over of the years, including a selection from Saturday nights show.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Beth Chorneau

Diversity in the musical talent found at The Evening Muse was highlighted Saturday night for me when for the first time I heard the beautiful Jazz voice of Beth Chorneau. Sultry, with a slight latin flare, Miss Chorneau melted the audiences troubles away with song after song of smooth melodies accompanied by her three talented musicians.

I say "Miss" Chorneau as she reminded us a few times of her impending wedding date, which is two weeks away. Best wishes to her as she begins another chapter in the book of life.

A few photos from the show can be found at this link.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Death On Two Wheels

Catchy title huh? Yeah - That's what I thought when I saw it was the name of a band that was playing the late show at The Evening Muse this past Friday night. But at the suggestion of our friends at TripleSBooking, we hung around well past our normal "head home" time so we could see this new talent out of Atlanta. As usual, good recommendations are followed by a good musical set.

Death On Two Wheels have a great ole' rock-n-roll sound led by the raspy, gravelly voice of their lead singer - who stays in tune and on key - and has the ability to smoothly transition to a soulful ballad.

To listen to some of their tunes, checkout their MySpace page.

To see photos from their show use this link.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler