Live Music from Saint Louis

Looking back on the time before the pandemic, when you didn’t think twice about going to events, rubbing shoulders and sharing air with strangers… I used to have the best gig in town. I photographed and reviewed concerts in St. Louis for the community radio station, KDHX. I got to see many of my favorite artists and others who became my favorite as I stared up at them from the photo pit. I was the annoying one blocking the front row of paying ticket-holders for the first 3 songs of the show; trying to find my angles with a moving target, low light and several other photographers next to me trying to get the same shot. I was the one wading through mud at the music festival, ears ringing for days after standing directly in front of the massive speakers, staying up all night to get the review written within 24 hours of the show.

And I absolutely loved it.

Dolly Parton

Between songs she walked us through the story of her life, growing up in the Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee with eleven siblings all under the roof of a one-room cabin. She explained that her look mimics the "town trollop" she idolized as a little girl. Her grandfather, a pentecostal preacher, encouraged her to dress more modestly. He asked her, "Don't you want to go to heaven?" Dolly replied, "Yeah, but do I have to look like hell to get there?"

David Byrne: American Utopia

All twelve musicians were barefooted, wireless, dressed in gray suits and dancing in choreographed lines making circles and pinwheels like a marching band. And there wasn’t a bad seat in the house; it was advantageous to be in the nosebleeds where you could see the designs.

John Prine

There were several moments between songs when people in the crowd would yell out requests for their favorites. At one point Prine gave in with good humor, "Well, I better play this one next, cause it sounds like that guy is double parked."

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

Isbell tells a story of a time when he and Shires were in separate rooms on opposite ends of a small house writing music. It was during a time when they were still getting to know each other. He wrote a song for her and they met in the middle to hear what each other was working on. He said, "My wife will put up with a lot of things, but a piece of shit song isn't one of them. She's a music critic, but thankfully she liked it."