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studiovilla 2002 – 2015
Shooting here really is like being an Art Director in some stylish European film from, well, some other decade. The kind made by guys who wore berets and meant it.
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ToddZilla
Memphis may have had the King, but there’s only one place you’ll find the Prince of Music City. I know I keep going on about all the totally unique personalities that populate Nashville, but seriously. Yes, LA has its share of one-off, just like London and Cannes and the city so nice they named it twice. But None of those places has Toddzilla. He’s a retro rocker, a lover of fine vintage automobiles, a guy with a truly show-stopping do. Memphis may have had the King, but there’s only one place you’ll find the Prince of Music City …
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Slack-key
Randy Kohrs Recording engineer, producer, and operates Slack Key studios in Nashville
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Luna
Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old days Wear a tall hat and a tattooed gown Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltane Wear your hair long, babe you can’t go wrong Wait a minute that’s T Rex, not Luna, but it was what was playing when I shot this image. What you’re playing on set during a shoot can have a significant influence on the outcome… Working with a brand new artist on their 1st project is always fun, generally, they don’t have a major label budget, but that does mean you get…
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Staying For The Weekend
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Rory Rorshak
This guy Rory is another one-of-a-kind character. He’s very modern in so many ways, yet you also get the sense he may have just time-travelled forward fifty or a hundred years to see what planet Earth feels like in the 21st century. His music is the same way – smoky, layered, maybe a bit dangerous even. If this photo had a soundtrack, it’d be the moment-of-truth scene from a spaghetti western. Are you prepared to die señor?
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Long Way From Melbourne
Anne McCue Songwriter, Guitar Player, Producer, Radio Show Host, shot for Nashville Arts magazine.
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The Way I’m Livin’
Lee Ann Womack When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. The Way I’m Livin’ is the eighth studio album by American country music recording artist Lee Ann Womack. The album was released via Sugar Hill Records on September 23, 2014. Artists don’t really make albums like Lee Ann Womack anymore. Albums that seem to exist separate and apart from any external pressures. Albums that possess both a profound sense of history and a clear-eyed vision for the future. Albums that transcend genres while embracing their roots. Albums that evoke a sense of…
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Nashville Arts
Looks Like Rain Iconic Music Photographer John Scarpati Shines a Light on the Dirty Little Secret of Digital Manipulation by Michael Dukes “I really wanted to be a painter. I really wanted to be a rock star. Ultimately, I became neither of these things—and both.” Photograph by Michael Weintraub Is today’s technology blasting open the doors of creative expression or simply providing shortcuts for the lazy and unskilled? Here’s one industry veteran’s surprisingly pragmatic take. As your eyes scan the prints adorning the oversized walls of Scarpati’s Belmont Boulevard studio, two truths quickly emerge. First, the sheer volume of…
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Korby Wan-Kenobi
Korby Lenker looks as good as he sounds Every once in a while I cross paths with an indy artist who just stands head and shoulders above most of the music out there. Korby Lenker is one of those guys. He’s smart, he’s funny, and just a brilliant singer/songwriter/performer/producer/whatever. It’s always fun to help introduce an important new face to the music world, and this assignment was no exception. Check him out, seriously. There’s only one Korby Lenker, and he’s it. Brilliant, sensitive, poignant, goofy and superliterate, he’s an unlikely combination that actually works so well it’s scary. And then…
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Beyond Pluck
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Nashville Scene
Inside This Week’s Art Story: Outtakes and Inspiration From John Scarpati SEAN MALONEY I’ll be honest. I wasn’t aware of photographer John Scarpati, until I got an email about his show at Bongo East. But a quick Google later, and I realized that I was, in fact, very much aware of his work: On the inner sleeve of Redd Kross’ psych-pop masterwork Neurotica, in little cartoon script it reads, “Cover Photographs by Scarpati.” may be a cultural footnote for most but in the weird little world of Maloneyland Spirit of ’76 was a life-defining moment for me, and this photograph is…
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Ray Stevenson
Ray Stephenson, the poet/painter/songwriter
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Tony Youngblood
Tony Youngblood is the founder of the Circuit Benders’ Ball, a biennial celebration of free culture, art, music, and the creative spirit. He created the open-source, multi-artist, scalable “art tunnel” concept called M.A.P.s (Modular Art Pods) and runs the experimental improv music blog and podcast Theatre Intangible.
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Katie Armiger
This was a pretty easy shoot; it turns out all I had to do was point the camera in the right direction and pull focus; Katie did the rest! [yeah, never had a camera with autofocus] there are advantages and disadvantages to shooting older medium format cameras with prime lens… Sometimes it’s nice not to have a crew (except hair & makeup) cause you defiantly don’t want me taking a stab at that; seriously, trust me, you don’t. However, working alone can force you to slow down – give you time to think as you set the lights and arrange…
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Whine, Whine, Twang, Twang
The Doyle & Debbie Show I knew if I was to have a chance at success with my third Debbie, we’d need to get our picture made with someone who could bring out her natural, albeit somewhat enhanced, beauty without distracting from my countrypolitan flair that my longtime fans had come to expect. We needed a photographer who could capture our downhome chemistry, or at least fake it really good. The iconic photos that Scarpati took of us have stood the test of time, and helped us to withstand the onslaught of ridicule we endured those first few years. I…
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Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell the Godfather of Americana
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Whiskey Rose
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Paul Polycarpou
Paul Polycarpou, publisher of Nashville Art Magazine The definition of a Renaissance Man, and tireless supporter of the arts…
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The Harters
The Harters Two brothers and a sister. No surprise they have that mysterious bond that tight families tend to have. Like you could pinch one of them in Los Angeles, and the others would say ouch way off in Arizona or Kathmandu. To be clear, I have never pinched anyone named Harter. But by the time they walked into our first meeting, I had listened to their music. And sure enough, you can hear that freaky family connection in action. Otherworldly. Like they were born to do this together. So I wanted to create an image that was slightly otherworldly.…
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The Freak
Jevon Kearse My favorite thing is how dramatic and contrasty this is, and the minimalist, monochromatic nature of his tattoos. It started out as a pretty straightforward hour fashion shoot for a local magazine, but you could see how much more there was to him, that we were missing his essence and what really mattered about him as a man and an athlete, his spirit and his soul. When we were done, I thanked him and asked if he’d consider letting me shoot something that wasn’t about the clothes that someone brought, but showed who he was at…
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Folklore & Superstition
Black Stone Cherry The name of the album made me want to go to the deepest part of the South to dig out all that represented. I rarely get scared, but there had been awful rain in New Orleans when we got down there, and the location was at the end of a barely dirt road in the swamp… out, out, out and then out some more, with people on the porches of shacks, looking at you like ‘You’re not from around here are you?’ Baby alligators swimming, the hugest water moccasins sunning themselves on the walk we wanted to…
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Mechanical Birds
The Possibility Of Flight Okay, let’s get one thing straight, right here right now. Any time you ease up to the studio in a freakishly clean mint green 1977 Mercedes 450SEL, I am going to insist on including the car in every single shot when I take your photographs. It doesn’t matter how many charming visual concepts you came up with on the plane from Monaco or wherever. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been awake for 48 hours straight and walk in carrying an open champagne bottle. Oh yeah, and if there’s a girl in the group, she gets to…
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Pam Tillis
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Wicked Women Tour
Bomshel for Tequila Rose Hot country smokers Bomshel got the full star treatment from Curb Records, including a series of shots I did for their debut album. As happy as we all were with the results, we got even happier when Tequila Rose signed a nice tour sponsorship deal. This meant a series of new Ads and even my 1st tour bus wrap! Blowing up images that big was only possible because of the insanely great resolution possible with today’s truly high-end photo gear, thank you Phase One, and the fine folks at Capture Integration!
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American Post Gothic
Bomshel Actually, if you’re ever asked to hold either a pig or a violin, you may be better off playing a wild card and saying you’d prefer to hold the camera. I wanted to take a fairly mainstream country act and give them a more classic spin, then bend it. What could be more iconic than American Gothic? And what could be more surprising than a couple of hot girl singers against a bourgeoisie background with a fiddle and a pig? Not very Nashville, especially with them looking so shell-shocked by the surreality of it all.Finding a pig was a…
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The Green Walk
Buddy Jewel Usually I create an environment, and it so. We conjure what we want, not work in an existing reality, This is – obviously – more of a reclamation, which we decided to do because the light was so beautiful. You wouldn’t believe how crummy that site was: we had to move the sheets of corrugated metal to get the look right, and because of how long the building had been empty, everything was covered in bird dung. We were all working maniacally, so we didn’t lose the light. I love this image because it’s a…
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John Mcmullen
Melodic rocker John McMullan has become a staple on almost any powerpop compilation these days. He’s even been labeled “the pop compilation’s favorite son,” a title that flatters McMullan, who actually splits his time between his music career and a fast-paced criminal law practice. Of his unique situation, the Kennett, Missouri, native remarks, “I don’t know many other recording artists who might start a typical day negotiating plea bargains and end that same day laying down Hammond B-3 tracks.”
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Divide and Conquer
Danni Leigh Danni is truly a natural-born badass. Just to be clear, I mean this in the most positive sense imaginable. She also happens to sing really well, and looks good doing it. I love shooting people who know exactly who they are, and are thoroughly comfortable being that person. Most of the strong personalities that cross my path seem to have this going for them. Apparently they don’t have the time or inclination to try being someone else. It almost feels like cheating sometimes, getting to spend time up close with so many amazing and unique characters. The…
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Women Without Hats
working title
