Dave’s Photo Blog

With overused comparisons to Ben Folds and after catching the attention of Fountains of Wayne, Stephie Coplan and the Pedestrians are quickly establishing themselves as a band on the rise. They have played for delighted audiences in New York and New Jersey and recently performed at Toad and Precinct in a small Boston-area road trip. Stephie Coplan is no stranger to those venues. She only recently moved to the New York area after honing her skills performing solo in clubs like the Lizard Lounge. I had a chance to both watch the band and interview them on their recent trip through Cambridge and Somerville.

Noel Smyth played at the Burren recently for the release of his latest CD, The Neighborhood’s Jukebox. This latest album is available for sale on iTunes and wherever Noel is playing. I got chance to take some photos of Noel during the show and catch up after. After having done the design work for the [...]

Do it for the love of it. I mean, if you want to be famous, I don’t know, I can’t help advise you on that, but if you love playing music everything else will fall into place. — Mia Dyson

Earlier this year, I had the chance to photograph a great show at Toad with local favorites Dan Blakeslee and Jess Baggia, and with a rare local appearance by Nicole Berke. What transpired was hours of musical enjoyment from some great performers at the top of their game. I love Toad – it’s free and [...]

“I really wanted to make a disc that was made by hand — that was made in a humble way.” Cilla is being modest – the CD packaging and artwork is everything she set out to achieve and more.

As is often the case with the bands I review, it’s hard to place Brothers McCann in a specific genre. They have elements of soul, folk, indie and pop in them to be sure. But they lay down a pretty mean groove.

Sunday night proved to be almost perfect, with clear blue skies and only a moderate breeze. That’s important, because a strong wind can blow the camera around. When that happens, the ISS/Shuttle that should register as a line in a long exposure can sometimes look all wiggly. Not in this case. In order to minimize any vibrations, I also locked the mirror up using the custom functions of the camera. When the mirror flips up, it can introduce a tiny amount of vibration. It might not register if you were shooting a long exposure of a still life, for example. But when you are shooting a needle thing light trail from space craft, it will show up as a series of bends, or sawtooths, in the line.

Samantha Farrell is a local – she grew up in central Massachusetts. She’s just returned from a number of years in LA. While she was there, she met LeRoi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore recognized the potential in Samantha’s music immediately and signed on to produce her album. Sadly, Moore passed away before the album was released. But the Dave Matthews Band chipped in to help, most notably by promoting Samantha through an email announcement just prior to the show at the Burren. The back room at the Burren was packed that night with young, local fans who wanted to see a breakout local performer.

Denise Marsa, the president of KeyMedia Public Relations and executive producer of the video, was responsible for bringing Rachel Millman and the Brandeis VoiceMale together around the song Throwin’ Rocks at the Moon. The song was written by Jim Dyke, Marc Nelkin and Eric Sanicola. Denise met Jim in London a number of years back. The song was written in 2005, but when Denise started working with Rachel, it clicked.

When Julien Kasper was seven years old, he saw a guitar store while lying in the back seat of his parents car. He sat up in his seat and said, “Mother I would like to play the guitar.” The rest, as they say, is history. A history that includes degrees in music from the University of Miami and the University of North Texas, countless performances and his current day job – teaching at Berklee College of Music. How can you not like a guy who teaches performance labs on Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck?