Salado, Texas seems to be a bit of an anomaly. Not that Central Texas in general is not interesting, but Salado is a quiet little tourist town with a second helping of culture and history for those who want more from their Texas experience. The Silver Spur Theater hosted the Texas Songwriters Song Circle and brought broad diversity of musicians and styles.
I saw a write up in Temple’s Sunday paper, and have been looking forward to it all week. My wife was a bit more hesitant, knowing little of the musicians on the bill, but both of us were pleasantly surprised and wished we would have dragged a few friends with us.
The show seemed to be inspired by RpT, Richard Paul Thomas, who himself was one of the singers. Also on stage was the band Shy Tree, who are based here in Texas now, after forming a few years ago out in Vegas. And my personal favorite (sorry to all the others) was Danny Everitt, pictured here.
I knew I wanted to shoot some photos, but this is one of those days I am actually quite insecure about. I honestly enjoyed the music so much that I did not want to break my concentration on the lyrics and tunes to think about lighting, framing, angles, and such…but I should have. I took a few shots here and there, but the angles I really wanted would have required me to jump up there with them or move their stools out toward the edge of the stage. I did neither, obviously, and got a collection of photos that are mostly under-whelming. I hit myself when I was asked by two of the singers for photos after the show. Something was telling me throughout the show, “hey, I bet these folks might really be able to use a few shots,” and I did not act on it.
This shot was my favorite. I actually knew it would be when I took it, simply because it was going to feel different from all the other shots. I sat behind the piano which disguised the stairs to the stage. After taking some other close ups of Danny Everitt, I reached out the camera, planted it on the stage, and eyed the angle I would need, and took this shot. I must have just gotten lucky to nail the focus.
And just like Aesop and Son on Rocky and Bullwinkle, there is always a moral: if you are going to the trouble to carry your camera and crawl around the edge of a stage, you better have something to show for it. And the second is like it: if you do not do so well, do not blog about it, because as we all know, we should hide our mistakes.
