One Love

“Good morning neighbor, hello friends,” he said as people passed by failing to notice him or to listen to his music.

Despite the blind tourist, he continued to play, “One love, one heart Let's get together and feel all right...”

His message was simple, yet too complex for the outside world to grasp. Everything from his songs of coming together to his note that was taped to his guitar that read, “Restore the Black Community,” he was all about coming together.

In his old and worn guitar case river rocks held three dollars down that some had carefully placed. The case like his guitar, appeared to have seen better days. Regardless, it held the musical instrument just right and the guitar itself told a story only he knows and remembers.

His name of Yehoshua is often spelled Jehoshua. If you look deeper you will see that even his name has a message.

Jehoshua was a figure in the Jewish Torah and also the central person referred to in the Book of Joshua.

In the Book of Joshua, he gives a speech about what must be done for Israel to live in peace. God commissioned Joshua to take possession of the land and warned him to keep not only faith, but outlined the need for obedience to the law.

“Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (one love). There is one question I’d really like to ask (one heart) - Is there a place for the hopeless sinner - Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?”

— Bob Marley

Aspire and Inspire

He is blind, but stands singing while skillfully playing his guitar at Pikes Place Market in Seattle. He is known as Strumming Blind Chad.

Success is not about money, it is about inspiring and aspiring to reach your goals, your potential. Perhaps that means learning to play a guitar when you are blind, learning to stand before others and sing... or in Chad's case, both.

“Don’t just create; create to change; change to improve; improve to increase. Aspire to inspire.
Don’t just fit in; make it a point to brighten your corner.”

— Israelmore Ayivor

BONNAROO 2018: The family concert

BONNAROO 2018: Ahhh, the family concert... the family who see's Eminem together at midnight sticks together.

BONNAROO 2018: The American Flag

BONNAROO 2018: She showed vigorous support for America with not only her outfit, but also her blanket as she sat in the midst of thousands of people walking from concert to concert.

Some may disagree as they were taught not to wear or sit on the flag. Others may high five her, which is the Bonnaroo way. 

"How do I look," she asked. The shutter shut, "Great," I quietly responded as she handed me her cellphone. "Would you take my picture with my phone," she asked.

Another shutter click and I disappeared into the crowd where I next came across a large shirtless man that had a "Lost Soul" tattoo across his stomach. He was carrying a unicorn... I will get to that photo later.

BONNAROO 2018: Tattoos and Unicorns

BONNAROO 2018: Never get between a large tattooed man and his unicorn. Never.

“Dreams are the playground of unicorns.”

— Unknown

BONNAROO 2018: Heading through the Bonnaroo Grounds

Be who you want and dress as you like.

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.”

— Allen Ginsberg

On stage at Starwood in Nashville, TN

“Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.”

— Ludwig van Beethoven

I took this photo of a friend of mine a couple of years ago on what was once the stage at Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville. The outdoor concert venue was alive with sound and people not to far in the past.

More on Starwood:

(1985 to 2007) What was is no more: Starwood opened in 1985 to the sounds of Van Halen, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and Motley Crew, just to name a few. Today, it looks like an epic ghost town of broken concrete, asphalt paths to nowhere, broken tiles that once lined the greenroom and overgrown grass.

Over the years, the concert venue changed names about three times. Up until 1999 it was called Starwood Amphitheater. The name changed in '99 to the First American Music Center. The First American name only lasted for one year. In 2000, it was renamed the AmSouth Amphitheater. It also closed with that name of "AmSouth" in 2007.

He plays the French Harp

Rick is from Syracuse N.Y., but later moved to Kentucky for the local university in Richmond where he says he taught up until computers were brought in as teaching devices.

“How old do you think I am,” he asked me. I did not know where to start guessing, which he could obviously tell as he blurted out, “71, No one believes me.”

He told me about his love for music and said, “I play the French Harp.” Surprised I asked, “You have a harp… Like a giant gold leafed harp?” He smiled and laughed… “They call the harmonica the French Harp. It is a name that dates well before your time.”

“How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” ― Jane Swan, former Professor of History at West Chester University in Pennsylvania (1925-2010)

Life is that quick

Life in the Click of a Shutter...

It was a breezy April 2014 night in Nashville. His guitar was strapped to his back while walking behind the Frist Center. It was as if time stood still during this photo - capturing his hair and beard floating...

The night will never be the same again for him and I don't even know his name, his age or where he is from. But, I do know that the second is etched in the past.

What if you only have 100 years or perhaps less? That's it - frozen in a moment only for what feels like a second when you look back, later in life - like the snap of a shutter.

"I'm fifteen for a moment
Caught in between ten and twenty
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
I'm twenty two for a moment
She feels better than ever
And we're on fire
Making our way back from Mars
Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
Fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got hundred years to live
I'm thirty three for a moment
Still the man, but you see I'm of age
A kid on the way
A family on my mind
I'm forty five for a moment
The sea is high
And I'm heading into a crisis
Chasing the years of my life
Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy, time to lose yourself
Within a morning star
Fifteen I'm all right with you
Fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got hundred years to live
Half time goes by
Suddenly you're wise
Another blink of an eye
Sixty seven is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on
I'm ninety nine for a moment
Dying for just another moment
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
Fifteen there's still time for you
Twenty two I feel her too
Thirty three you're on your way
Every day's a new day
Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to choose
Hey fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got hundred years to live"

- Song by Vladimir John Ondrasik III, better known as Five For Fighting - Titled "100 Years"

Face of Music City - He looks like Johnny Cash

The outside looking in: Face of Nashville… He looks just like the late Johnny Cash and he use to sit on Broadway and play older Cash songs like The Ring of Fire.

"The taste of love is sweet
When hearts like ours meet. 
I fell for you like a child
Oh, but the fire went wild. 
I fell into a burnin' ring of fire

I went down, down, down
And the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns, 
The ring of fire, the ring of fire."

While some may not know it, the song “Ring of Fire” was written by June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore and recorded by Johnny Cash.

It was originally recorded by Junes sister Anita Carter for her “Folk Songs Old and New” album in 1963 and later that year mastered by Johnny Cash (March 25, 1963). It went on to become one of the biggest hits of Cash's career.

The song was basically about June falling in love with Johnny, which was indeed happening at the time when she wrote it.

Street music with rockabilly style

Two of the four rockabilly Outlaw Rituals in Chattanooga, TN.

“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, widely recognized as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music (1856-1791)

Bonnaroo: Some of the music distances you from the noise

Like a maze, music allows some to become lost no matter the outside distractions. Some can tune out the world around them as they simply listen.

“Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.” ― Keith Richards, Rolling Stones

Bonnaroo: Music, art and light

Music, art and light – all forms of energy that give you distinct feelings of freedom in a way that just words fail to give.

When I photograph at night I don't use a flash because of a fear that it would distort the light that I see. The reds at a concert, the light strings that someone swings around, the glow sticks tied to a persons body to show that he or she is in the moment, etc. 

Bono of the group U2 was performing and those in attendance were in their own worlds taking on the feel that the music was introducing into their bodies. Some people were uniting together with smiles, some were crying while others were dancing with light.

During an interview that took place over 18 years ago, Bono told a reporter, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” 

Bonnaroo and the reactions of music that sews us together

Bonnaroo at 2:00 Saturday morning (June 10, 2017).

It is always interesting to watch people and their reactions more so then what they are seeing to cause the reaction. To me, that is where the attention should be as it once was in magazines like LIFE, which we no longer have.

Why? Because Life is what we want to see and peoples reactions, be it happy or sad, that is where you get an understanding of what is real or how someone or a group of people feel.

If I focused on the entertainer it would simply be someone singing on a stage by himself or herself - no real expression of the moment can be seen in the entertainers face as it is often just another show.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote a profound statement that could easily describe Woodstock in 1969, our military forces when an entertainer visits a camp in Afghanistan or Bonnaroo in 2017. Thoreau wrote,  “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” At concert venues far and wide, music is what peacefully brings people of all backgrounds, colors or nationalities together. 

Bonnaroo 2017: "Hey! Take our picture!"

I guess what I enjoy about Bonnaroo more than the entertainers is the excitement in the air. The trusting of everyone. The total strangers greeting other strangers. 

This couple, and I have no idea if they knew one another prior to the concerts, said to me, "Hey, take our picture!!" With the click of a shutter the moment was frozen in time with a massive techno concert in the background. 

Traveling to the tune of music

“Where are you guys headed,” I curiously asked because I am always way curious about everybody. She continued to pick the guitar and he enthusiastically responded, “New Orleans… We just got back from Nashville.”

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

It is about the music

His name is Terry Johnson and he's from Memphis, Tennessee. When asked why he ended up in Nashville, “To become an entertainer,” he told me. “I’m a song writer and musician,” he said with a smile and a tip of his cap.

Terry, like many of the people who call the streets of Nashville home, has dreams and sees himself as being bigger than the alleys he sleeps in.

“I’ve been told I look like Tim McGraw and I’ve also been told I look like Dwight Yoakam,” he said as I was walking away.

French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician Albert Schweitzer once stated, “There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”

Well, the music I agree with. The cats? Oh well.

A Mix of Scottish and Indian Music

Arvel Bird is his name and he comes to get down with his mixture of Scottish and Indian heritage. He calls himself a “Celtic Indian.”

Notice the Scottish plaid hanging from his waist?

While on stage, he performs by switching between a traditional Indian flute and then playing the fiddle in a fashion that would make Charlie Daniels proud.

The diversity within his performance is quite fascinating, and enjoyable to listen to.

Arvel has a background for music. When he was younger, he attended Arizona State University on a music scholarship. He later went to Champagne/ Urbana, IL studying classical violin. His teacher was Hungarian violinist Paul Rolland, who is quite famous in the music world.

Before making Nashville his home, he actually toured with the original Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell for seven years, starting in 1986. Once in Nashville, he toured with Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Ray Price, Louise Mandrell, and Clay Walker.

Hippie Hill cabin

Hippie Hill is deep in the woods of Middle Tennessee. Music and freedom is alive in the hills. 

“Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” - Bob Marley (1945-1981)