Rhoda Weaver is one of my favorite buskers. She has a great voice and always adds a little class to the evenings in Asheville. I’ve been wanting to get her picture for a couple years, but she always sang in a spot that had terrible light. That spot is now the entrance to the very successful Farm Burger restaurant, so Rhoda has moved one door down Patton Avenue to the nicely lit doorway of Bloch, a store for dancers’ clothing. You can catch Rhoda singing there after hours most weekends. That’s her daughter, Shari, writing in front of her.

Here’s a never before published shot of the Marshall Tucker Band in 1975. The guys posed for me backstage at a concert in San Diego. L to R: Jerry Eubanks, Toy Caldwell, Tommy Caldwell, Paul Riddle, George McCorkle, and Doug Gray. They were smiling at Hughie Thomasson, who was standing to my left, making funny faces at them, or possibly giving me rabbit ears (or worse). The MTB were the nicest and friendliest bunch of good ole boys ever to come out of South Carolina.

I’ve posted eleven new shots since I last highlighted one of my old black and whites, so it’s time. Here’s an oldie of Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson performing with the Band in July 1974 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. This was the same day that began with the Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I’ve already posted shots of both those bands taken earlier in the day. Leon Russell followed the Band, but I don’t have a single shot from his set. Maybe I ran out of film. I just don’t remember. Regardless, it was a good day in Miami.

What comes first – the music or the instrument? If you are a songwriter, a guitarist, and a luthier, it’s a fair question. Mark Yoder, of Yoder Guitars (formerly Hominy Custom Guitars) is all three. This morning he was in luthier mode, and invited me to his workshop to take some pics of his latest work in progress, a beautiful arch-top hollow body guitar. Today’s main project was to glue the back plate of the guitar to the body. The final sanding and chiseling was in progress when I arrived at Mark’s shop in Chandler, NC, just outside of Asheville. Twenty-four clamps later, the guitar was glued and ready to set for a day before the final work can begin. Scroll down for several more pics and a link to Mark’s website.

You can see some of Marks guitars at his website, www.hominycustomguitars.net.

I’ve been night stalking around Asheville again. Caught this scene outside Apothecary late Friday night. After two Apothecary shots in a row, I promise to stalk for victims elsewhere. As the weather is warming, there is no shortage of street performers. So all you buskers playing late keep an eye out for me.

I am starting to spend a lot more time in Asheville lately working on a new project I’ll write about later. I have realized that man can’t live on the Orange Peel and Firestorm alone, so I have been searching for alternate places to hang out at night. I was fortunate to find Apothecary in downtown Asheville. Apothecary is a performance and meeting place not limited to music or the performing arts. I don’t know how exactly to describe it other than to say it’s a very chill spot that seems home to a very friendly group of people. I should have said young people. I can drastically raise the median age of the crowd simply by setting foot in the room.

On Tuesday night I was exposed to electronic music that is completely new to me, if not to the young crowd. I loved it. Without a single guitar, keyboard, or drum kit, I heard performances by a group of very talented New York City based musicians including Isa Christ, Penny Royale, and KHF that were thrilling in their power, complexity, subtlety, and scope. Unfortunately, the music started so late that by the time headliner Isa Christ performed, many of the weeknight crowd had left. Of course, that was no problem for a night owl like me. Above is a shot of Isa Christ taken close to 1 AM in a room that was so dark, it is a marvel of modern digital technology to even get an image. The electronic equipment the musicians used is also a technological marvel, though I am at a loss to be able to describe it for you. Such are the perils of being largely ignorant about this kind of music. I have some catching up to do.

Every once in a while I am reminded how lucky and privileged I am to be able to do what I do. Before the Blackberry Smoke show in Winston-Salem last Friday night, I was on the bus talking with Charlie Starr. Suddenly an acoustic Gibson guitar appeared and Charlie began singing some of my favorite songs. He started with a Grateful Dead tune and segued into The Weight. I was mesmerized for a few minutes until I told myself, “Self, pick up your damn camera.” Before long, Paul Jackson walked in and started singing high harmonies. (He’s standing just out of the frame on the right.) What an incredible acoustic duo! Special intense moments like this don’t happen every day. At least not to me. I can remember Henry Paul and Hughie Thomasson singing Stephen Stills songs late into the night on the deck behind Henry’s house in Nashville. Or BlackHawk singing Paul Simon’s Homeward Bound in a hotel room somewhere in Alberta. And now this. I am one lucky sonofabitch.

Blackberry Smoke invaded Winston-Salem, NC on Friday night to perform for an enthusiastic sell-out crowd that included Dean Parris, who is well on his way to recovery from the injuries he sustained in a scooter accident last October during the Simple Man Cruise. A video crew captured the entire show. They were like friendly cyborgs swarming around the venue and the stage. I tried my best to stay out of their way and out of the video. Below is a shot of Dean hanging out in the parking lot with family and friends before the show. Welcome back, Dean!

The latest from my scanning project is this 1972 shot of the incomparable Frank Zappa performing in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Here’s one you don’t see every day. Two Southern rock icons – Toy Caldwell jamming with Dickey Betts. In October 1975 I rode along with the Outlaws for a week in California. They opened several shows for the Marshall Tucker Band and one stadium show for MTB and the Allman Brothers Band. This was from the MTB set at the Santa Monica Civic Center, the last of the shows I attended. The Allman Brothers did not play that night, and I have absolutely no recollection of Dickey even being there, much less jamming on stage.

As I was looking through old negatives to scan this afternoon (yep, I’m still at it) I noticed a short sequence of someone jamming with Toy Caldwell. I could see that it wasn’t George McCorkle and I took a closer look. Just about then, Can’t You See started playing on my assistant’s Pandora feed. A good omen, I guess. Then it hit me. Damn! That’s Dickey Betts. How could I have possibly had no idea that I had these shots? Apparently, there’s not much you can’t forget if you put your mind to it. In my defense, it was 38 years ago and I can barely remember what I did last week. At least I had the good sense to sneak behind the drum kit and get a few shots over Paul Riddle’s shoulder. My friend, Wallace Wiggam, who I did not yet know at the time, was in the audience for this show. I wonder if he remembers this happening?