Sunday Events

Sunday, photos, music and looking out over Badin Lake at Scallywags Restaurant. Drove back to Charlotte via Monroe, listening to Big Band music. Then, over to Sam Tayloe's house for photos of his FB live show. Ah, photography, travel and music. I remember it well. Oh, and my Last Days Of The Double Door Inn photo book is now available. Here's the link, but more tomorrow. Love to all. Peace, my friends. See you there, and see you on the road.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999101927?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

-Daniel
May 31, 2020

My New Book, The Last Days Of The Double Door Inn, Is Now Available!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999101927?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 

More soon, thank you all,

-Daniel
May 31, 2020

Peace

Live it, enjoy it, share it.

Imagine, it's easy if you try.

-Daniel
May 31, 2020

When It Rains, It Pours Books

Remember that writing burst I had last week? Well, it just kept going. In the last week, interviewed Russ Giguere of the Association for a magazine article, put together a book of photos from the last days of The Double Door Inn, and wrote 58, count 'em, 58 essays for another possible book project. So yes, three books in one week. Wow, and whoa.

And yes, I just announced that I'm releasing a book of photos of the Double Door from its final shows. Updates and links coming soon.

How is everyone? Miss you all. Stay healthy out there, and see you on the road.

-Daniel

May 28, 2020

Mike & The Ravens Interview, Big Takeover Magazine, 2012

“Logistics, mostly,” replies noted writer, producer and musician Will Shade, when asked why Pillar To Post, the new album from Mike & The Ravens, will be their last, after 50 years together. “Getting all six of us in one place for an extended amount of time has become very difficult. Especially since we rehearse, arrange and record in the studio. The band does not rehearse ahead of time. [Guitarist] Steve [Blodgett] might bring in some demos that he’s written beforehand, but the band learns the songs and arranges them in the studio, and finally records them. This takes months, which entails both [vocalist] Mike [Brassard] and I leaving our respective homes for up to half a year!” 

Formed in Pennsylvania in 1960, Mike & The Ravens put together a raucous sound that pre-dated garage rock and punk by half a decade. Their adherence to all-original material caught the ears of fans throughout the Northeast US area. After breaking up in 1962, the band did not reconvene until Shade put them back together some forty years later. “I found a live tape of them playing at Rollerland in 1962,” remembers Shade. “They sounded like an R&B Ramones. They played fast as hell. They didn’t so much perform songs, as get them over with. I told them that’s what I wanted.”

When asked how the band has been able to do this again with the original lineup, Shade responds, “Through sheer good luck! And since most of them abandoned music, they didn’t succumb to the clichés, like drug and drink. They formed when Eisenhower was still President!” 

For their new album, “The band was far tighter then they’d been when they got back to record their first album, Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions, in 2006,” adds Shade. “For that album, some of the members hadn’t touched their instruments in decades. Not only were they up to running speed on this album, they also knew what was expected of them.

When asked to describe the band, founding member Steve Blodgett responds, “Lots of pent-up energy and frustration. A total of 320-plus years. Everyone likes to joke around. The line between joking around, and rock and roll is pretty thin. We know each other very well.”  

More records from the individual bandmembers are in the works, adds Shade. “It’s been a real sonic adventure and spiritual odyssey. I used to be frightened of aging. But I remember standing in the studio with Mike. We were listening to the Johnny Burnette Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio, and both of us were jumping up and down, playing air guitar. I wasn’t a guy in my 30s, and Mike wasn’t a guy in his 60s. We were both teens being transported by the spirit of music. I see guys out in the studio working harder and longer hours than any 20-year-olds I’ve seen. I’m absolutely in awe of their willingness to jump off a cliff, with no idea where they’re going to land.”

David Childers Photos, Mount Holly, NC, May 2, 2020

David Childers
Home concert
Mount Holly, NC
May 2, 2020
All photos copyright 2020 Daniel Coston

-Daniel
May 24, 2020

Writing For The Past Week

The last week. Wrote several essays for a possible book, then two days interviewing Jules Alexander and Jim Yester of the Association for an upcoming feature in a magazine, then decided to tackle another book that has been sitting on my desk for a couple of years, and finished it. All of which is completely separate from the book I'd planned on writing this summer. Weclome to 2020. I hope you all are doing well, and if anybody needs any photos, I promise that I'll pull myself away from this desk. See you soon, and see you (hopefully) on the road.

-Daniel
May 22, 2020

Answer To The Myers Park Mystery

Hello all-

The response to the photo on FB was immediate, and amazing. The photos belonged to the then-tennis coach for Myers Park High School. He may have taken the photos around early 1999. He later sold the camera, not realizing that the undeveloped roll was still in the camera.

The coach still occasionally works at the school, and yesterday I dropped off prints of that roll for him at the school.

It only took 17 years and a shutdown to solve the mystery, but there you go.

-Daniel
May 21, 2020

Mercury Rev Photos, Philadelphia, PA, January 2005

Mercury Rev
WXPN
Philadelphia, PA
January 17, 2005
All photos copyright 2005 Daniel Coston

-Daniel
May 18, 2020

Help Me With A Myers Park Mystery

I'm going to share with you all a mystery that I'm hoping to share and solve after many years. In 2003, I bought a pocket camera at a pawn shop on Wilkinson Boulevard. I discovered that there was a roll already in the camera, which I had developed. On the roll were photos of the Myers Park High School women's tennis team, probably from 2002. There were also photos of a Myers Park football practice, and of a family reunion.

I have enclosed a photo of the Myers Park tennis team. I believe that the roll belongs to the adults posing with the players in this photo. I believe that the gentleman sold this camera, without realizing that the roll was still in it. When we turned the camera in, the pawn shop took a photo of his driver's license, but the photo is just out of focus enough for me to not read the name on the license.

Do you recognize the students in this photo? Do you know who the man and woman in the photo might be? Post below, or send me an email. Thank you all. Happy sleuthing.

-Daniel

May 18, 2020

Photos From My Trip Across North Carolina, May 6, 2020

All photos copyright 2020 Daniel Coston

-Daniel
May 18, 2020