Jim Photoglo Archives - Americana One

Tin Pan South Festival: Opening night preview

You’ll find great music in Nashville’s clubs all this week as they host the annual Tin Pan South Festival, a celebration of songwriters. Venues all over town feature singers and songwriters, typically in the round in groups of four. The performances are short on flash and high in talent.

The 2012 festival kicks off tonight. Among the evening’s highlights:

6 p.m.

Belcourt Taps and Tapas: Sally Barris, Don Henry and Tom Kimmel are all accomplished songwriters, but collectively they’re known as the Waymores, a vibrant new trio with an album due for release. Plus guest Dana Cooper.

Listening Room Café – Roger Cook (“Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” and many more), Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and Michael McDermott are joined by Larry Weiss, who wrote “Rhinestone Cowboy” for Glen Campbell and “Bend Me Shape Me” for the American Breed.

9 p.m.

Commodore Grill – Walter Egan, Mary Gauthier, Ed Pettersen and Jim Photoglo span multiple decades and genres. Egan enjoyed rock stardom with “Magnet and Steel,” Photoglo has had huge success as a country writer and Gauthier writes compelling and often heartbreaking songs.

Eat at Loew’s Vanderbilt: Sherrie Austin, Steve Bogard, Lindsay Ell and Rob Hatch are a great line-up, but the special draw here is the appearance of Elliot Lurie, who wrote and sang the 1972 pop classic “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” for his band the Looking Glass.

Carole King at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe

By Ken Paulson – Carole King performed some of her biggest hits in the relatively small confines of the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville Monday night, a memorable evening even in a city known for them.

King’s “Troubador” tour with James Taylor was an enormous success, but the remininiscing was largely scripted, with the same photos and anecdotes appearing night after night. The show at the Bluebird was as real as it gets, full of spontaneity and charm.

King shared the in-the-round with Gary Burr, Jim Photoglo and Georgia Middleman, three Nashville songwriters who offered harmonies and instrumental support, along with some impressive songs of their own.
King sang every fourth song, and others in the circle joked about the audience having to endure their material.

King opened her performance with “Chains,” a hit for the Cookies, later covered by the Beatles. It was joyous, with all four voices joining in.
Her “Up on the Roof” was stirring and may have been the evening’s highlight.

Before playing her “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” she took a few minutes to defend the Monkees’ recorded legacy. As Burr chimed in, “They had good material.”

Over the course of the evening, King performed three hit songs from her solo career – “So Far Away,” “I Feel the Earth Move” and “You’ve Got A Friend,” plus “New Year’s Day” a track from her new holiday album, written by daughter Louise Goffin and Guy Chambers.

For Burr (who toured with King), Middleman and Photoglo, it must have been like being in the line-up with Babe Ruth. All played at the top of their game.

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