Another month up and quickly down, it was definitely an interesting month. January brought some brutal cold weather and even a few small snow storms that I have to admit I enjoyed for the first time in a few years. The month also brought some great music with good friends.
Our first trip out was down to the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon which always means great food, drink and tunes. Once we got there, we realized that a bunch of my friends from Waynestock were also there that night which made for an awesome bonus. Speaking of Waynestock, give that festival (coming in June) a look if you haven’t yet, it’s one of the best in the country although I might be a little biased LOL. Playing this night was Nate and Pete of Nate Myers & The Aces. I’m not sure if I should call them Nate & The Ace, or 2/3’s Aces, or just Nate and Pete…but I knew it was going to be a great night. The guys covered a bunch of songs like What You Want, On The Road Again and Ain’t No Sunshine as well as a few originals. Nate voice filled the ball room upstairs nicely for a great crowd.
My next trip out was down to Live Underground (the old Gullifty’s) in New Cumberland for the Road To Memphis, a benefit jam with Alex Lee Warner to help him raise funds for his trip to Memphis which he completed the following week (and included stops in Nashville & Mississippi as well!). Alex jammed out on stage with a plethora of local artists with including a bunch from the Blues Society Of Central Pennsylvania. I don’t get to attend BSoCP events as often as I’d like admittedly, but every time I do I’m struck by how awesome all of their members are both musically and just as human beings. Their support for our local blues scene is awesome.
A few days ago, I trekked down to Lovedrafts Brewing in Mechanicsburg to finally catch a show from Y2Kids. I’ve caught Ed Allison in several of his other projects and was happy to get the opportunity to catch this one. Bringing a ton of hits from the 2000’s and grenres like rock, pop, country and almost everything in between, the guys even took requests from the crowd from a song list as long as my arm. It’s clear they’ve worked hard to have such a wide selection of music to play for their fans and they bring such a great energy to the stage that they’re a blast to watch.
Our last trip out this month was back down to The Doyle in Duncannon. While we enjoyed a great dinner, I had the pleasure of having a great conversation with the owner, Don who told me about the new coffee shop he’s opening up within the next week or so on the first floor. Anyone that knows me knows I love a good cup of coffee (or three!), so I’m pretty excited about this news. Don also recently bought a hotel property up in Newport and is planning to have it set up much like the Doyle. I have to admit, it’ll be nice to have another cool place up here in Perry county to hit up for good food, drink and live music so keep your eyes open for that! After dinner, we headed upstairs to the ballroom where Colt Wilbur was playing a solo acoustic show. Colt’s booming voice traveled easily throughout the upstairs and even down the stairs to the main floor, belting out covers from George Jones, Johnny Cash, The Doors and Jackson Brown as well as a few great originals. Colt has a faithful following and it showed this night as he had the room absolutely packed! I want to give a special shoutout to my buddy Izzy, a local that’s frequently at the Doyle, for pulling my girl out on the floor to dance for a song as well. Awesome job man, and she had a blast!
Since I have some extra room here this month, a few other things to bring up: First of all, as I mentioned above, if you haven’t checked out my buddy Wayne’s festival in beautiful West Virginia “Waynestock”, you really should. Taking control of a whole campground for the weekend, there’s music every night including, but not limited to, The Roof, Kyle Sparkman, Rivers, and Cass And The Bailout Crew. During the day there’s a ton of stuff to do like whitewater rafting, hiking, climbing, disc golf, waterfall swimming and much more. The local town of Fayetteville is very cool with a ton of shops, restaurants, breweries and other cool places to check out. There’s honestly a ton of somethings for everybody. Second, I wanted to bring up the Central Pennsylvania Music Awards. I’ve been nominated for Best Photography for the fifth year in a row which is just such a huge honor for me. I’m nominated alongside four other great local music photogs: Rock Documented (who won the very first CPMA for Best Photography), Frances Axsmith (who won last year’s award for Best Photography), Doctor D, and Mary Yeager Photography. Seriously, all four of them are incredible music photographers and I’m humbled to be nominated beside them. If you’re not familiar with any of their work, please do me a favor and go check them out, give them a like and/or follow on their social media to help support their work in our local music scene. I’m not asking you to vote for me; but I AM asking you to vote for someone! The more activity we can get for this worthy cause, the better IMO; and while you’re there you may as well vote for your favorite bands, venues and other assorted folks in so many categories 🙂 Voting opens up on February 4th and goes through the 13th. As you go through the multitude of categories, if you see bands in genres that speak to you but you aren’t familiar with a particular band, give them a look on their socials…you might just find your new favorite band! I might also mention that there are still tickets available for the event at the Hershey Theater on Thursday, March 28th. It’s honestly just a really cool event celebrating and supporting our great local music scene, I highly recommend it.
So there it is, my month of music through my eyes and ears. I want to once again thank all the bands, venues, and everyone else involved in our incredible local music scene for everything they do. Just a reminder: if you’ve got a show coming up that I should see; make sure to send me an invite, shoot me an email or a message, let me know about it. Venues: please don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. The majority of the shows that I go and shoot I find out about through invites from all of you or your friends. Hit me up on facebook: @chrisriderphotography or email: chrisriderphotography@gmail.com, stop me if you see me out & around and say hi. Until next month…go find some live music and give them and the venue your support, they truly need it more now than they ever did.
