Hometown Wanderlust is an adventurous, weekly blog featuring one girl’s experiences with food, music, shopping, history, art and life in general around Dublin GA. This week, Dublin GA’s favorite redhead experiences the Kirk West photography exhibit and the ExploreGeorgia.org Singer Songwriter Series.
As a music lover I experience, quite frequently, live music. The rich, full sounds of the instruments, lights, the energy of the crowd, exhilarating and sometimes theatrical antics of performers. But what if you cut all that out and capture just a moment of a performance, just one tiny second or a quiet reflection backstage, goofing around during downtime with band mates. Could you be stirred by the music viewing just a quick flash in time? Can your attention be captured by hearing the songs you love just one voice, one guitar and a story?
The Artists
Kirk West has been capturing the silent, still emotion of even the biggest rock stars through his photography for 50 years.
The ExploreGeorgia.org Songwriter Series is set to highlight some of Georgia’s finest and accomplished songwriters, Greg Hester, Levi Lowrey and Dublin native EG Kight.
Kirk West
On this extraordinary Friday evening downtown at Dublin Carnegie I am fortunate enough to experience both. The Songwriter Series luckily lands on the same night the Kirk West photography exhibit “Shooting The Stars” is coming to a close. While waiting for the opening hour of the performances I browse over the years of musical history captured from one man’s lens. An unbelievable 50 years of photographs, 25 of those years also spent managing The Allman Brothers Band! The black and white photos are brimming with feeling. Angst passion, sorrow, elation…all etched into the faces or conveyed with distinct body language. A few colored photographs sprinkled amongst tell the same stories though with the vibrant colors that swirl around a rock star lifestyle. I’m quite partial to a particular Bob Marley picture. The power captured moves me.
Songwriter Series
What a treat. Three Georgia songwriters not only playing us their beautiful songs in such an intimate setting but also telling the stories behind them, how they evolved and came to be. Not only the songs but the artists themselves. Settled into our seats none of us were prepared for the depths that we were taken to. The stories spill forth between songs revealing the honest reality behind a songwriters work. Life happens, sometimes in the best ways and sometimes not always in the way we would desire but the beauty of songwriting is we are delivered these experiences and the music that accompanies the way the artist feels it and in the end we all somehow relate and can carry away our translation in our own lives. My favorite part is when the artists begin jamming together, feeling each others musical vibe and gifting it to us. Beautiful.
Watching these artists sharing their talents with all of us and especially interacting with each other (Mr. West has been excitably snapping photos during the performance and EG Kight has announced she is adopting the other two performers!) I’m reminded of our day to day relationships and how they are formed and grown. Never knowing who’ll we’ll come across in our life and how they will touch us. Or how we will touch them. Always growing, strengthening, uplifting…
For more information on the Songwriter Series visit http://www.exploregeorgia.org/article/georgia-songwriter-series
Visit the Kirk West website at http://www.kirkwestphotography.com/
