Post Pickathon 2013

The writer Pete Brook posed a question last year at Pickathon for a Wired.com story: What makes a good music photograph? I’m quoted in the story, and yet, a year later and another Pickathon in the books, I still don’t know the answer. But last weekend, as I scurried around and split my time making pictures, managing […]
Aug 13, 2013 | Categories:music, pickathon | Tags: music, oregon, photography, pickathon, portland | Comments Off on Post Pickathon 2013
T-Model Ford

My boys call each other Chicken Head sometimes when they’re arguing. I don’t really know if it’s an insult or not, so I let it slide. It could be worse. Their choice of words always reminds me of seeing blues man T-Model Ford work the crowd into a trance as he howled an extended version […]
Jul 17, 2013 | Categories:music, pickathon | Tags: blues, festival, music, oregon, pickathon, portland, t-model ford, tim labarge | Comments Off on T-Model Ford
Post Pickathon Post 2012

The Barr Brothers on the Starlight Stage Here we are again. It’s been more than a week since Pickathon and I haven’t quite figured out what to say about the whole thing. It happens to me every year. But time passes and moments emerge. I was at some dear friends’ wedding the other night at […]
Aug 15, 2012 | Categories:music, pickathon | Tags: festival, music, photography, pickathon, portland, tim labarge | 1 Comment »
Pickathon 2012 – Now it begins

I’ve been watching and photographing the build up to Pickathon for the past two weeks, but it really only hit me last night that it’s about to happen. This amazing collaboration of talent will explode into action tomorrow. And though I’ve been saying “I can’t wait” for months, it’s only now that I really mean […]
Aug 01, 2012 | Categories:music, pickathon | Tags: 2012, farm, festival, labarge, music, oregon, pendarvis, pickathon, portland | Comments Off on Pickathon 2012 – Now it begins
Heartbroken twice, years apart, same night

Frank Fairfield at Pickathon 2009 Frank Fairfield sat alone on stage this past Sunday night. There were three monitors and a microphone, but none of that gear was plugged in. His quiet voice was sincere as it drifted over the banjo. His right foot kept time, his left leg swung freely. He sang of poor […]
Nov 15, 2011 | Categories:music | Tags: frank fairfield, future islands, music, oregon, pickathon, portland | 1 Comment »
Clown control at Pickathon

We were at a little Mexican tienda up in St. Johns the week before Pickathon and couldn’t resist getting piñata for Leo’s birthday morning bash, which fell on day two of the festival… All smiles. Nobody got hurt…except the clown. all images © Tim LaBarge 2011
Aug 15, 2011 | Categories:family | Tags: labarge, pickathon | Comments Off on Clown control at Pickathon
Pickathon: Influence and Inspiration

Pokey LaFarge on the Mountain View Stage A couple of nights ago, the boys and I were listening to a live John Hartford album before dinner. “Papa, do you think these guys will ever come to Pickathon?” Leo, 6, asked. “No, that’s not possible,” I said, hoping the conversation would shift. “Why not?” said Jack, […]
Aug 14, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: festival, music, oregon, pickathon, portland, roots, tim labarge | Comments Off on Pickathon: Influence and Inspiration
Post Pickathon Post :: 2011

Lee Fields in the Galaxy Barn This year’s Pickathon music festival ended early Monday morning, more than three days ago. It’s been a crazy couple of days of clean up, downloading, more clean up, editing, visiting with friends and family and going out to see even more music. During Future Islands late night performance in […]
Aug 11, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: labarge, music photography, pickathon, portalnd, tim | Comments Off on Post Pickathon Post :: 2011
Pickathon: It’s On!

Multiple times this week, I set out to put up a post about some of the awesome assignments and projects I’ve been working on. It’s been a great summer. But this is the peak right here…today Pickathon starts and I guess I can’t really think about anything else. Pickathonography is here, and people are saying […]
Aug 04, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: festival, indie roots, music, pendarvis farm, photography, pickathon, pickathonography, tim labarge | Comments Off on Pickathon: It’s On!
Pickathon Book To Arrive Soon

We were out camping over the weekend and I asked my friend for a section of her New York Times she’d been reading in her tent so I could light the fire. She smiled and said that she’d been reading it on her Kindle. We’re living in a time when bookstores are being shuttered by […]
Jul 20, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: festival, indie roots, music, pendarvis farm, photography, pickathon, pickathonography, tim labarge | 1 Comment »
Pickathon Posters: A menagerie of art

Travis at Furturtle comes up with a new twist on the Pickathon art each year. Trippy two-headed sheep one year, a noble bull the next. This is a plug for one of the rewards in the ongoing Kickstarter campaign that will help fund Pickathonography Vol. 1. I really just wanted to remind folks just how […]
Apr 29, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: furturtle, kickstarter, pickathon, pickathonography | Comments Off on Pickathon Posters: A menagerie of art
Pickathon book on Kickstarter

Pickathonography Volume One click on the image to go to the Kickstarter page This is five years in the making and forty-five days in the search for funding. My friend Patrick Barber and I are weaving together a bunch of images, stories from music writers and essays from past Pickathon musicians and making a book. […]
Apr 14, 2011 | Categories:pickathon | Tags: festival, kickstarter, music, photography, pickathon | Comments Off on Pickathon book on Kickstarter
Langhorne Slim – Hard to Miss

I knew this year Pickathon would be different than any previous: More bands, fewer sets by each band, more friends at the event than ever, more decisions. I was going to miss music and I wasn’t super happy about it. So looking at the schedule, I started to do triage. I mentally crossed out Langhorne […]
Dec 01, 2010 | Categories:music | Tags: editorial, labarge, langhorne, music, photography, pickathon, slim, tim | 1 Comment »
Post Pickathon 2010

Langhorne Slim at Alberta Street Pub on Tuesday night Every year, something unplanned seems to happen a few days after Pickathon that brings a few folks back together to share a hug, a beer and some stories. Last night, Langhorne Slim and Woody Pines showed up at Alberta Street Pub and cranked out some tunes […]
Aug 12, 2010 | Categories:music | Tags: festival, labarge, oregon, photography, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim | Comments Off on Post Pickathon 2010
Hot Night, Big Flash
Just looking at these faces takes me right back to that wonderful August night. Here’s the post that’s now up on the Pickathon site: It was the end of a sweaty day. In fact, according to the ‘time stamp’ on some of these images, it was the beginning of another warm day. Pickathon 2009. What […]
Mar 19, 2010 | Categories:music | Tags: photography, pickathon, portland, tim labarge | 1 Comment »
Seventy degrees below zero

Pickathon 2009 took place over one of the hottest weekends of the summer. People were hiding under shade structures or in the Galaxy Barn or slipping off to relax under the giant Douglas Firs and maples that surround the Woods Stage. Drop the temperature 165 degrees. Last week, I was on a plane heading for […]
Dec 23, 2009 | Categories:music | Tags: air travel, deep dark woods, photography, photojournalism, pickathon, portland, tim labarge | 1 Comment »
Picturing Pickathon
This was a collaborative effort. Thanks to photographer friends Ian Malkasian, Torsten Kjellstrand and Bruce Ely for helping me with the pictures this year. This little slideshow is just a sampling of what we came up with over the weekend. More will slip out throughout the year in the Pickathon newsletter, news stories and hopefully […]
Sep 08, 2009 | Categories:music | Tags: festival, music, pendarvis, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim labarge | 1 Comment »
Pickathon: Sixteen days in two minutes

Well it took more than sixteen days to make the pictures come together and another week of hoping the guys in Blitzen Trapper would give me the green light to use their snappy, little tune “Saturday Night.” But here it is, the time lapse project from Pickathon 2009. A big thanks to Jef Hinkle and […]
Aug 21, 2009 | Categories:music | Tags: 2009, labarge, lapse, oregon, photographer, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim, time, timelapse | 1 Comment »
Post Pickathon Post II

Dr. Dog Well it’s been a week since Pickathon ended and I’m just starting to come to the surface. I photographed a wedding on Friday so I missed the highlight of the festival for a lot of folks…Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. But that’s okay. I caught the Dr. Dog set in the […]
Aug 09, 2009 | Categories:music | Tags: 2009, music, oregon, photography, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim labarge | 7 Comments »
Pickathon Preview

Pickathon is still hours away but I’m already feeling good, as if I just had my own little festival. I got a call today letting me know that Australian musician C.W. Stoneking was indeed tucked away in a basement in Milwaukie working on tunes with an adopted brass and rhythm section. His brass was held […]
Jul 31, 2009 | Categories:music | Tags: labarge, music, photography, pickathon, tim | 2 Comments »
Post Pickathon Post

© Tim LaBarge 2008 I’m not sure I can say there was one moment or one set of music that made Pickathon memorable this year. It’s more about the many moments, the many slices of time that seem to make the whole weekend melt into a fog of pleasure. It rained off and on Friday […]
Aug 05, 2008 | Categories:music | Tags: bands, everybodyfields, farm, festival, hackensaw boys, live music, music, pendarvis, photographer, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim labarge, wayne hancock | 2 Comments »
Letter to home

© Tim LaBarge 2008 The music festival Pickathon is just a few days away. It’s an amazing collection of good musicians, good people in a tranquil setting. It’s one of the highlights of the year for me. It’s one of those draining weekends where there’s so much happening, you almost need counseling to recover and […]
Jul 28, 2008 | Categories:music | Tags: festival, labarge, music, music photography, oregon, pendarvis farm, photography, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim | Comments Off on Letter to home
Pickathon

It’s still six months away, but the buzz has already started. The folks at Pickathon are planning another great party with a great line up. Some of these characters you’ll recognize if you’ve attended the past couple of years. Kelly Joe Phelps Langhorne Slim Martha Scanlan Sassparilla all images © Tim LaBarge 2007 And of […]
Jan 24, 2008 | Categories:music | Tags: farm, festival, labarge, music, oregon, pendarvis, photography, photojournalist, pickathon, portland, tim, wedding | Comments Off on Pickathon