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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]