It's no secret that I shoot a whole lot of drummers. I've been doing work for Vater Percussion for quite a long while now and have amassed quite a portfolio of drummer photographs. So it is not to be taken lightly when I proclaim that I may have captured the best drummer portrait ever. I joined one Mr. Chad Brandolini (Artist Relations / Vater) to a show in New Hampshire. He was really excited about a newly signed artist, John Fred Young. His band, Black Stone Cherry, I had never even heard of. Come to find out these guys are a great southern rock band with an affinity to hitting the woods for some good old fashion bow hunting. When we went to do some photos of John, luckily it was brought to light that there was at least one compound bow hanging around, because, on tour and you really never know when you're going to need one, right? So given that, genius ensues: John Fred Young / Black Stone Cherry
Some may accuse us of playing up the Hunger Games / Brave / Hawkeye surge of archery popularity but I can assure you, this is about as genuine as it gets. I think John mentioned about forty times while we were there about bow hunting season opening really soon back home.
Besides laying the grounds for a killer photo, he's also one of the funniest guys we've ever worked with and simply destroys it on the drums. Even if the music isn't your thing, these guys are a blast to watch on stage. There's some solid footage of him doing his thing in the video interview I shot the same day:
