Vince Mira Live in Seattle
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity, Editorial, Tear Sheets
I have really been looking forward to posting these portraits and videos. I had so much fun working on this assignment with Vince, and as an added bonus, the story is one of those rare page turners that doesn’t come around all that often in a magazine. For me, it’s right up there with the Wired article on Dan Kaminsky which I worked on last year. Here is the intro for Vince’s story, which is in the July 2009 issue of Seattle Metropolitan. The link to the entire article is further down.
“Billed as the Second Coming of Johnny Cash, a teenager from Federal Way wowed rock stars, morning news shows, Ellen DeGeneres, and the Cash estate. There’s just one problem: Vince Mira is done parroting the Man in Black.
There was a moment in September 2007 at the Cash Cabin, the studio built by the late Johnny Cash outside Nashville, when everyone froze. In the room were musicians intimately tied to Cash and his music—his son John Carter Cash, his bass player Dave Roe, and Jamie Hartford, who played guitar in the Cash biopic Walk the Line. Vince Mira, the Federal Way teen flown in for the recording session, had just crooned the last line of his “Cold Hearted Woman,” a twangy harangue against a cruelly apathetic succubus (“…as far as you are isn’t far enough for me”), leaving his audience speechless.
Finally, Hartford, who’d been scribbling music dictation in a notebook, dropped his pen and paper and turned to the producer. “John. Carter. Cash. Does that freak you out?” John looked up, “Yeah, that freaks me out.”
John Carter had just heard a familiar voice pour from the mouth of the teenager. The producer had agreed to record an album with the talented teen—already making a name for himself with Cash covers—on the condition that “We don’t just record a bunch of my dad’s old songs.” Now, here was Mira performing an original, but his voice, a haunted baritone, was spot-on Johnny Cash.”
- James Ross Gardner. Read the entire article (here).
Before this assignment, I had heard stories over the past couple of years about Vince Mira, the young teenager who was discovered playing Johnny Cash songs on the street. I had seen the YouTube videos from Ellen (here) Good Morning America and a few others, but I didn’t become a fan until I heard him perform live. Wow. This guy is talented. He is the real deal. There are a lot of people out there with a gimick, or who sound like someone famous. But Vince has huge talent, and he can stand on his own. His similarities to Johnny Cash provided him with a great start, but it’s exciting to see him head out on his own now and show people what he’s got.
The first video above is Vince Mira performing an original song, “I’m a Goin Back Home”. The second video is a Johnny Cash song, “Folsom Prison Blues”. Both were performed at the gum wall in Post Alley, Seattle. I asked Vince to play one of his songs so I could film it, and it didn’t take long at all for a crowd to gather. After he finished the first song, someone yelled out, “Play ‘Folsom Prison Blues’!”. Even though he is trying to get away from that, he didn’t seem to mind.
Vince has an album out now, called “The Cash Cabin Sessions“. It was recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio by John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash’s son. It’s a great album. You can also catch Vince every Tuesday night at the Can Can in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. For now at least. I don’t know how much longer he will be playing there, as he has already toured with Pearl Jam, and played on some pretty big stages.
Vince Mira – Folsom Prison Blues from John Keatley on Vimeo.
Vince Mira – I’m a Goin Back Home from John Keatley on Vimeo.
* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog to see the videos show above.
Tags: Can Can, Cash Cabin Studio, Celebrity, Celebrity Portrait, Ellen, Folsom Prison Blues, Gum Wall, I'm a Goin Back Home, John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Music, Pike Place Market, Post Alley, Recording Artist, Seattle Met, Seattle Metropolitan, Street Performers, Teenage Singer, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Vince Mira, Vince Mira Performance, Vince Mira Singing, Vince Mira song, Vince Mira Video
Security At It’s Finest
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under News
I recently spent a week in New York and DC, meeting with photo editors and art buyers. In New York, many of the buildings that I visited require you to check in and wear a visitor badge. Some places are more strict than others. One security check point was so thorough, I thought they were going to require a blood test.
Another building, in particular, (which should be pretty obvious from the picture below) had a lengthy line at the security check in and did not move very fast. When I finally made it up to the counter, I was told that my name was not on “the list”. This meant that they had to call my contact, and my contact had to get someone else with clearance to put me on the list, so that security could let me through. I also had to get my picture taken. You can’t be too safe these days. And here it is! Are you serious!? After all that, and all the high tech equipment that is available today, this is the best they can do? Really makes a criminal think twice. If I did anything illegal while I was in the building, they at least would have known what shape to be looking for. I will admit, this is one of the best pictures ever taken of me though. Right after my drivers license photo.
Tags: Funny Story, New York, photo ID, Security, Security Camera
Dirty Dancing
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Personal Work
Personal work. The best kind of work if you ask me. Well, maybe not from a financial point of view though. I met these three at an Enya concert this Spring. This is just a little peek into the after party. For obvious reasons, they requested that their names not be revealed. In these tough economic times, the last thing you want is to lose your job because you got caught listening to Enya.
Tags: After Party Pictures, Dance Pictures, Dancing Chicks, Dancing Girls, DJ, Enya, Hot Chicks, Night Club, Ricker, Rock Groupies, Rock Stars
New Website
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under News
The time has come. After months of hard work, the new www.keatleyphoto.com is now live. I would like to publicly thank graphic designer Greg Lutze who worked with me on this project. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him. Along with designing my website, he also did my new business cards, portfolio, email and postcard promos. I am in New York for a couple of weeks now, and so far the portfolio has been received really well.
There are many things about the new site that I am excited about, but one thing inperticular are the blog links. I really wanted a way to integrate my website and blog together. When you are viewing a large image on my website, that has related content on the blog, a link to that post will show up in the lower right corner of the page.
I would strongly encourage you to take a look at Greg’s work. Especially if you are thinking about branding or having a new site custom designed. I would also like to thank and recommend Online Revolution Design. They did the flash programming and backend to the site. I am really impressed with how fast everything loads, and would love to send them more business. Tell them I sent you.
In other news, I have started a Facebook photography page (here) for all you Facebook users. My plan is to post more casual updates, news items, and snapshots from my photo shoots. I will also post updates when a new blog post comes out. That way you never have to leave Facebook. Except for when you are tweeting of course…
Tags: Flash Programming, Flash Website, Graphic Design, Greg Lutze, Keatley Photo Website, Keatley Website, Online Revolution Design, Photography Website
