Blog
April 20, 2020
In the past I have written blogs about John Prine who is in my opinion is the best songwriter and storyteller in the world. Steve Goodman was a good musician and friend of John's who would have to be the second best. John Prine lyrics are just amazing and to think he wrote some of his early material during his six years as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois!
John passed away on April 7, 2020 at 74 years old. It put tears in my eyes and I'm sure a lot of other people felt the same way. COVID-19 was stronger than John and took him to heaven. He is now with his buddy Steve Goodman who passed in 1984. When they did a show together it was really a fun time with many great songs and stories.
I had the pleasure of photographing John twice, in 1972 and then again in 1974 when I worked for the Bugle American newspaper. I have seen him probably six or seven times and every performance was just great.
My photographs of John are some of my favorite images. In 1974 when he played at Milwaukee's Summerfest Schlitz Country stage, I gave him a photo from the Milwaukee PAC 1972 show and had a few Schlitz beers with him backstage. It was called the Schlitz Country Stage after all so we had to have some Schlitz beer and it was flowing pretty good and I was only 19! John loved the photo and we joked about the 1972 photos where he had Pabst beer on his stool and now it was Schlitz! I always wanted to get a photo autographed by him and never did after all these years...
The 1974 photographs are fun to look at because it was about 100F and the Summerfest Skyglider ran almost right above the stage. John was talking to the people up there and they were talking to him which made for some interesting banter. It also made for some great photographs of him looking up at them talking and playing around.
John had some health issues and could not smoke anymore and he LOVED to smoke cigarettes! He often said that when someone would lite up a cigarette he'd rush over to get a whiff of that first puff! He even wrote a song about going to heaven and smoking a nine mile long cigarette.
My heart goes out to his family and to our Milwaukee promoter, Peter Jest and his wife Karen who became very good friends of John.
We lost a good one on April 7th. He will be sadly missed.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
April 6, 2020
I hope everyone is doing well during our pandemic right now. Here in Wisconsin we are being advised to stay at home. There is not much traffic out there so hopefully everyone is complying and staying safe. It's a good time to get house projects done and other chores.
We go back in time today for my blog which is about my first paying music related photo job!!! I was 17 years old, in high school and working at Camera Corner here in Milwaukee every day after school.
My boss at Camera Corner, John Dunar, was very nice and saw my interest of getting into the music photography business. A friend of John's was Dave Kennedy of Dave Kennedy Recording Studios. They were talking together in the store one day and Dave said he had a band called The Serendipity Singers coming in to record that week. Then he asked me if I would like to photograph this folk band and document their day of recording in his studios! Before I could say yes he even offered to pay me!
The day is documented here and you can even see my photo gear bag in one photo. The experience was an eye opener for me in a few ways. It was the first time in a recording studio and I was just in love with the technology that surrounded me. Dave Kennedy had THE 16 track tape machine of the time, an Ampex Master Maker 1000 16 track recorder!
The second eye opener of the day happened when I learned that my borrowed camera was stolen! I borrowed it from Camera Corner with permission from my boss. I wanted to have two cameras available to me that day. I put one of the cameras on a couch in the reception office for a few minutes. In less than five minutes someone took it and it was never seen again along with the exposed film that was in it. My boss at the camera store was very nice about it but it was a big life lesson for me! Still would really like to have that film.
Enjoy the photos that I have of that very interesting day. They even played kazoo's! Remember those?
Be safe everyone.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
March 23, 2020
On March 8, 2020 a very nice memorial tribute was held at Anodyne Coffee in Milwaukee to honor the Mighty Stokes who passed away several weeks earlier. Stokes was a major blues man in Milwaukee who influenced many people.
The last time I saw Stokes was at The Up and Under club on Brady Street about 25 years ago! Sad to say I never photographed him.
He influenced all the performers at this tribute for sure.
We stayed for a good portion of the night and got to see and hear some great music.
My good old high school mates Leroy Airmaster performed with Steve Cohen, Bill Stone, Marc Wilson and Dave Kasik doing some great music as usual.
Jim Liban and his blues combo played some rockin' blues with Perry Weber and Kurt Koenig. Milwaukee Slim even joined them for a while!
Stokes was smiling upstairs for sure.
Enjoy a look at the evening.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
