Last Thursday night I attended the The 9 Songwriters Series at Smith's Old Bar. All around awesome singer/songwriter and Sunset Districter, Juliana Finch was playing with a bunch of East Coast songwriters, so it was a great chance to get out to support and an opportunity to hear some great talent from up the coast and the South.

The show was presented in a way that I hadn't see before, and although it was similar to an in-the-round style show, it was altogether different and really enjoyable. There were 9 performers. Each person played 2 songs before the next person jumped up to perform. After everyone had gone, each person got up for a 1 song encore. Although it was presented in a singer/songwriter format I really enjoyed the different personalties everyone brought to the stage, and it was especially fun to see everyone collaborating on each others material, quite literally as they were hearing it for the first time. Hats off to Justin Trawick for coming up with a good idea and bringing it to Atlanta. I hope to be a part of one of these in the future, or at the very least shoot the next one.

From a photographic point of view, The Atlanta Room at Smith's is pretty dark. Most people are in seats or tables around the perimeter of the room and it makes it a little difficult to get a good shot without jumping up in front of people during the show and spoiling the intimacy of the performance. I grabbed a stool in front of the stage, against the wall, and stuck with my 50mm lens the entire time. The ISO is a little cranked, so the images are a little gritty, but I love the vibe. It would be great to have a few more bright lenses in the future, so I'm saving up!

John McNicholas