Tag Archives: country

Almost Missed Little Miss @ The Dakota Tavern

Little Miss Higgins @ The Dakota with Foy Taylor

Foy Taylor & Miss Higgins

This is where perusing the local weekly entertainment rag is worth while. I had heard about this lady Little Miss Higgins and heard a few of her songs on CBC Radio2 and thought this is some pretty good guitar playing, I should check it out some time. Then I see in Now Magazine that she is playing a gig at the Dakota Tavern in the west end that very night. Starting early at 7pm! Okay then! lets go.

Little Miss Higgins

Miss Higgin's

 What a show! Little Miss Higgin’s along with Foy Taylor accompanying on guitar and harmonies put on a very entertaining set of country and blue’s songs.  Stories about small towns, touring, some undergarment references and life in general filled in with some good ol’ gutsy guitar playing  got people drinking it up, myself included.

Jamz Bee

Jamz Bee

 The Dakota was also privileged to be a stop on the Jamz Bee hosted Jazz Safari tour that evening. Jamz Bee, a social guru, hosts the JazzFM91.1 sponsored group trips to various clubs around town checking out live music.

 This gig took place Sept 25th, 2010. Shortly afterwards , Little Miss Higgin’s was part of the Women’s Blues Review at Massey Hall. I’m glad I had the chance to take pictures at the much smaller and intimite Dakota Tavern before the Massey Hall show.

Miss Higgin’s is currently on tour in England and Ireland, returning to Canada in May for a stop in Ottawa then out to the west coast for a few gigs.

my gallery from this show: Little Miss Higgin’s Live @ The Dakota Tavern

little miss higgin's

little miss higgin's

Photog notes: there was not a lot of light in the Dakota so for most of the shoot I had the ISO cranked up to 3200. I was also using a variable aperture zoom which was not too effective in this situation. It was the only lens I had at the time, this fact helped me understand what it was I was going to require to get better low-light shots in the future.

Review : Winterfolk IX Feb 18-21,2011 Toronto

This years Winterfolk Blues & Roots Festival was a great time to see numerous established and new artists perform their songs and get a real roots music vibe going on. I was helping out as a soundman most of the time along with other volunteers to make everything go smoothly for the musicians and host venues.Michael Jerome Browne

I had a couple glitches to take care of, like monitor levels, faulty equipment, but nothing was a complete ‘train wreck’

My main beef was the lighting. The places I took photos in had just a row of spot lights on a stand, some with coloured gels, some just white. On occasion I was able to access the stand and adjust the light levels and direction of the spot lights but other times I couldn’t even get to the control due to the all the people in their seats.Jory Nash

I did manage to get a few resonable shots and corrected some overexposure/white balance issues as best I could with Lightroom afterwards. I used the D90 set at ISO1600 with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens. I should have watched my Highlight Warning indicator to watch for blownout areas but realized afterwards it was off.

Regardless I got to listen to a lot of really great music without having to wear earplugs. Plus I met a lot of fellow fans, photog’s and musicians, all of whom where friendly and very happy to be there.

Can’t wait until next year. Check out the complete gallery   Winterfolk IX