Nick Sinclair has been the photographer in residence at the Maverick Festival, an annual celebration of American roots music at the Easton Farm Park in Suffolk, since it began in 2008. His previous exhibitions have hung in the National Portrait Gallery and when you see his striking portraits of some of the festival’s luminaries you will understand why. A somber Sam Baker stares into the lens with the knowing expression of a man who has seen many things but is not about to tell. Mark Olson, head bowed, his hat concealing his eyes, is lost in a moment of introspection. The glamorous Elizabeth Cook betrays a hint of a smile, yet is both confident and aloof. These images are revealing and entertaining too. The Hot Seats, formerly Special Ed & The Shortbus, strike a crazy pose, very much at home in the Farm Park’s goat paddock.
But inexorably, the eye is drawn to the cluster of black and white images that form the centre piece of this exhibition: the knowing smirk of Johnny Cash still potent after all these years. We see the devoted husband in an unguarded moment with his wife, June Carter; a man alone, contemplating his dwindling future through the window of his trailer, his fatigue almost palpable; en route, robot-like, to the stage for yet another performance; then finally, coming alive on stage, guitar in hand….
For Cash aficionados, this was yet another turning point in a turbulent career. He had begun the partnership with producer and label owner Rick Rubin, that would win him a clutch of Grammy’s as well as a legion of new young fans, and cement his status as an alt country icon.
In capturing this moment of creative re-birth, Sinclair gives us the images that lie at the heart of his show: the new pretenders test their mettle while the old king and queen prepare to depart the scene, yet never fully fade away.
Alt. country pioneer and trailblazer Tom Russell contributes the accompanying introduction and as a writer whose own songs were once covered by the Man in Black, Russell’s words carry a special resonance.
"Country & Eastern" opens at British Music House, 33 Berners St, London W1 on December 7th before beginning a tour of music and arts venues that runs through the Spring, ending at the Maverick Festival over the American Independence Day weekend, 2nd/3rd/4th July 2010.
To see portraits from the exhibition, click here
Dates and Venues
December 7th - January 3rd
British Music House, 29-33 Berners Street, London W1 (by appointment only)
January 4th - February 6th
The Clinic Gallery, 32-38 Saffron Hill, London EC1
March 4th – March 27th
Subway Gallery, Pedestrian Subway, Harrow Rd, London W2 subwaygallery.com
March 29th - April 21st
The Cut, New Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk
May 3rd - May 29th
CB2 Restaurant & Gallery, Norfolk Street, Cambridge
May 31st - June 20th
The Pumphouse, Aldeburgh, Suffolk (TBC)
June 21st - July 23rd
University Campus Suffolk, Neptune Quay, Ipswich
