D'Amato, Chapin among musicians in WhyHunger benefit

Jen Chapin performs at the Acoustic Cafe.

Jen Chapin, Anthony D’Amato, Joe D’Urso and KJ Denhert headlined a benefit concert staged in the gymnasium of a Park Ridge Catholic school Saturday night where the singer-songwriters rocked to raise money for the annual Hungerthon radio broadcast – WhyHunger’s largest program. Chapin’s late father, folk icon Harry Chapin, founded WhyHunger in 1975 with radio personality Bill Ayres with the goal to combat hunger and poverty by connecting people to nutritious food. D’Urso, who serves on the board of directors with Jen, wanted to bring the cause, which he holds close to his heart, to his hometown.

The musicians performed that evening in a songwriter’s circle playing their own original material. Chapin played songs off her latest album “Reckoning,” while folk-jazz singer Denhert played songs off her latest effort, “Destiny,” and ended the evening with a slow rendition of the Beatles’ 1965 classic “Help.”

Anthony D'Amato plays songs off "The Shipwreck from the Shore" 

D’Amato performed songs off his critically acclaimed new record, “The Shipwreck from the Shore,” which was released in September by New West Records, to which he was newly signed this year. D’Amato is currently on tour for the record, produced by Sam Kassirer with drums by Bon Iver’s Matt McCaughan. Though inspired by heartbreak, the New Yorker says the album, which he describes “folk ‘n’ roll,” is a positive one, and a collection of songs the singer says he’s most proud of. D’Amato and D’Urso will set out on Thanksgiving night for a European tour for the Light of Day Concert Series, which has featured Bruce Springsteen and raises funds for Parkinson’s Research. 

Watch a clip from Anthony D'Amato's live performance of "Ballad of the Undecided":

The magic behind Kurt Cobain's final photo session

"Kurt Cobain: The Last Session" was released Nov. 1

Jesse Frohman knew Kurt Cobain would be his Marilyn Monroe.
Looking back 21 years ago at what would be the late Nirvana frontman's last formal photo shoot, the internationally recognized photographer viewed the shoot with the iconic rocker as a “perfect storm.”

Seated before an intimate crowd of Nirvana fans and photography enthusiasts at New York City’s NeueHouse, a private workspace collective, on Nov. 18, Frohman – known for photographing many names in rock royalty as DD Ramone, Green Day, and Soundgarden – opened up to journalist Carlo McCormick about that day in August 1993, a shoot that Frohman expected would turn out badly, but panned out into a collection of iconic photographs celebrated nearly 20 years after Cobain’s April 5, 1994 passing from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Photos flashed behind the men, which are included in Frohman’s new book, “Kurt Cobain: The Last Session,” released by Thames and Hudson on Nov. 1. The illustration is a tribute to the legendary band that helped revolutionize a generation, and includes black-and-white and color photos of the group from the photo session, one of Cobain’s last interviews with punk historian Jon Savage, and an essay by pop culture expert Glenn O’Brien, who explores the band’s legacy and shares his personal story about being on a road trip in 1991 when he heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time.

Frohman partnered with PledgeMusic in August to launch a pre-order campaign of the book where Nirvana fans can get access to the making of it and view some of the featured photos.

Jesse Frohman is interviewed by Carlo McCormick in NYC.

Going into the shoot -- photos from which accompanied an article in the London Observer at the time --  Frohman expected five hours with the group in different locations around Manhattan, which he was thinking Central Park. When he arrived to pick up the band at their hotel, he was informed, to his chagrin, by the band’s manager that he would have a mere half-hour with Nirvana at the hotel. Placed in a type of DIY situation, as McCormick inferred, Frohman made the best with what he was given, even the Pentax 67 camera he used to shoot the group (which he recalled not being not accustomed to) before heading off to an afternoon rehearsal before the band’s gig at Roseland Ballroom to promote their fourth studio album, “In Utero.”

“Every photographer has a bag of tricks,” said Frohman to the crowd, as photos from the shoot flashed behind the men from an overhead projector.

In a few of the photos, Cobain is clothed in patched jeans, a bomber hat, a leopard print garment that looked like it may have belonged to his wife, Courtney Love, (whom Frohman said had been at the hotel that day) and his signature white-framed sunglasses that Frohman said Cobain had refused to take off. Flashing back, Frohman said Cobain’s glasses were just as expressive as his eyes.

“I did not get a sense of suicide,” he recalled of Cobain on that day, “[but] a great deal of sadness.”

At the same time, however, Frohman said part of Cobain’s persona was that of a prankster.

“His energy makes that cinematic energy,” he told the audience. “[He had this] genius ability of making something meaningful [out of something] mundane.”

Frohman added that by not controlling the shoot too much, he let Cobain do his own thing using props, which included an Evian bottle, cigarettes, and even a pot, which Dave Grohl is seen playfully holding under Cobain’s rear in one of the photos while he stands aside Krist Novoselic.

“I let him do his ballet moves,” Froham said. “You have to let them express themselves or you’ll get a still life.”

In doing, so the photographer said there was a “moment of truth” between himself and Cobain, a nonverbal connection that yielded “hero portraits” he’s proud of.

“When you have a successful collaboration, you both get what you’re there for,” he said.

"Heaven Adores You," a heartfelt portrayal of Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith during an interview circa late '90s.

As an impassioned Elliott Smith enthusiast of the past five years, attending the Portland premiere of Nickolas Rossi’s bewitching portrayal of one of the best singer/songwriters of our time, aptly pegged, “Heaven AdoresYou,” was a must.

Rossi, who was in attendance at the Oct. 10 sold-out screening, which kicked off the 32^nd edition of the Reel Music Festival at the Whitsell Auditorium of the Portland Art Museum, told the crowd of at least 100 people that the film was a "love letter" to the metropolis and to the man who rose from local fame to a household name at the dawn of the alt-rock era of the mid-1990s. And that’s exactly what it is. Because when I left the screening, I was filled with more love for Smith than I had ever imagined.

During a post-screening Q&A, Rossi said the finished product exceeded his expectations of when he first started shooting the film. After viewing it, the film exceeded mine as well. Producer Kevin Moyer told Willamette Week that his goal was for fans to walk away with a greater understanding of who Smith was as a person. As a fan who had always wanted to feel close to him and know him, this film was what I needed to satiate that yearning for him.
Going into the film, I was admittedly very anxious. I thought I would leave the screening feeling one of two things: 1.) the void in my heart from Smith’s absence would be bandaged and I would be left with a sense of acceptance of his death. Or, 2.) I’d leave with it stretched and missing him even more. To my pleasant surprise, I walked away with a happy heart overflowing with even more love for Elliott Smith as I had imagined, because for the first time since discovering his music in 2009, I felt close to him.

Before the film started at 7 p.m. that evening, a co-ed cello ensemble took to the stage, which included Smith’s best friend and Heatmiser cofounder Neil Gust. The group played dulcet instrumentals of Smith’s songs spanning his nine-year solo career from his six studio albums, including “Needle in the Hay” and “Between the Bars.” The evening was a real celebration of Smith’s life two weeks before it would be 11 years since losing him.

Neil Gust, second left, plays Smith's song with a cello ensemble

There’s only so many Elliott Smith photos to marvel at in books or on the Internet and dozens of unreleased material on YouTube to listen to, so watching the film intimately portray rare concert footage and cherubic pictures of Smith as a baby and a young boy with his beautiful blonde locks circa late ‘70s, early ‘80s was a real treat. During his upbringing in Duncanville in Dallas, Texas, we see a musically inclined boy at the family piano who delves more into music-making when he moves to Portland in his adolescence and attends Lincoln High School where he met his future band mate, Tony Lash, and was then known as Steve, his birth name. (A plaque hangs on the wall in the present day quoting his “Waltz No. 2 (XO)” lyric: “I’m never going to know you now, but I’m going to love you anyhow.”) At this time in his life, we see Smith as a soft-spoken introvert who played in his high school band and eventually helped form alt-rock quartet Heatmiser before releasing a demo of solo material to Cavity Search, which would wind up on his 1994 indie-folk debut, Roman Candle. Insight into the person Smith was, as well as his troubled side stemming from reported childhood abuse is portrayed in candid interviews with Lash, longtime friend and owner of Jackpot! Recording Studio Larry Crane, Smith’s sister, Ashley Welch, his manager Margaret Mittleman, and Joanna Bolme, former partner and collaborator.

While the film provides some inkling into Smith’s depression, Rossi gracefully strays from centering the focus on it. Instead, he places it on the person Smith was: a humble man with an infectious sense of humor who loved music. Smith once said that songwriting reveals what it is to be a person, which was what Rossi did here with this film. Despite Smith’s rise to fame with his Academy Award nomination for “Miss Misery,” which landed along with other jams from Roman Candle in “Good Will Hunting,” stardom took a backseat to staying true to who he was.

What I took away from the film as a fan was that Smith was just a man with his guitar who took the trials of his life and turned them into breathtaking melodies and spine-tingling verse. Despite getting emotional towards the end of the film as it chronicled his relocation from Portland to New York and Los Angeles and into the making of what would be his last effort, From a Basement on the Hill and his death, my tears of sadness turned to that of joy when the film ended with Smith's song, “Happiness.” In this tune off Figure 8 he sings: "What I used to be will pass away and then you’ll see/ That all I want now is happiness for you and me.” There was a time in my life when I wished to let go of some trying time and I thought of that song. To hear the film end with that song was apropos, as was the title of the film which all made sense at that moment.

I think viewers will walk away feeling a strong sense of nostalgia, but closer to the man they never knew and grateful for everything he gave to the world. “Heaven Adores You” is further validation that his legacy lives on in his music and a celebration of Elliott Smith till the end.