Author: NYS Music Staff

Scott Harris is a music photojournalist as well as a street, landscape and fine art photographer and an avid member of the Instagram community. Originally from southwestern Connecticut, Scott attended college and lived for the better part of a decade in Upstate and Western New York regions. Scott currently resides in Westchester County and serves as a house photographer for the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester. Scott’s musical tastes include jam, electronica, EDM, hip hop, blues, bluegrass, funk, folk and pretty much everything in between.

As a rabid Phish phan, Scott originally began taking concert photos with a little point & shoot camera at the band’s Bader Field run in June 2012 just for fun. Scott quickly caught the photography bug and though he’s entirely self-taught, almost a year to the day later officially shot his first concert.  In his first year as a music photojournalist, Scott had the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of artists/projects, including: Elton John, Jack White, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, The Avett Brothers, Lotus, The Disco Biscuits, Skrillex, Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes, Phil Lesh & Friends, RatDog, Primus, Mastodon, Pixies, Elvis Costello & The Roots, Tegan + Sara, Beats Antique, John Butler Trio, moe., Tedeschi Trucks Band, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Lettuce, Yonder Mountain String Band, Strangefolk, White Denim and Kung Fu, just to name a few.

Aside from his work at The Capitol Theatre and for NYSMusic, Scott is a frequent contributor to Relix and JamBase. Scott’s work has recently been featured on RollingStone.com and he’s appeared as a guest host on SiriusXM Jam ON. On the rare occasion Scott is not attending a concert, he’s often found exploring the world of craft beer or engrossed in sports. Scott is infatuated with imperial IPAs and is a diehard Syracuse basketball/football and RIT hockey fan, and he also loves (in no particular order) the Yankees, Rangers, Giants and Knicks.

While Scott’s live music bucket list has been rapidly dwindling over the past year (including trips for the first time in 2014 to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Bonnaroo), he has his sights set on attending and photographing Coachella, Electric Forest and Jam Cruise, as well as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, the Foo Fighters, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruce Springsteen, among others in the near future.

Brennan Fischer has always embraced musical expression in all its forms. After a childhood filled with Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, and David Bowie, Brennan studied trombone and voice throughout grade school. He proceeded to take up the dreaded electric guitar, played with bands in high school and even attempted the cheesy singer-songwriter gig in early college. He now expresses his musical passion through hip-hop dance, occasionally jamming with friends on guitar and djembe, and shooting shows and festivals.

Brennan is an aspiring free-lance photographer, and has shot weddings, dance recitals, fundraising events, drag shows, and put out a tasteful nude calendar for the collective where he lives. You can see his work at BrennanFischerImages.com. He has been shooting for since 2013 and has enjoyed covering great local bands like John Brown’s Body, Rubblebucket, and Driftwood, as well as some larger acts like Widespread Panic and Umphrey’s McGee. Brennan relishes the moment where the passion and the joy of live music can be frozen in time and captured visually.

Brennan wants to shoot and see much more music. Included on his bucketlist for groups to see and shoot are Radiohead, David Byrne, Com Truise, Little Dragon, Chromeo, Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, Phantogram, Soundgarden, Emika, and Prince.

Since an early age, Jimmy Chambers always wanted to be a writer. Of what, he wasn’t sure, but he knew that is what he wanted to. This became his passion and he used it as a form of comfort. He realized a few years later that music was also a form of comfort. He related to sadder songs and was drawn to them. He had found his true passion: to write about music and intertwine it with feeling and share it with others, so that others could relate to him and therefore relate more to themselves.

While attending Suffern High School, music took over his life and the writing fell to the way side. It was always there, notes were written, a journal here and there, but mostly he was just obsessed with Rock n’ Roll. It was the time of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Oasis and Phish.

His first Phish show was quite an experience, not just because of the music, but because of the way society formed around the music, the community. It was special. It was a story that had to be told. The next two years he did not do much writing. He went to see Phish wherever and whenever he could, and one day he ran into the Disco Biscuits. As a result of music becoming a powerful force in Jimmy’s life, he went back to his love of writing, took writing classes at Hudson Valley Community College, and later brought his talents to Plattsburgh State.  Every writing class he took, every article he wrote, was about music. This was two and a half years of striving to be a Rock n’ Roll writer; he had friends who asked “How do you get through college, writing about Phish?”  Very coolly, he replied, “I just did.”

He graduated in 2003 and was a teaching assistant for 8 years, after which Jimmy went into building and ground work at The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Browsing Facebook, he saw an opportunity to write for and jumped on it. His friends were happy he was finally doing something that he could be proud of. Jimmy is now 38 and realizing more it is each day that it is never too late to follow your dreams.

Although Jimmy has seen many, many concerts, certain bands always seem to slip through his fingers. Frightened Rabbit, The Shins,  The Cure, Band of Horses, The XX, Chrvches, and Spiritualized are just a few of many. These are not dreams, Jimmy will see all these bands!!

Music has always been a life-sustaining medium for Jeremiah Shea. Some of his earliest recollections of having “the bug” include drumming on anything he could hit his hands on, air guitar snow shoveling throughout the long Buffalo winters, and going to bed while listening to the radio. The snow guitarist in particular was one of those forks in the road because, after so many years of frustratingly strumming a wooden handle, he needed a change and proceeded to buy an actual electric guitar the summer of his freshman year of high school. The writing was always on the wall, but that sole constructive purchase would change his life forever and provide the creative outlet he was clearly lacking.

Fast forward to today and Jeremiah is, first and foremost, a proud father of two incredible children (Jack, who is 4 years old, and Anabelle, who is 7 months) and happily married for the past seven years. The music is still there, but his relationship with it has since evolved to more of a creative driver and less of a passive listener.  His time now is spent sharing his passion with his family through writing, listening, and playing music.

By day, Jeremiah works for Ingram Micro where he is able to utilize his technical background to consult customers, engage with manufacturers, and help drive business for the company and its partners. The 9-5 though isn’t, in and of itself, fulfilling though as there is still the gap that only music can fill. Upon a chance back in 2012, Jeremiah responded to a Facebook post from an editor at Buffalo’s Artvoice who was looking for writers in the area. After getting the opportunity to try out, Jeremiah ran with it and began his career as a professional music writer. Now two years later, Jeremiah still writes for Artvoice, but obviously branched out and has also been working for since 2013. Over the course of two short years, Jeremiah has had the opportunity to see countless live shows and interview some of his biggest influences. The list of interviewees includes Umphrey’s McGee, Lettuce, Marco Benevento, Rebelution, Alan Evans Trio, Zach Deputy, Joseph Wooten, Protest the Hero (first time/second), Snapcase, Jefferson Waful, Luke Stratton, Johnny Goode, Funktapuss, Armcannon, Aqueous, Zach Deputy and many more.

That aside, his biggest achievement came this year when he was asked to write the liner notes for the Alan Evans Trio Woodstock Sessions album. In another bout with serendipity, Jeremiah was able to attend because he literally pulled off the side of the road when hearing the announcement and immediately emailed Alan Evans to apply. It was because of that chance that he got to meet Alan and establish a wonderful working relationship, giving way to the album contribution.

Outside of music, Jeremiah also enjoys playing and watching various sports. As a die-hard fan of the Bills and Sabres, he’s swallowed the “maybe next year” mantra hook, line, and sinker that every sports fan in Buffalo has come to accept.  On the creative side, Jeremiah still plays guitar, but also enjoys drawing with chalk in the driveway with his son, cooking, and Photoshopping pictures of his kids.

Maybe it’s that blue-collar attitude that Buffalo breeds that has helped elevate him to where he is today, but regardless, Jeremiah is just happy to have a good job and enjoy a hobby-like side career that surrounds his life and family with great music. Whether playing, listening, or writing about music, Jeremiah loves to share with the world the significance it’s played in his life. If there’s one thing he’d tell you, it would be to pick up an instrument as it’s never too late to play. His kids may be young, but he’s hoping they too will embrace life’s rhythm and find their niche in the world of music.

Jeremiah’s musical bucketlist includes Rage Against the Machine, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The New Mastersounds, Soulive, Stevie Wonder, Maceo Parker, The Nth Power, The Meters, and The Neville Brothers.

Stephen Lewis has been enamored with music and the written word since he began writing simple poetry and digging through his parents record collection as a young boy in Central New York. What started out as a formative relationship with the written work and sonic arts has developed over his lifetime into a deep analysis and respect. The natural world in addition to authors, songwriters, poets, journalists and musical masters of expression and ideals are his signposts to creation through inspiration.

Stephen has a deep love for the literature and music that was developed in the 1950’s and 60’s, when ideas were fresh and retreads were few. The beat poets as well as early rock and blues players are the cornerstones in which all of his creative excursions are based. Straight ‘rock and roll’ is Stephen’s tonic. Drums, bass, guitar and some honky-tonk piano is all it takes to inspire. Psychedelic rock and jazz following close behind. Being English/Creative Writing major, Stephen has intertwined his love for music in the most natural way, by writing about it.

Stephen’s most respected artists are the musicians with a message, who use melodic sensibility to relate life truths and build mental pictures through their musical creations. Bob Marley, John Lennon, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and David Crosby are a few of the artists who Stephen receives inspiration from and enjoys regular visitations to into their catalog.

Stephen’s greatest achievements happen when creating art from nothing, the thrill of a crisp white blank page tucked into a typewriter, a vinyl record revolving in the background. Expressive use of language is his goal, language able to not only express the inner workings of the text’s subject, but also offer a glimpse into the creators mind. His continuing efforts are to turn his freelance opportunities into a permanent position reporting on the world of music, or working as an archivist for one of his favorite bands.

Stephen has traveled for over 300+ live concerts so far in his lifetime, the search for emotive live performances never ending. Regarding his work for since 2013, Stephen concentrates on his Central New York experiences offering commentary on performances and past glories from the area. His musical bucket list is growing shorter by the year but still includes, Yusuf Islam, Teresa Williams/Larry Campbell and Simon & Garfunkel.

Amy Lieberman, born in Queens, raised in Westchester County, and currently living just outside of the quaint hamlet of Treadwell in the scenic Catskill Mountains, was raised on music: from her mother, who would often sing her and her sister to sleep while strumming the guitar, to her father, who would occasionally wake them up by playing “Taps” on his trombone; to one of their babysitters, who was a huge Beatles fan, and would play Beatles records all the time.

Her first ever concert was a ShaNaNa concert, which she attended with her family when she was six years old, and was bitten by the live music bug at that early age. As soon as Amy had the opportunity to start learning to play music, she jumped at the chance. The instrument that opened up the world of music to Amy was the recorder, which she learned in second grade. From the recorder, she moved on to the piano, on which she took private lessons for six years. In the school band, Amy played the flute, and eventually had the chance to tackle the bassoon, a huge instrument on the opposite end of the spectrum from the tiny flute! (She had to endure several trips on the school bus, lugging around the bassoon, which was not the easiest task to accomplish.)

The band that first got Amy into the jam band scene, as is common for many others, was Phish. During a high school play for which she was a member of the lighting crew, Rift would often makes its way into the cassette player, and it ended up being a life-changing musical experience for Amy. Between the 80 and 120 Phish shows she has been to (she lost count somewhere along the way, and has yet to figure out the total number), her love of the improvisational style of music expanded, with some of her other favorite bands on the scene including the Grateful Dead (and its various incarnations), String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Widespread Panic, to name just a few. Along the way, she had the opportunity in college to take a class on old time, country, and bluegrass music. At the time, her parents thought it was kind of a waste of time, but it actually ended up playing a huge impact on Amy’s life, as she currently plays bass and mandolin in a couple of old-timey bands that play locally around the Catskill Mountains.

One of her bands, the Tremperskill Boys, was especially honored to have gotten to share the stage with International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainer of the Year Winners the Gibson Brothers at the Fiddlers Festival in Roxbury, NY, in October 2013! On a yearly basis, as far as concerts go, Amy tries to see as many Phish shows as she can and has been attending Mountain Jam every year since it started back in 2005, as well as the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival since 2000. In addition to enjoying rocking out to the incredible music performed at those events, she uses these concerts as a form of continuing education, and tries to truly listen to the music so she can take some of the techniques used by the mind-blowingly talented musicians who play at these festivals, and apply them to her own music. Amy has a degree from Brown University in the Science and Culture of Sustainable Living. She is looking forward to being able to devote more time to seeing, playing, and reviewing lots of awesome music this summer!

Amy is fortunate to have gotten to see most of the bands she has always dreamed of seeing, but there are a couple of musicians that she still needs to see before she leaves this world, and those are The Black Keys and Justin Timberlake!