Def Leppard Legend Phil Collen Session At Hollywood Guitar Center

If you live in the Los Angeles area and would like the opportunity to meet Def Leppard legend Phil Collen then come on down to Guitar Center in Hollywood, LA, December 3rd at 7pm.  Seats are limited so get there early!

Spinning now....

What I'm listening to at the moment..  Paul Gilbert & Freddie Nelson; quite amazing guitar work and vocals that makes you think it's Freddie Mercury not Nelson belting out the songs.  Rob Zombie; Incredible the body of hits Rob has, such an amazing entertainer.  Steve Vai; an amazing legend.  This live album is incredible and has more licks than a van full of hungry lesbians at an ice cream parlor.

Highly recommended.

 

Changes & Things..

So it seems like donkeys years years since I blogged about anything, well actually it is.  A lot of happenings of the personal variety in the last year but I won't bore anyone here with that.

Just received a couple of copies of the new Steve Lukather CD "Alls Well That Ends Well" which I shot all the photos for one fun day in May at Luke's home in the Hollywood Hills.  Am giving it a spin as I write this blog entry and am loving it so far, a rich warm tonality, the talented CJ Vanston did an awesome job with the mix and production.  It's a wee bit darker than it's predecessor, 2008's Ever Changing Times but seems to be more of a reflection of Luke's place in life at the time.  A big thumbs up though and it's awesome seeing my work used so well.

 

Legendary..

Was fortunate enough last week to have done an intimate photo session with music and film legend Kris Kristofferson backstage at the famous Ryman here in Nashville.  Now I must admit that I do not get nervous about doing shoots anymore because of who I'm shooting but more because of technical and logistical reasons than anything else.

Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson & Ash Newell backstage at the Ryman in Nashville.

That being said I was a tad edgy because this is Kris, I hadn't met him before but he always plays pissed off badass types in the movies and I pondered if this is how he would be in the flesh.  I  was most relieved to discover that he's an extremely warm and funny chatty guy and loves touring the UK and Ireland.  Kudos to Kris's publicist Tamara for setting this up.