Album (and memoir cover shot)
Another era in Nashville comes to close later this July when Jim McGuire closes up his shop, “Nashville Portraits” photography studio on 8th Ave. South. Coming to Nashville in the early ‘70’s, McGuire (or Señor McGuire) befriended and photographed the amazing array of talented individuals who made Nashville such a creative hotbed for the next 45 years.
John Prine (1982)
Jim with Tom Paxton
My own history with McGuire goes back to some time in 1968. He was living down on the Lower East Side. I was working for the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals and also living in New York. When Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles” came out we invited him and David Bromberg to play at the Newport Folk Festival and it’s possible that I met him at a party at McGuire’s apartment at that time. In addition to starting to work as a photographer McGuire played a bit of dobro and lap steel. He loved to have people over to pick. Sometime in early 1969 Izzy Young, famed proprietor of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village, asked Bill Keith and me to put together a concert at the Methodist Church in Washington Square. In addition to the banjo, Bill by this time was working at mastering the pedal steel guitar, so we decided to do a concert of half bluegrass and half country and asked Eric Weissberg and Richard Greene to join us We called ourselves the Blue Velvet Band. McGuire came to the concert and took a rare photograph of all four of us playing together.
Blue Velvet Band (1969)
In late 1973 I came through Nashville and decided to stay for a few months. McGuire was already there, and we started hanging out together. He was immersing himself in the new music that was bubbling up in Nashville in the wake of Kris Kristofferson, John Hartford, and Mickey Newbury. Through McGuire I met Tracy Nelson (“Mother Earth”) and John Hiatt. We both got to be friends with the gang of Houston songwriters camping out at Bishop’s Pub on West End Avenue—Guy & Susanna Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Richard Dobson.
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Guy and Susanna Clark
McGuire got himself a small place on Wyoming Avenue in Sylvan Park and set up a studio with the first of his signature canvas backdrops and started photographing everyone. None of us knew at the time that we were making history—we were living hand to mouth, day by day—but it has turned out to be history, and McGuire’s portraits are truly revealing of the characters who were making that history. He was one of us and had the ability to put us at ease as he set about to do his work. He was an artist; he was professional; he cared. He stayed with it for half a century. How lucky we were to have him there with us.
Keith and Rooney (1974)
Keith and Rooney (1980)
McGuire’s archive has been acquired by Opryland, who will be making it available in various ways into the future. After one final party at the studio, McGuire will be heading out to who knows where—probably somewhere with a horsetrack and some music. We wish him well and offer a heartfelt thanks for his friendship and commitment to our music and his help in telling our story.
Jim and Carol
(Note: this web site exhibits other examples of McGuire’s work see the Home page and the Bandmates page)