Alan Messer | |
---|---|
Born | 1951 |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Autodidact |
Known for | Photographer |
Alan Messer (born 1951) is a British photographer originally from Kent, [1] [2] known for his photographs of musicians. [3] Messer bought his first camera in 1958, a Kodak Brownie 127; he wanted to document his family and the environment around the south east coast of England where he grew up. Messer met his future employer, when his father hired the then famous music photographer Dezo Hoffmann, to photograph boys' clothes that he made in his tailoring, Alan and his brothers were the models.
Messer did not like school, and in 1967 he got a job at Dezo Hoffmann's studio in London. One week later, he was an assistant in a photo shoot of Jimi Hendrix for a newspaper cover. Within a few weeks, he had a front page of Manfred Mann, who marketed their new single "Mighty Quinn", and then in 1968 The Beatles who posed for their film campaign for Yellow Submarine . [4]
During the 1970s, Messer photographed many famous bands and artists in his studio in London. In 1978, he moved to Nashville and opened a studio, where he continues to photograph musicians, including Johnny Cash. [5] [6] [7]
The Royal Albert Hall in London hosted the exhibition Keep It Country in 2024 celebrating five decades of iconic country music photography, offering a glimpse into Messer's vast catalogue documenting country music's most legendary eras and artists. [8]
RETRO 50 is an exhibition on view until 2025 presented by This is Noteworthy [9] and The Madnest, and includes iconic photo subjects spanning the photographer´s career like John Lennon, George Harrison, Marc Bolan, Elton John, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, James Brown, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Diana Ross, and many more.
Messer has also photographed hundreds of album covers, including the following:
He won a Grammy in 1988 for the O´Kanes Tired Of The Running album.
On January 16th, 2024 Paramount+ launched the film JUNE from Emmy winner Kristen Vaurio, a documentary about June Carter Cash. [10]
The film includes a collection of exclusive interviews with Cash´s family members and musicians, never-before-seen archival footage and lots of Messer´s photographs taken to the artist over two decades, loads of video footage from mainly the Press On recording sessions [11] and time in Jamaica shooting the album cover.
The documentary made its world premiere in November 2023 at the DOC NYC Festival and later at Nashville’s Woolworth Theatre. Amongst the invitees to the latter included The Cash Family, Emmylou Harris, Larry Gatlin, or actress Jane Seymour.
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience.
Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III is an American musician and singer, and a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American country singer and songwriter. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was known as June Carter and continued to be credited as such even after her marriage. She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
Guy Charles Clark was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith and Chris Stapleton. He won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture of You.
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Cash.
Bob Loyce Moore was an American session musician, orchestra leader, and double bassist who was a member of the Nashville A-Team during the 1950s and 1960s. He performed on over 17,000 documented recording sessions, backing popular acts such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Bob was also the father of multi-instrumentalist R. Stevie Moore, who pioneered lo-fi/DIY music. The New York Times called him "an architect of the Nashville Sound of the 1950s and '60s" in his obituary.
Jack Henderson Clement was an American musician, songwriter, record producer, film producer and music executive.
Twist and Shout is the first UK extended play by the English rock band the Beatles, released in the UK on EMI's Parlophone label on 12 July 1963. It contains four tracks produced by George Martin that were previously released on the band's debut album Please Please Me. Rush-released to meet public appetite, the record topped the UK EP chart for twenty-one weeks, the biggest-selling EP of all time in the UK to that point, and became so successful that it registered on the NME Singles Chart, peaking at number four. The EP's cover photograph, featuring the Beatles jumping in a London bombsite, has been described by The Telegraph as "one of the key images of the 1960s".
John Carter Cash is an American country singer-songwriter, musician and author. He is the only child of Johnny Cash and his second wife June Carter Cash. He is the grandson of Mother Maybelle Carter.
"I Got a Woman" is a song co-written and recorded by American R&B and soul musician Ray Charles. Atlantic Records released the song as a single in December 1954, with "Come Back Baby" as the B-side. Both songs later appeared on the 1957 album Ray Charles.
The song "Ring of Fire" was made popular by Johnny Cash after it appeared on his 1963 compilation album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. Written by Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter Cash, and songwriter Merle Kilgore, "(Love's) Ring of Fire" was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her 1962 album, Folk Songs Old and New.
Dezider Hoffmann, also known as Dezo Hoffmann or Dežo Hoffmann, was a Slovak photographer, photojournalist and cameraman from Czechoslovakia. In the 1960s he photographed pop and showbiz personalities, including the Beatles.
The Mystery of Life is the 77th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1991, and his last for Mercury Records. The songs featured are culled from both recent sessions and from leftovers from Cash's first Mercury session in 1986 for the album Johnny Cash is Coming to Town.
The Johnny Cash Show is an American television music variety show that was hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969, to March 31, 1971, on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No. 17 in the Nielsen ratings in 1970.
John R. Cash was an American singer-songwriter. Most of Cash's music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. He was known for his deep, calm, bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his backing band, the Tennessee Three, that was characterized by its train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, and his free prison concerts. Cash wore a trademark all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the nickname "Man in Black".
Quonset Hut Studio is the nickname given to Bradley Studios, an independent recording studio complex established in 1954 in Nashville, Tennessee by brothers Harold and Owen Bradley. The first commercial recording studio facility in what would later become known as Music Row, the studio produced hundreds of hits by artists including Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Patsy Cline, Red Foley, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins, Sonny James, and others.
James Joseph Marshall was an American photographer and photojournalist who photographed musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Earning the trust of his subjects, he had extended access to them both on and off-stage. Marshall was the official photographer for the Beatles' final concert in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and he was head photographer at Woodstock.
The House of Cash was a museum in Hendersonville, Tennessee, owned by American musician Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash, and devoted to his life and work. With part of the building also used as their headquarters offices, the museum opened in 1970, adapted from a dinner theatre built in 1960. It closed by 1995. It was located at 700 East Main Street.
Bill Carter is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and member of the Austin Music Hall of Fame. He is best known for co-writing "Crossfire" and "Willie The Wimp", recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughan; "Why Get Up?", recorded by The Fabulous Thunderbirds; and "Jacksboro Highway", recorded by John Mayall. Carter's songs have been covered by other blues, country, and rock artists including Waylon Jennings, Robert Palmer, Ruth Brown, Stray Cats, and Counting Crows.
Ana Cristina Cash is a Cuban-American singer-songwriter.