Night One of Gary Clark Jr. & Danielle Ponder in Nashville

This past Thursday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, I had the privilege of doing something I had never done before in the history of me shooting concerts. That was to shoot an artist for a second time after covering them many years ago as a local artist.

I am talking about a small-capacity local venue artist now on one of the most prestigious stages in America.  

To give a little backstory, seven years ago, while living in central New York, I had the opportunity to photograph one of the best local artists around at that time. Her name was Danielle Ponder and she had a big, beautiful, soulful voice. I remember she hired me to shoot one of her shows in Syracuse, New York, where there were maybe 200 people in attendance. Fast forward nearly a decade and Danielle would now be performing at the historic Ryman Auditorium opening for the legendary Gary Clark Jr.

As she walked out onstage, chills immediately ran throughout my body. She looked exactly the same as I remembered her and her voice was as big and beautiful as ever. She immediately went into a song about heartbreak and I felt the emotions begin to overtake me. As each song progressed, the audience grew louder and louder, eventually culminating in a standing ovation that lasted over three minutes. She played my favorite song “Someone Like You” and even decided mid-set to perform an amazing cover of Radiohead‘s smash hit “Creep”. If you love powerful, smooth soul music, I highly recommend checking out her work.

Her music in my opinion lives in the same realm as Aretha Franklin or Etta James. 

Gary Clark Jr. is in a league of his own and has been for many years in terms of guitar mastery and musicianship. As soon as he walked out, the audience erupted and I can only describe his performance as magical. It felt like a progressive buildup of music that only got faster and more intense. This was the first of two nights at the Ryman Auditorium and I genuinely wished I had the ability to attend his second show. He plays the guitar as if it’s an extension of his own body; the riffs just flow out of him as if it’s second nature. He played through nearly a two-hour set of all his most well-known songs and concluded with an encore of “Don’t Owe You a Thing”. Even though he said goodnight, the crowd just kept chanting “one more song”! This was honestly one of the best shows I have attended at the Ryman this year and I hope it’s not the last time I see either of these insanely talented performers in Nashville.

Photography by Derek Jones

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