Usually on the weekends my friends and I would hit Newport, Rhode Island, to take pictures of each other copying U2 photos that we had seen, with ourselves replacing the band members - not knowing that years later I'd actually become a music photographer.

We'd go to Boston unbeknownst to our parents, or we'd hit up our old faithful, Thayer Street, in Providence which is an artsy area near Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Brown University. Usually, on these days I'd spend numerous hours in the record stores on Thayer.

In Your Ear Records and Tom's Tracks were my preferred romps. I'd spend hours looking at album covers and finding the best deals on the music I wanted to purchase on a limited budget. One day I was out buying music and I probably had about 13 dollars on me, which was about the amount I had to spend on music every week. I remember wanting to buy Cocteau Twins records, but never pulling the trigger because they were English imports and deemed too expensive, although I did own every Smiths import ever printed and still do, but that's a story for another day.

That's when I happened upon a cassette tape from a band from Raleigh N.C., The Connells called Boylan Heights. It was a promo copy with a photocopy jacket with "promo" printed across it, cheaper than a cassette with the proper jacket. I probably paid $6 for the tape and still can't remember what possessed me to take a chance on it, besides having the opportunity to hear the album before everyone else.

Every night when I went to bed I played music to go to sleep. My go-to sleep music was comprised by The Smiths, Robert Fripp and Andy Sumners, Peter Gabriel, Kitaro, and The Connells.

Since 1986 I've gone on to photograph and film literally thousands of bands. A few weeks ago, I got to meet the Connells and tell them the story of my purchasing their cassette as a teenager and how I scraped together money to buy music and how choosing their music at the time was a sacred ritual for me and a building block to become the man I am today.

We spent the day together in Asheville where I photographed the soundcheck at the Grey Eagle, where the uber-friendly Mike Connell walked right over to me and shook my hand with a big smile on his face.

I got to drive his brother David Connell to Citizen Vinyl where their record was being pressed in Asheville. I spent time backstage with the band and photographed what I believe to be their first live show since the pandemic started.

Doug MacMillan's voice was incredible. He's lost nothing. He and I swapped stories about touring Europe where the band had their biggest hits, and he told me that his son is incredibly prolific and has managed to write more songs than him in half the time.

Over the years the Connells have not wavered. Their music is Southern Wave with a jangle pop sound that put them into the same circle as bands like R.E.M. and Guadalcanal Diary. Their music is sensitive and hopeful at the same time. Keyboardist Steve Potak, guitarist Mike Ayers and drummer Rob Ladd round out the ensemble and were equally talented and friendly musicians. It was a pleasure to spend the day and evening with the Connells and is certainly a day that I will never forget.

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