{"id":7136,"date":"2018-05-06T09:13:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T13:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7136"},"modified":"2018-05-06T22:25:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T02:25:20","slug":"kelly-davidson-rock-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/05\/06\/kelly-davidson-rock-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rock Parents\u2019 Photos Show What Happens When Musicians Have Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kelly Davidson first began photographing for The Boston Phoenix newspaper in the late 1990s, she got assignments to shoot portraits of Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, The Breeders and Belly, and Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo.<\/p>\n

Visiting their homes, she was struck by a realization: \u201cWait, you have kids? You have a family?\u201d It seemed wrong somehow. \u201cYou\u2019re rock stars!\u201d<\/p>\n

But out of that observation grew her photographic series \u201cRock<\/a> Parents,\u201d<\/a> which Davidson\u2019s been shooting since 2005. \u201cIt\u2019s all about these local rock stars with their kids,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really just this fascination that rock stars have lives. They had homes. They had husbands and wives. They had pets,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cIt was really awesome to see. People still doing what they love \u2026 and having a normal life and still having this rock star life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photos,\u201d she says, \u201cgive you a glimpse of the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Edrie<\/a>
Edrie (left) and Walter Sickert from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Enjoying this article? Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The photos are the subject of her one-evening \u201cRock Parents\u201d exhibition<\/a> at Once in Somerville tonight, Sunday, May 6. It debuts at 5 p.m., with performances by John Powhida International Airport at 6 p.m., The One Smith at 7 p.m., and Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys at 8 p.m. Admission is free and all ages are welcome.<\/p>\n

This is Davidson\u2019s seventh exhibition of the series. This time she\u2019s featuring 13 new photos taken since late last year. \u201cI think that brings the whole project up to 70-something\u201d photos, Davidson says. This edition arrives after she gave birth to her daughter Evy three years ago and son Charlie a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/a>
Anthony \u201cAnts\u201d Conley (left) and Alli Thresher from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She photographed the portraits around Boston, western Massachusetts, New York and Los Angeles. \u201cEither they play in Boston or they used to play in Boston,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When Davidson began the project, she photographed on film and aimed to capture candid scenes while hanging around like a fly on a wall. But she switched to a digital camera. Nowadays the photos are staged in parks, homes, and occasionally at shows when the kids happen to be there to get the pictures quickly\u2014to fit into busy lives and get done before kids tire of the exercise, she says.<\/p>\n

Davidson took photographs all growing up. She combined that with her love of music and led to her photographing rock shows for the University of Connecticut newspaper (where she was studied physical therapy) then the Boston University paper (where she studied photojournalism), and then The Boston Phoenix newspaper. \u201cRock Parents\u201d began as a way to keep productive and build her portfolio as she developed her freelance photography business.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Powhida from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This exhibition includes the photos of Jonathan Ulman with his 2-year-old daughter Mary sitting on a drum and banging on a cymbal; David Stoops sitting on a porch while his 4-year-old daughter Zoe trots a toy lion across his bald head; Anthony \u201cAnts\u201d Conley kissing Alli Thresher as their kids\u201410-weeks-old Thoe and 1-and-a-half-year-old Vincent\u2014roll around on their laps; and John Powhida with his two kids (one jumping on the bed).<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/a>
Kelly Davidson (left) and Matt Savage from Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Davidson and her husband Matt Savage\u2014a singer and songwriter for the band Coo & Howl\u2014are pictured with their kids in this exhibit. Davidson has played guitar in the Liz Borden Band, bass in Naked On Roller Skates, and \u201cthen I had a little recording project called Star Matters, but we never played live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met when I photographed his band when I moved to Boston in \u201997. He was in the band Godboy. It was the first band portrait I ever shot,\u201d Davidson says. She was still in college when she was asked by the band to photograph their press portrait.<\/p>\n

They struck up a friendship, but romance didn\u2019t blossom for more than a decade. \u201cI only dated women,\u201d Davidson says, \u201cso that\u2019s why we didn\u2019t date till 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Janovitz from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are rock stars as far out at home as they appear on stage?<\/p>\n

\u201cWalter Sickert and Edrie, I think they just exude art. I don\u2019t think there is any aspect of their life that isn\u2019t art. Their daughter Wednesday goes to all their shows,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t change their lives to have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there are artists like Tom Janovitz of the indie rock band Sodafrog (and brother to Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom). \u201cHe owns his own contractor job,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cThey were just running around outside. They had a Christmas tree up in this pristine house. \u2026 I know there was music in there, but it just seemed like a happy cute normal family. Not in a bad way. \u2026 I think he was wearing a leather jacket, which is pretty rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
David Stoops from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jonathan<\/a>
Jonathan Ulman from Kelly Davidson’s “Rock Parents” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Enjoying this article? Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Kelly Davidson first began photographing for The Boston Phoenix newspaper in the late 1990s, she got assignments to shoot portraits of Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, The Breeders and Belly, and Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo. Visiting their homes, she was struck by a realization: \u201cWait, you have kids? You have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,101],"tags":[175,17,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7136"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7154,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136\/revisions\/7154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}