What a night! After a surprise engagement for Haley Dykes and Jake Johnson early in the morning on WGN Radio, they joined father (and future father-in-law) Doyle Dykes to perform at the Skokie Theatre in Skokie, IL. This was the first time Jake has performed with Doyle on stage. Rehearsal? No way! Like Doyle said, "You're a musician. Get up there and play!" Jake did a great job playing the bass, so I guess he passed the criteria of joining the family!
I actually met Jake several years ago the day after I photographed Doyle's daughter Holli's wedding in Tennessee. He was playing bass for Haley for a church performance she had the day after the wedding. Who would have known that we'd meet up again here in Chicago the day after his engagement to Haley?
The show opened with introductions from WGN radio personalities, Steve King and Johnnie Putman. Doyle started the show and later invited Jake to come out to play bass. For someone who never had a chance to practice with Doyle before having to perform with him, he did a great job laying down the bottom-end. Later, fiancé Haley joined them on Mandolin and vocals. She wowed the audience as always.
I made a mental note that the sound they had playing all together at the Skokie Theatre was really nice. Usually, I've heard Haley sing and play with Doyle without a bass and having that extra low-end sound from the bass really helped fill out things. Mandolin and guitar are rather bright sounding instruments so having a nice bass line really makes the sound full. And hearing it in an acoustically balanced room that is the Skokie Theatre made it so much better too.
The Skokie Theatre is having some financial problems and really needs the support of the community to keep it open and running. Knowing this, Doyle was moved to donate his entire pay from this concert back to the Skokie Theatre to help it out. Way to go, Doyle! How many guys do you know that would do that?!
Pastor Steve Lyon who was instrumental in getting Doyle to write a book which is coming out on April 1, 2011 joined everyone for a group photo. I first met Pastor Steve when he was the pastor of the Des Plaines Bible Church. Today he works with Moody Publishing.
Doyle also announced that he will begin taping a new cable TV show for the RFD network which will be based on his Live Sessions DVD. Guests will include a LOT of great musicians including such musicians like Roy Clark, Duane Eddy, James Burton, Tommy Emmanuel, and Eric Johnson! This is going to be one incredible show! Seems EVERYBODY who is anybody is scheduled to be on this show! Congrats Doyle!
After the show, my friend Jerry Moy and I joined everyone for a late night dinner. We were all very tired as we have had very little sleep since staying up for the WGN radio show which started at 12 midnight Friday morning and ran until 3:00 AM (actually the show runs longer, but Doyle's segment finished at 3:00 AM.) I think the only ones that didn't look tired was Steve and Johnnie! Well, I suppose they do it every night anyway, so they are used to it. For us, we were all tired by the end of the night.
Here it is, now 4:44 AM as I'm typing this and I'm still up finishing things! I told Haley and Jake that I was tired and will work on the images later. But as Haley predicted, "You are going to stay up and work on them right after you get home." I guess she knows me better than I know myself.
Congrats again to the happy couple! Love you guys! :)
Be sure to click on each image for a closer look.
Here's a video I got off YouTube of Jake and Doyle:
2 comments:
Wonderful pics as always Russ. The Skokie Theatre is a such a amazing venue both acoustically and visually as backdrop to your photos. These photos have a warmth and comfort that makes the viewer feel like they were there!
Get some sleep dude!
It was 5:30 AM by the time I finally went to bed. I just woke up at 12 noon. Now I have a bunch of photos to work on from a family portrait session I did earlier in the day before the concert!
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