Honky-Tonk: country music the way it used be; here's a look at a bygone era, an affectionate glimpse of fans, performers, and the places where they mingled

IN 1972, HENRY HORENSTEIN. a young history-trained photographer and country music fan began recording the country music scene as he experienced it from Reeds Ferry, N.H., to Mamou, La. Taking the advice of his professor, the sage and significant photographer Harry Callahan, to "photograph people and places you are drawn to," Horenstein turned his camera to the country music concerts, bars, and music parks he frequented. The result was a direct and affectionate glimpse at fans, performers, and the places where they mingled.

His early documentary work is featured in "Honky-Tonk: Country Music Photographs by Henry Horenstein, 1972-1981." About 80 black-and-white stills and a dozen artifacts hint at what the country music scene was like at the end of an era--a time when the old-timers were still alive, today's greats were up-and coming, and fans could walk right up to musicians to get an autograph and a handshake.

Underlying Horenstein's photographs is a theme of accessibility. Fans and performers had a close relationship because smaller venues allowed for it and there were fewer handlers who pushed photographers out of the way. Without the structure of today's music industry and arena venues, performers needed fans in a different way, and there was a willingness to permit photography of themselves and their homes.

One example of an amateur fan's experience of this freer access to performers is a photo album that is included in "Honky-Tonk." It is a straight-forward work made by an unidentified fan in 1972, with snapshots of Doily Patton in a bar where the stage is maybe only 6' x 4' and of Waylon Jennings and Jessie Colter signing autographs at an unadorned folding table.

Fans often could approach performers before or after the show. Ernest Tubb was known for being gracious to his legions of followers. One of Horenstein's photographs shows them swarming around Tubb as he arrives on his tour bus. In another, Pearl Butler is accepting a song request from a young fan during a performance at the Lone Star Ranch in New Hampshire. Photographers certainly had easier access to well-known stars in the 1970s. Horenstein had about an hour with Patton at Boston Symphony Hall in 1972, but he was so nervous that he actually only took a few pictures. The one seen here is his first published photograph for Boston After Dark (now the Boston Phoenix).

Horenstein knew Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton-Levy, and Bill Nowlin before they founded Rounder Records, a popular American roots label, in 1970. It seemed only natural that, when they needed photographs for their first album covers, Horenstein should do the job. He would continue to produce photographs for album covers on and off for the next decade or so. His photograph of the Washington, D.C.-based group Johnson Mountain Boys sitting along a picturesque rock wall was the cover of "Walls of Time," the group's second Rounder album, in 1981. Not only is this photo in the exhibition, but so is the hat of guitarist Dudley Connell, a homage to bluegrass great Bill Monroe (whose portrait is in the exhibition as well).

With a press pass from Rounder Records, Horenstein traveled from Boston to Nashville twice to head backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in its last regularly scheduled years at the Ryman Theater. On stage, he photographed Roy Acuff with his fiddle, cloggers rapping the floor with quick feet, and DeFord Bailey playing his famous train-imitating harmonica. From the wings, he captured Pee Wee King, who penned "The Tennessee Waltz," sharing a piano bench with Minnie Pearl. That photograph, along with her hat with its famous tag, is on view. Horenstein made his way backstage and into dressing rooms to shoot Opry stars like Lester Flatt, Carol Lee Cooper, Jean Shepard, and Hank Snow--and no trip to the Ryman would be complete without stepping out the back door to Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Horenstein's portrait of the famous honky-tonk proprietor greets visitors at the entrance to the exhibition.

Horenstein found himself with other country music fans of all ages at outdoor music parks and bluegrass festivals. In the parking lots, he and his camera uncovered the Osborne Brothers, Anita Carter, and Hank Williams Jr. (without his requisite sunglasses, exiting his bus). He shot fans jamming with the great mandolin player Joe Val, and Del McCoury just outside his tour bus at an impromptu outdoor recording. He heard individuals and bands in bars from Louisiana and Boston. There, his camera recorded patrons hanging on each other over a drink at the bar, dancing to local bands, and playing their own harmonicas and accordions.

At first glance, Horenstein's photographs feel like snapshots. The content is informal, his approach direct, and his subjects at ease. This combination of photographic elements results in a casual, friendly record of having been at a bar, wandered around the music park, or been a guest at a performer's home. However, these are not snapshots, but carefully framed photographs with tight, unencumbered compositions and deftly controlled light. Horenstein's aesthetic approach creates the feeling of immediacy, of being there in the moment. This allows viewers to see back into the 1970s world of country music without cliche or nostalgia , to get a sense of the relationships between fans and performers in the places where country music was found.