Backstage Pass: The Early Years of Rolling Stone

Rock Your Backstage Pass

Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter are three home-grown musicians highlighted in “Backstage Pass: Baron Wolman and the Early Years of Rolling Stone.”

This temporary exhibit will turn the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Dunn Gallery into a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from Nov. 2 through Jan. 4. Iconic photographs show performers in a variety of settings, invoking the era of their original publication in the magazine.

Musicians were captured at a variety of ages and at the peak of their careers live on stage, in the studio or in candid, relaxed poses. A shot of McDowell portrayed a weathered and tired-eyed blues man, and the accompanying literature told his story of farming and doing menial labor until he first recorded in 1959 at age 55.  A youthful Pete Townsend was captured in the studio, cradling a beer at a production board, when the Who was recording Tommy, and an almost impressionist image of Tina Turner showed the electricity she brought to the stage.