Well, next, he isn't the only author you get to meet tonight.

Charlotte is rich in music history and another local man has been covering our music scene here and around the country for 30 years.

When he is not photographing bands on stage, you can find him in the studio producing albums or writing books about music.

Producer Russ Hunsinger has the story.

(jazzy music) - I always feel I'm different people at different times.

Some folks know that I do events, some people know that I work with a lot of musicians.

(pair singing) (guitar playing) On other days I am a producer.

It's all me.

I always just say it's just me, it's Daniel.

But I am, put myself in different things and different positions to allow me to create and enjoy this creative process.

(camera beeping) (camera shutter clicking) Johnny Cash, Avett Brothers, Merle Haggard, Beach Boys, Monkeys, Wilco, Glenn Miller Orchestra.

So in the mid nineties, I started working with a newspaper and I also was writing for a freeform magazine here in Charlotte called Tangents.

Both outlets did not have a photographer.

And I was like, well, I always thought photography was cool.

I'll take the pictures.

And then very quickly, I realized I really enjoyed it.

And then the bands that I was photographing started hiring me.

Then I realized very soon after that that I could do this not just locally, but regionally and nationally.

I could go harken back to these photographers whose work that I looked at from the sixties and seventies where they were out on the road working with the musicians, creating a visual that's lasted.

And I fell in love with that very quickly and discovered that, okay, I really want to do this and I might even make some money here and there doing that.

So very quickly, within a year or two, I've always lived here in Charlotte, but I got on the road and started working with bands.

(record static sounding) (drum music) The most important thing about being a producer is having sympathetic eyes and ears.

You are the one that says, okay, I like this idea.

Oo, what if we did this?

And what if we worked with these musicians to make this an even better idea than what you originally had?

- He is the guiding light.

Because we'll play something and it'll be dreadful and we'll think it's great.

And it's like, let's not get ahead of ourselves here fellows.

Like, maybe one more in the nicest way.

(rock music playing) - Somewhere between a friend and adult that says, okay, you can do this a little better.

Let's get to the best version of this take.

Or in the archival sense, you're the one saying, okay, how can I make these recordings sound better?

How do I describe them?

How do we put the packaging together?

(rock music playing) (tambourine playing) - Yeah, he knows we've been doing it for a long time and it's just hard to tell old dogs what to do anyway.

And a lot of times he'll say something and we'll know he is right and we'll just be obstinate and stupid 'cause it's our way.

(plays guitar) (typewriter typing) - You are falling in love with music.

I always say I listen to Betty Goodman, the same reason that I listen to the Velvet Underground.

I like it.

And along the way, you're meeting musicians and they're telling you stories and you go, that's a really good story.

I've never heard that story before.

You start writing them down.

As a writer, there's so many of the interviews I've done was just an excuse for me to talk to the musician and get these stories down.

And I'm so glad I did.

Many of them have ended up in books.

They've ended up in box sets for a lot of artists that I'm still a huge fan of.

But it came out of me just wanting to get these stories told.

To this day, I'm fascinated by the Charlotte music scene, not just the music that was made here in the 1960s, but then the music that led through the decades to now.

It's all tied together.

It's all people who, like myself, moved here to Charlotte, moved to North Carolina and found a home here and found a creative home.

And it all ties together.

(rock music) If you'd told me as a kid that you're gonna grow up and do all these things, there's part of me would've said, oh yeah, 'cause I wanted to do that, but could I?

Unless I questioned myself and said, yeah, I think I can do this.

I want to do this.

Let's go do this.

So, for me the philosophy of doing all the things I do is create, enjoy, and don't set limits on yourself.