Larry Campbell (musician)
Encyclopedia
Larry Campbell is a multi-instrumentalist
who plays many stringed instruments (including guitar
, mandolin
, pedal steel guitar
, slide guitar
, and violin
) in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock. He is most widely known for his playing on Bob Dylan
's Love and Theft and for being an integral part of Dylan's live band for several years. He also appeared in Dylan's 2003 movie Masked and Anonymous
.
Campbell has had extensive experience as a studio musician. Over the past years, Larry has recorded with Levon Helm
, Judy Collins
, Linda Thompson
, Sheryl Crow
, Chris Castle
, Paul Simon
, B. B. King
, Willie Nelson
, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman
, Little Feat
, Hot Tuna
, Cyndi Lauper
, K. D. Lang, Anastasia Barzee
and Rosanne Cash
, just to name a few.
Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan
's "Never Ending Tour" band from March 31, 1997 until November 21, 2004. Through his association with Tony Garnier
, Bob Dylan
's bass player, Larry joined the band, replacing J.J. Jackson as a guitarist, and expanded the role to multi-instrumentalist, playing instruments such as cittern, violin/fiddle, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, and slide guitar. He also contributed vocals. When introducing Larry and the rest of the band, Bob Dylan often referred to them as some of the finest musicians in the country.
Campbell was felt to have contributed heavily to Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft, with its expansion into the realm of Western Swing
and other groundbreaking areas for Dylan. He also was perceived as having a profound effect on the tightness and well-rounded sound of that period's live performances, in part due to his years of experience producing, arranging, and freelancing with a rich variety of styles. During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell performed regularly on New York City
's burgeoning Country Music
scene, at well-known venues such as Greenwich Village
's legendary Lone Star Cafe
, City Limits, The Rodeo Bar, and O'Lunney's, near the United Nations
.
Since Campbell's departure from Bob Dylan
's band, he has continued to make guest appearances with various artists and live acts including Elvis Costello
, Emmylou Harris
and Rosanne Cash
and Furthur
. A former performer with Phil and Friends, Campbell tours regularly with Levon Helm
. He has also produced albums for many artists, including most recently Jorma Kaukonen
. He produced Levon Helm's two Grammy-winning albums, Dirt Farmer
and Electric Dirt
and is the musical director for Levon's Midnight Ramble concerts.
In earlier years, Campbell contributed his talents to several musicals. In 1982, Campbell performed in the orchestra for Alaska - The Musical, playing fiddle
, acoustic and electric guitar
, pedal steel and banjo
. Campbell also performed in the orchestra for Big River
in 1985, and Rhythm Ranch in 1989. In addition, he played pedal steel guitar, banjo
, fiddle
and guitar
for the entire run of The Will Rogers Follies
, which opened on Broadway
in New York City
on May 1, 1991.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Campbell was also a member of The Woodstock Mountains Revue, a unique folk group that featured Artie & Happy Traum
, Pat Alger
, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith
, John Herald
, Eric Andersen
and John Sebastian
. The Revue recorded 5 classic albums for Rounder Records
, and although Rounder allowed over 50 of their albums to go out-of-print, the band is widely considered one of the premier folk groups of all time.
On Thursday September 18, 2008, at the 7th Annual Americana Music Association
Honors and Awards Show, Campbell was presented with The Lifetime Achievement ~ Instrumentalist Award.
Campbell is credited with playing banjo, fiddle, and pedal steel on The Black Crowes
2009 album Before the Frost...Until the Freeze
. He also appears on Whitey Morgan and the 78's
recorded at Levon Helm's studio in December 2009 and January 2010 by the Outlaw Country
band Whitey Morgan and the 78's
and Last Bird Home by Chris Castle
, also recorded at Levon's studio in 2011.
Campbell is married to singer Teresa Williams.
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
who plays many stringed instruments (including guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
, slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
, and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
) in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock. He is most widely known for his playing on Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Love and Theft and for being an integral part of Dylan's live band for several years. He also appeared in Dylan's 2003 movie Masked and Anonymous
Masked and Anonymous
Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 comedy-drama film directed by Larry Charles, who is better known for his writing on successful TV sitcoms, Seinfeld and Mad About You and for executive producing episodes of The Tick and Dilbert. The film was written by Larry Charles and Bob Dylan, the latter under...
.
Campbell has had extensive experience as a studio musician. Over the past years, Larry has recorded with Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Linda Thompson
Linda Thompson
Linda Diane Thompson is an American actress, lyricist and beauty pageant winner who rose to international fame as Elvis Presley's long time girlfriend after he separated from his wife.-Pageants:...
, Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, Chris Castle
Chris Castle
Chris Castle is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music", while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter" and "a tunesmith of almost scary vision,...
, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
, Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
, Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, K. D. Lang, Anastasia Barzee
Anastasia Barzee
Anastasia Barzee is a celebrated Broadway, Film and Television actress. She is a graduate of Frost School of Music at Miami University. Along with fellow Miami grads, the Grammy Award nominated Matt Pierson and Grammy Winner Gil Goldstein she has recorded a solo album, The Dimming of the Day, of...
and Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....
, just to name a few.
Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Never Ending Tour" band from March 31, 1997 until November 21, 2004. Through his association with Tony Garnier
Tony Garnier
Tony Garnier may refer to:* Tony Garnier * Tony Garnier * Halle Tony Garnier, French concert hall...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's bass player, Larry joined the band, replacing J.J. Jackson as a guitarist, and expanded the role to multi-instrumentalist, playing instruments such as cittern, violin/fiddle, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, and slide guitar. He also contributed vocals. When introducing Larry and the rest of the band, Bob Dylan often referred to them as some of the finest musicians in the country.
Campbell was felt to have contributed heavily to Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft, with its expansion into the realm of Western Swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
and other groundbreaking areas for Dylan. He also was perceived as having a profound effect on the tightness and well-rounded sound of that period's live performances, in part due to his years of experience producing, arranging, and freelancing with a rich variety of styles. During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell performed regularly on New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's burgeoning Country Music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
scene, at well-known venues such as Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
's legendary Lone Star Cafe
Lone Star Cafe
The Lone Star Cafe was a cafe and club in New York City at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, from 1976 to 1989. The Texas-themed cafe opened in February 1976 and became the premier country music venue in New York and booked big names and especially acts from Texas, like Asleep at the...
, City Limits, The Rodeo Bar, and O'Lunney's, near the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Since Campbell's departure from Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's band, he has continued to make guest appearances with various artists and live acts including Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
and Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....
and Furthur
Furthur
Further was a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964 for $1,500 from Andre Hobson in Atherton, California. The bus was stripped down and remodeled inside and out for a psychedelic excursion across the country with Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on board...
. A former performer with Phil and Friends, Campbell tours regularly with Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
. He has also produced albums for many artists, including most recently Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
. He produced Levon Helm's two Grammy-winning albums, Dirt Farmer
Dirt Farmer
Dirt Farmer is an album by American musician Levon Helm, former drummer for The Band. The album was released on October 30, 2007 on Vanguard Records, and was Helm's first studio album since 1982. The album contains covers of songs by Steve Earle and J. B. Lenoir, and features his daughter Amy, as...
and Electric Dirt
Electric Dirt
Electric Dirt is a 2009 album by American musician Levon Helm. It is the follow-up to his Grammy-winning 2007 album Dirt Farmer. In Uncuts list of the 150 best albums between 2000 until 2009, Electric Dirt was listed 80th...
and is the musical director for Levon's Midnight Ramble concerts.
In earlier years, Campbell contributed his talents to several musicals. In 1982, Campbell performed in the orchestra for Alaska - The Musical, playing fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, acoustic and electric guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, pedal steel and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
. Campbell also performed in the orchestra for Big River
Big River (musical)
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a musical with a book by William Hauptman and music and lyrics by Roger Miller.Based on Mark Twain's classic 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it features music in the bluegrass and country styles in keeping with the setting of the novel...
in 1985, and Rhythm Ranch in 1989. In addition, he played pedal steel guitar, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
for the entire run of The Will Rogers Follies
Will Rogers Follies
The Will Rogers Follies is a musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Cy Coleman.It focuses on the life and career of famed humorist and performer Will Rogers, using as a backdrop the Ziegfeld Follies, which he often headlined, and describes every...
, which opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on May 1, 1991.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Campbell was also a member of The Woodstock Mountains Revue, a unique folk group that featured Artie & Happy Traum
Happy Traum
Happy Traum is an American folk musician who started playing music in the Fifties. Happy is most famously known as one half of Happy and Artie Traum, a duo he began with his brother...
, Pat Alger
Pat Alger
Pat Alger is a country music songwriter, singer and guitarist.-Biography:Alger attended Georgia Tech studying architecture but decided to concentrate on writing songs. He started as a solo folk performer at folk clubs...
, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith
Bill Keith
Bill Keith may refer to:* Bill Keith , painter, photographer and visual poet* Bill Keith , banjo player and innovator of the "melodic style" of banjo playing...
, John Herald
John Herald
John Herald was an American folk and bluegrass songwriter, solo and studio musician, and one-time member of The Greenbriar Boys trio.-Biography:...
, Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
and John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
. The Revue recorded 5 classic albums for Rounder Records
Rounder Records
Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
, and although Rounder allowed over 50 of their albums to go out-of-print, the band is widely considered one of the premier folk groups of all time.
On Thursday September 18, 2008, at the 7th Annual Americana Music Association
Americana Music Association
The Americana Music Association is a trade organization developed to provide professional support and to promote awareness of Americana music. Toward these ends the organization works with artists, radio stations, record labels, publishers, and others to create networking opportunities and to...
Honors and Awards Show, Campbell was presented with The Lifetime Achievement ~ Instrumentalist Award.
Campbell is credited with playing banjo, fiddle, and pedal steel on The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in 1989. Their discography includes nine studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer George Drakoulias and released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the...
2009 album Before the Frost...Until the Freeze
Before the Frost...Until the Freeze
Before the Frost...Until the Freeze is a 2009 double album by blues-rock band The Black Crowes. It was recorded before a live audience at Levon Helm's Woodstock, NY studio, The Barn in late February and early March, 2009....
. He also appears on Whitey Morgan and the 78's
Whitey Morgan and the 78's (album)
-Recording history:It was recorded in December 2009 and January 2010 at Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock, NY. The band members at the time of recording included Whitey Morgan on Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Benny James Vermelyen on Guitar and vocals, Tamineh Gueramy on Fiddle, Jeremy...
recorded at Levon Helm's studio in December 2009 and January 2010 by the Outlaw Country
Outlaw country
Outlaw country is a subgenre of country music, most popular during the late 1960s and the 1970s , sometimes referred to as the outlaw movement or simply outlaw music...
band Whitey Morgan and the 78's
Whitey Morgan and the 78's
Whitey Morgan and the 78's are honky tonk country band based in Flint, MI. In 2010 they signed a recording contract with Chicago based Bloodshot Records.-Formation and Early History:...
and Last Bird Home by Chris Castle
Chris Castle
Chris Castle is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music", while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter" and "a tunesmith of almost scary vision,...
, also recorded at Levon's studio in 2011.
Campbell is married to singer Teresa Williams.
External links
- Larry Campbell Interview - Country Music Pride
- Larry Campbell site at members.cox.net
- Larry Campbell from Bob Dylan Who's Who pages