Press Page
| "4th
Annual Real Blues Awards: Best U.S. Gospel Instrumentalist
of the Year"
Real Blues Magazine
"This CD stands as the
best of Arhoolie's latest series of sacred steel guitar
sessions."
Dan Ouellette, Downbeat, May 1998
"Truly magnificent and
moving. This disc is the most dynamic and talent- laden
of all of the sacred steel discs so far on Arhoolie..."
Andy Grigg, Real Blues
"...different from anything
you've ever heard... essential listening for anyone interested
in blues guitar."
Jim DeKoster, Living Blues |
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one-sheet flyer!
Here is a huge Can You Feel It? full-color
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June
4 , 2004
 
Chuck Campbell Recieves a National Endowment for the Arts
National Heritage Fellowship
National Endowment For The
Arts Announces the 2004 Recipients of the Nation's Highest
Honor in the Folk and Traditional Arts
Twelve Artists to Receive 2004 NEA National Heritage
Fellowships
Washington, D.C. - The National Endowment
for the Arts today announced the 2004 recipients of the
NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country's highest
honor in the folk and traditional arts. Ten fellowships,
which include a one-time award of $20,000 each, are presented
to honorees from ten states. Twelve awardees were chosen
for their artistic excellence, cultural authenticity, and
contributions to their field. Two of the fellowships will
be shared by husband and wife teams.
2004 NEA National Heritage Fellowship
Recipients
Anjani Ambegaokar, North Indian Kathak dancer (Diamond Bar,
CA)
Charles "Chuck"
T. Campbell, gospel steel guitar player (Rochester, NY)
Joe Derrane, Irish-American button accordionist
(Randolph, MA)
Jerry Douglas, Dobro player (Nashville, TN)
Gerald "Subiyay" Miller, Skokomish oral tradition
bearer, carver, basket maker (Shelton, WA)
Milan Opacich, Tamburitza instrument maker (Shererville,
IN)
Eliseo and Paula Rodriguez, straw appliqué artists
(Santa Fe, NM)
Koko Taylor, Blues musician (Country Club Hills, IL)
Yuqin Wang and Zhengli Xu, Chinese rod puppeteers (Aloha,
OR)
These honorees join the ranks of previous
Heritage Fellows, including bluesman B.B. King, Irish stepdancer
Michael Flatley, cowboy poet Wally McRae and acclaimed performers
Shirley Caesar, Doc Watson, and Bill Monroe. Since 1982,
the Endowment has awarded more than 282 National Heritage
Fellowships. Recipients are nominated, often by members
of their own communities, and then judged by a panel on
the basis of their continuing artistic accomplishments and
contributions as practitioners or teachers. Fellows must
be citizens or permanent residents of the United States
or U.S territory.
The 2004 awardees will come to Washington
D.C. in September for a series of events including an awards
presentation on Capitol Hill and a concert at Lisner Auditorium
at George Washington University on Friday, October 1.
NEA
award statement
CHARLES "CHUCK"
T. CAMPBELL
Gospel steel guitarist, Rochester, NY
 Charles
"Chuck" T. Campbell is known as a master of the
sacred steel. This form of music originated in the House
of God, a Holiness-Pentecostal church founded in 1903 by
a Tennessee street preacher named Mary Magdalene Lewis Tate.
In the 1930s a number of these churches began using the
electric steel guitar to function as the central musical
instrument of the religious service, easing the congregants
through contemplative moments and propelling them to ecstatic
celebration at other times. Charles Campbell, whose father
was a bishop in the church, began playing steel guitar at
age 11 and today is recognized as a great innovator and
teacher in the tradition. Campbell developed a unique tuning
and set-up for the pedal steel that is today emulated by
a new generation of steel players. While younger players
like Robert Randolph have taken the sacred steel sound into
the secular world of arena concerts, Charles Campbell continues
to teach the young and pay tribute to the elders. At the
same time, he continually looks for new ways to give the
steel guitar a personal voice of celebration and praise.
May
5, 2002
The Campbell Brothers hold studio sessions with "world's
greatest living drummer" Steve Gadd and singer Michael
Civisca
 Steve
Gadd joined Rochester NY gospel sensations The
Campbell Brothers in the East End Studios in Rochester
NY today. The Campbells have been playing in their father's
Pentecostal church for 25 years, and have only been "allowed"
to play outside of church for the past 3 years. In that
time, they have played around the world from the Playboy
Jazz Fest at the Hollwood Bowl, to the Kennedy Center, Morroco,
London, Paris, Berlin, just to name a few. Their music appeared
on the Sopranos
last year and was included on the Grammy nominated soundtrack
that accompanies the show. The band consists of 3 brothers
who play a lap steel, a pedal steel, and a "normal" electric
guitar. The band's sound is like a cross between the Allman
Brothers and Al Green. Check them out at www.campbellbrothers.com.
Also joining Steve and the Campbells was singing sensation
was Michael Civisca,
who has a new release on Neptune Records entitled Love Is
Like A Breeze... this album (cd) is beautiful, with string
and orchestra work provided by the London Symphony Orchestra
under the direction of legendary arranger (for Sinatra et
al.) Charles Calello. Steve had worked with Michael recently
on Michael's PBS special and soon to be DVD release... watch
for it. Gadd drives this crackerjack band flawlessly...
a tour de force de Gadd. The musicians hit the ground running
and ran through a dozen songs in a few hours.. including:
Mr. Magic (Grover Washington ) All Blues Summertime I Wanna
Know What Love Is (by fellow Rochestarian Lou Gramm) Deed
I Do ...just to name a few. These tracks should be popping
up on a CD release sometime in the near future.
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Industry
Feedback and Reviews |
| Sonny Landreth & Campbell
Brothers
B.B. King Blues Club :: New York, NY
from Jambase.com,
02/04/2005
Recently, slide met guitar in an exciting double-bill
at B.B. King's in New York. It's important not to
look too deeply into these things, but there is something incredibly
illustrative about a bill of the Campbell Brothers and Sonny Landreth that manifested itself cabaret-style
in Times Square. It was a duality of soul and talent, of passion
and technical skill, of rhythm and blues, of art and meaning,
heaven and heathen -- all that in a couple hours of slide guitar.
Campbell Brothers with Sonny Landreth
2.01.05 by Greg Aiello |
After missing the opening act, we arrived
and found a nice vantage point just as the Campbells were
getting tuned up. While Robert Randolph may have, over the past five years,
become the most recognizable wunderkind for the House of God
sound, it is the Campbells who may have struck the best balance
between honoring the intent and roots of the music while stretching
their arms out wide enough to reach a decidedly secular audience.
With a new, sure-to-be-a-must-buy album coming out on that
ubiquitous-in-deliciousness label Ropeadope, you might expect to hear a lot of the
dueling steel guitars from the Brothers Campbell.
Really, the music couldn't be simpler. A steady,
unwavering beat and bassline from the rhythm corps set the
pace, and a variety of conversations are laid on top in the
simplest vocabulary -- both lyrically and melodically. The
music is almost 100% refrain, with the words usually just
a sentence or two with an unmistakably straightforward messages
like "stay positive," "steer clear of evil," "no matter how
bad things are, they're going to get better," "trust in God,"
and "thanks to the Lord." The music is just as driving, straight-shooting,
and uplifting, with a brother each on pedal steel, lap steel,
and electric guitar whirling solos and weaving the gospel,
daring you not to clap your hands, wave your arms, shake your
butt and stomp your feet.
Throughout the hour-long set, the band romped
through church-worthy gospel and tiptoed gracefully through
more pensive, melodic numbers. It was the quiet moments that
struck the deepest chords, particularly a powerful cover of
Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," which will be on their
upcoming album. With his lap steel, Derrick Campbell
built a steeple of a solo over a theme that had everyone chomping
at the proverbial bit to pick up a copy of the album when
it comes out. Later, Chuck Campbell changed gears on
"Don't Let the Devil Ride" by ripping a blues-drenched solo
on his six-string guitar. So it was that a set of music weighted
heavily with emotion, passion, and faith displayed quite a
bit of chops from the stage.
The highlight of the entire night came at
the end of the set when Sonny Landreth strolled out
to sit in, and a wildly impressive jam session ensued. Landreth
jumped right in with a nice preview of his set to come, but
the Campbells refused to be outdone, matching his wits note-for-note
and solo-for-solo. There is something refreshingly genuine
about the Campbell Brothers, and it was shining through in
the final number, their heads a-bobbin' and their tongues
wagging in honest appreciation of Landreth's incomparability.
Each time the mood cooled during the jam, someone else seemed
to pick it back up, treating the crowd to climax after climax
of high-energy soul-cleansing. Finally, in a spontaneous spurt
of passion, Phillip Campbell hopped up from his pedal
steel and started dancing across the stage. The emotions were
so real, and the audience members' only lament was that the
floor, filled with tables, left no room for them to do the
same.....
Aaron Stein
JamBase | NYC
Steeling Souls: The
Campbell Brothers make divine use of the steel guitar
Review from Westwood.com, music
section
The Campbells create a unique, steel-guitar-driven
gospel music called "sacred steel" that's every
bit as earth-shattering as Johnson's music was in the '30s.
It's a soul-stirring blend of gospel and the power and volume
of electric blues and rock, a sound as hot as brimstone that
kicks holy butt. It's also shredding perceptions of country's
signature instrument and the limitations of church music.
[Read
full review]
NPR's All Songs Considered
Interview on National Public Radio
Chuck Campbell discusses sacred steel guitar
tradition.
“And so the steel guitar--we've used this instrument
to pick up on those type of things of when a song is going
along, of picking up someone moaning low in a male voice or
in a lady--a female voice, a high-pitched sound. And those
are the type of things we try to pick up. And all those things
came from this tradition of trying to mimic that human voice
and bring it to another level.”
[Listen
to full interview on NPR.org]
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