Larry Campbell (musician)

Larry Campbell
Background information
Birth name	Larry Campbell
Born	February 21, 1955 New York, New York, United States
Genres	Folk rock, folk, rock, blues, country
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Guitar, mandolin, Violin, Irish bouzouki, vocals, bass
Years active	1980–present
Associated acts	Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Phil Lesh and Friends, Hot Tuna
Website	Larry Campbell

Larry Campbell (born February 21, 1955, New York, New York, United States) is an American 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 perhaps most widely known for his time as part of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour band from 1997 to 2004.

Campbell also has extensive experience as a studio musician. Over the past years, Larry has recorded with artists including Levon Helm, Judy Collins, Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell, Linda Thompson, Sheryl Crow, Chris Castle, Paul Simon, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Eric Andersen, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Cyndi Lauper, k.d. lang, Anastasia Barzee, Rosanne Cash and Ayọ.

Biography

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. Campbell also contributed his talents to several musicals. 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.^[1] The Revue recorded 5 classic albums for Rounder Records and is widely considered one of the premier folk groups of all time. 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.

Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan's "Never Ending Tour" band from March 31, 1997 until November 21, 2004. Through his association with Dylan's bass player Tony Garnier, Larry joined the band, replacing John 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. In 2003, Campbell appeared in the Dylan-penned film Masked and Anonymous.

Since Campbell's departure from Dylan's band, he has continued to make guest appearances with various artists and live acts including Peter Wolf, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Furthur, and Phil and Friends. He has also produced albums for many artists, including most recently Jorma Kaukonen.

Campbell toured regularly with Levon Helm, in addition to producing Helm's two Grammy-winning albums, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt, and acting as the musical director for Levon's Midnight Ramble concerts.^[2]

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 the Outlaw Country band Whitey Morgan and the 78's recorded at Levon Helm's studio in December 2009 and January 2010, and Last Bird Home by Chris Castle, also recorded at Levon's studio in 2011.^[3] Campbell played guitar, pedal steel, banjo, slide, mandolin, and fiddle on Dan Brenner's 2011 album Little Dark Angel produced by 10-time Grammy winner Jay Newland.^[4]

Larry collaborated with his wife, Teresa Williams, to release their self-titled album on June 23, 2015 on Red House Records.

Personal life

Campbell is married to singer Teresa Williams.^[5] For the past several years, Campbell has been musical director and bandleader of the Levon Helm Band at the latter's Midnight Ramble concerts. 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.

References

1. Ruhlmann, William. "Biography: Woodstock Mountain Revue". Allmusic. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
2. "Levon Helm Going "Electric" This June". Billboard. April 14, 2009. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
3. "Americana songwriter, Womacks play Edinboro, Erie gigs - GoErie.com - Erie, PA". GoErie.com. 2011-09-15. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
4. "Jay Newland Discography" (PDF). Jdmanagement.com. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
5. "Larry Campbell: Rock N Rolls Right Hand Man". Relix Media Group. April 22, 2007. Retrieved November 24, 2010.

External links

• Larry Campbell Interview – Country Music Pride
• Larry Campbell site at members.cox.net
• Larry Campbell from Bob Dylan Who's Who pages
• Lifetime achievement award for Larry Campbell.