Kate Campbell, Diggin Her Roots

Originally published in the Winston Salem Journal Sept. 6, 2002

Singer-songwriter Kate Campbell doesn’t skip an inch of fertile ground as she plows her Mississippi roots. She teases out the red-clay love of religion and garden vegetables “in my tomato bed, the holy image blood red…Jesus and tomatoes coming soon.”

Then she turns around and digs deep into the South’s more sinister crimes “four little girls, dressed up nice, singing about Jesus,” a Muscle Shoals-style eulogy for the African-American children killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963.  

Running through her even, clear voice (in the style of Emmylou Harris) is an earnest plea, borne from growing up on the knee of a Baptist preacher in the ‘60s in the South.

 “I was a child in the sixties, not a teenager, not an adult—and not understanding what I saw on TV. And we saw a lot on TV. My father was a story-telling Baptist minister and I got some early lessons in story-telling every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights.”

 Sandwiched between the televised terrors of racism and the Vietnam War, there were other important influences, including Dolly Parton. “She was the first woman I ever saw on TV playing the guitar, and knew that she wrote most of her songs. That had a big impact on me.”  

Images from the world imprint themselves upon her, churn inside like slow molasses and turn into ballads. It’s been like that since she was seven years old when she walked around the house with a ukulele playing a song she made up about a man eating out of a trash can.

Campbell also sings about funeral food, being sweet sixteen, her grandmother’s journey to America and her prayers for those who come after her. Each album has a theme.  

Although some of her albums include cover tunes by artists such as Gordon Lightfoot and Guy Clark, the new CD, Monuments (scheduled for release any day now), is filled with all-new original music.

Monuments is inspired by Mississippi folk artist William Edmundson, the illiterate child of freed slaves who took up sculpting in 1931 after “the Lord said” he should become a stone carver. His limestone carvings were originally gravestones commissioned by church members until his first exhibit in 1937 at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York).

“William’s Vision” is the cornerstone of Campbell’s new CD, is produced by Muscle Shoals musician Walt Aldridge.

“The sound of this record is different,” Campbell says. “Every song starts with me and the guitar, as opposed to laying basic tracks with a band as we did on other records.”

Southern themes dominate all of her recordings, beginning with the 1995 debut of Songs From The Levee. The following two releases, Moonpie Dreams (1997) and Visions Of Plenty (1998) each earned folk album of the year nominations from the Nashville Music Awards and ample air play from folk and independent stations including WNCW in Wilmington. Wandering Strange, released three years ago, is a compilation of gospel-inspired tunes with plenty of R&B weaving through.

Emmy Lou Harris, who strongly influences her work, sings back up on “Visions of Plenty” and “Crazy in Alabama.”

Her performances include songs from all of her records, including the yet-to-be-released Monuments. 

“Nowadays, people from the audience make requests,” she laughs, still taking in the reality of a fan base. “They are actually familiar with the material. I tour all year round an try to get some of everyone’s favorite songs into each show.”

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