John Campbell (Page 1 of 2)

I bought 2 of his albums when I was in Santa Monica in 1993. Very distinctive voice but I must admit to not playing them for many years.

As a matter of fact, I did know John Campbell and saw him often in our mutual hometown of Shreveport back in the 1980's.  Love his music, miss him very much, listen to him a lot.  Today was his birthday and this June 13 will be 20 years since he died.  What a loss!

If you search on yt there are some links to old performances, individual songs, though, not the whole deal.  I'll look for the link where he describes how he developed his style of playing, which was amazing.  Will post for you when I find it.

I'm really glad you started a thread for Johnny "Slim" as we called him back in the day.  If you happen to be on fb, there's a John Campbell tribute page called Devil in My Closet.

... edited to add one of my favorites of John's songs, One Believer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLkFANXqhYI

Hello Wolf, I'm with you on John's music.  Angel of Sorrow is very haunting, as is a lot of his music.  It's still very hard to believe he's gone and he's well loved and remembered by the regional musicians and fans down here.  I'm sure he knew his time was short, probably had symptoms for a long time but just did what he loved and was driven to do with no apologies.

His style did change drastically from the delta blues of Johnny Slim to the John Campbell who moved to New York and played all over the world.  He lived and breathed it, from the pain (physical and emotional) to the hard life on the streets (his choice).  I loved him at the beginning but also loved his electric blues of his last 2 cds; he had an amazing style of playing and singing.

What a pleasure to meet another fan of John.  I'll leave you with another of my favorite songs of his, Love's Name:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAyyR9KO … -T6O91dqlY

Thanks so much.  I just happened to check PM due to a thread about it on the main page.  Sent a response tonight.

Sandy

I like it Wolf!  Thank goodness you're finally here.  I've been all alone in my love of John and it's nice to be in good company.  There's a great pic of John someone posted on the Devil in my Closet on facebook recently.  It shows some of the scars from the serious drag racing accident that left him scarred and injured for life, including the loss of an eye.  The blues and the guitar saved him or brought him back into life.  Such a story his is.  I met his daughter via fb and we were chatting for a while but she disappeared.  She really wanted her father's legacy to live on and spread around the world so I like to do my part in that.

Ok, will send you a reply on that pm, thanks.

Love the Tyler, Texas session but have only listened to individual yt vids.  Have tried to get copies ... his daughter was about to send me some music when she disappeared.  I think I have a couple of mp3's from that session.  I agree, I love it more than a Man and His Music, his style and talent had developed even more.

The scars were part of it for sure.  He lived the blues life, living on the streets (by choice) and forging his way back into life after being laid up for so long.  It would be an interesting movie for sure.

Wow, you were so lucky to be up close at the Vienna gig, what I wouldn't give.  Didn't get to see him in the 90s at all and he died in 93.   Was so saddened and shocked to learn he died so young, don't know why I was shocked, knowing his story.

P.S.  Wolf, by any chance were you at Joe's Vienna acoustic gig last year?

Lucky you Wolf!  Would love to have been there in Vienna.   (edited to add:  Aren't you glad you saw BCC while you could?!  I was happy to see them a couple of times in Cali the only year they played over here.)

I had to revive our JC thread as I just saw a couple of great pics of John on the fb page, plus this review of his music in a blues magazine I thought you would appreciate:

Blueprint, May 1992 p 34

"John Campbell: The Boar's Head - Wickam - 12/3/92" by Gary Revilo

With John Campbell now, we are talking mean, as in meeeean. Hailing from the deepest US swamplands, he's like something out of a Hammer movie, only twice as frightening. He has a kind of bionic face, reconstructed after a teenage drag racing accident, which I suppose gives him a lot to be angry about, but little could prepare the audience for the full-scale gutting it received.

Virtuosity comes no harder or crueller than this and the sheer intensity of the music was hard to cope with. The agony seemed to be channeled straight from the strings of his National Steel guitar into the veins of the audience, who were actually crying out in joyous pain every time Campbell rose from his stool to add one of his paint stripping solos to his dark, mutant, voodoo-ridden basso profundo twelve-bars. What's more, second guitarist Alexander Kennedy was almost as good and nearly as violent.

Staggering. Some of these punters have been attending the Boarhunt Blues Club for six years or more, but tonight they found out what the blues really is. It hurts"

... just what we were talking about.  Wish I could post the pictures, will try later.

That review is about a 1992-Concert. The 93-Concerts were even darker in his songs, but also in his performance...

The show in Milan was less than three month before...
The picture is dark and sometimes he looks like a indian mummy.
It´s propably one of his last filmed performances and you can see he was not in a good condition, but his energy was top!

When you compare his earlier sound and style with the One Believer/Howlin Mercy-eara, you can imagine how this "Crossroads-legends" grew.
For me he was a modern Robert Johnson.

The Vienna-gig was a (tiny) Blues-Festival with Johnnie Johnson, Screaming Jay Hawkins and headlining Buddy Guy, but for me Campbell was the reason fo buying a  ticket...

Btw... BCC was great in Vienna! The played the same set as on the Dvd.
Hope they work it out togheter...