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Sunday, 24 July, 2011 9:03 PM
CMA New Artist Spotlight: 'Craig
Campbell'
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Photo
by Greg Manning
New
country music artist Craig Campbell
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| By
Bob Doerschuk |
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2011 CMA Close Up News Service |
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Old-school Country finds
a new champion in Craig Campbell. His songs and his warm but rugged
singing feel like a friendly conversation. The passion of Travis
Tritt and the entire body of Alan Jackson's work made their marks
on Campbell. In his first single, “Family Man,” which
Campbell wrote with Jon Henderson and Joel Shewmake, the lyric,
the voice and even the steely piano tone pay homage to Jackson while
also defining Campbell’s distinctive style.
Born in Lyons, Ga., Campbell
grew up on Southern gospel. He was just 10 years old when he began
playing piano during services three times a week at a local Baptist
church; he learned about harmony by listening to his mother singing
hymns. But a chance exposure to Country on the radio flung open
a new window of possibility. At 15, he entered the Jimmy Dean/True
Value Country Showdown, his first talent competition — and
the first that he won.
In 2002, Campbell moved
to Nashville, got a day job and started playing at The Stage on
Broadway. He toured as well, backing Luke Bryan and Tracy Byrd.
And after Keith Stegall caught his act in August 2008, he signed
with the producer’s Bigger Picture Group record label and
the two hit the studio.
Campbell is co-writer
on nine of his self-titled debut album’s 11 tracks. His songs
play out easily, whether with a sly humor (“Fish,” which
he penned with Arlos Smith and Ashe Underwood), an amiable insight
into surviving hard times (the catchy “When I Get It,”
with Jason Matthews and Jim McCormick), a reverence for lessons
learned and passed along (“My Little Cowboy,” with Dan
Couch) or pride in the values of the life he lives (“That's
Music to Me,” with Carson Chamberlain and Tim Nichols). Campbell
knows how to tell a story in song, coaxing smiles and a tear or
two along the way, as he demonstrates this summer on Willie Nelson’s
“Country Throwdown Tour.”
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Q&A
CD IN YOUR STEREO
“Mine … shhhh.”
FIRST GIG
“A place called The Yo-Yo … redneck!”
MOMENT YOU WOULD
RELIVE
“The birth of my babies Preslee and Kinni. There is no sweeter
sound than hearing your babies cry for the first time.”
GREATEST PERFORMANCE
TO DATE
“My Grand Ole Opry debut on Oct. 8, 2010. Come on, it’s
the Grand Ole Opry. Enough said.”
SOMETHING WE’D
NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
“I count steps as I go up and down stairs.”
On the Web:
www.CraigCampbell.tv
Editor's
Note: Craig Campbell will perform a free show at the Lapeer Days
Festival on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 4:00 p.m. More info at www.lapeerdays.com/event_schedule.htm.
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