Fly | September 2015 | 17

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PHOTO BY JOSHUA EMMITT NIELSON / ILLUSTRATION BY ZANE CAMPBELL

discussing his life – not too shy to talk about his bouts with alcoholism, drug use and psychological problems.

He’s quick to talk about his family’s musical legacy – people like his great uncle Guy Brooks, who played in the late ’20s with the North Carolina string band The Red Fox Chasers and recorded what is considered to be the earliest trucker song, “Wreck on the Mountain Road.”

Campbell also discusses his successes and misses as he approaches 40 years in the music business, crafting more than 2,000 songs in the form of illustrated manuscripts and serendipitously working with everyone from banjo impresario Bela Fleck to punk rock legend Tommy Ramone.

“I’ve had such a funny and colorful anti-career,” Campbell laughs. “I certainly wouldn’t have not done it – so many slapstick things and funny little colorful things that have happened along the way that were a pleasure to endure.”

MOUNTAIN MUSICWith the release last

month of the book Ola Belle Reed and Southern Mountain Music On the Mason-Dixon Line, Campbell may be set to garner some well-deserved accolades. Published by Dust-to-Digital press, the book revolves around the story of Campbell’s aunt, Ola Belle

of the people and places that made the music scene in northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania a unique melting pot and incubator for musicians, featuring information about the McCoury family in southern York County and a section about Rainbow Park – a music venue Reed started in southern Lancaster County in 1950, which hosted the likes of everyone from Hank Williams to The Stanley Brothers.

Cliff Murphy, a program director for the Maryland State Arts Council and a co-author of the book, got in contact with Zane and his brother, Hugh, to include them in the project. Half a chapter of the book is dedicated to Zane and Hugh, talking about building on the songwriting traditions of their famous ancestors.

The book also features two CDs – one composed of remastered songs by Reed, and another with covers of Reed’s songs and other tunes by her family members.

Campbell’s song, “Family Graveyard,” is included and consists of lyrics that talk about long-passed family members like his favorite uncle, Miles (after whom his son is named) and his great uncle Jim, who shot and killed an in-

law in a drunken � ght and eventually drank himself to death with whiskey (calling it his “medicine”). Campbell includes his own confessional lyric in the song, discussing his own bouts with alcohol – “That medicine almost killed me, too.”

Campbell, a skilled artist and illustrator, also has some of his artwork featured in the book, including a portrait of his aunt Ola Belle painted on the back of a banjo and a realistic pencil drawing from when he was 12 years old of Tom Moore – the gravedigger in his childhood home of North East, Md. Hugh’s song, “Footprints Left Below,” which tells the story of Moore, is also included on the album.

“I’m bragging, if you haven’t noticed. I don’t know if you’re attuned to that,” Campbell laughs. “I bring (the book) to my AA meetings, take it out and go, ‘Hey, you, drunk over there – look at this. That’s me.’”

HIS FIRST ALBUMCampbell’s own musical

journey hit a milestone earlier this year – a moment nearly � ve decades in the making after he moved to New York City to pursue a career in music in the late ’70s and became a � xture in the city’s anti-folk scene.

With the help of Baltimore-based writer and � lmmaker Travis Kitchens, Campbell released his � rst of� cial solo album of his career in February. Carrying the sounds of folk and old-time country, the minimalist masterpiece of Americana features Campbell on guitar and vocals, along with fellow Maryland musicians Walker

Teret on upright bass, Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar and Anna Roberts-Gevalt on � ddle. No percussion is used – a tip of the hat to old-timey music.

The self-titled album includes old and new songs spanning Campbell’s career, including a new recording of his song “Post Mortem Bar” – a powerful anthem that deals with the death of a loved one and was prominently featured in the 1990 Academy Award-nominated � lm Longtime Companion, which was the � rst major Hollywood � lm to deal with the AIDS epidemic.

Campbell also recorded his own cover of his Aunt Ola Belle’s famous song, “High On a Mountain,” which has been sung by everyone from Del McCoury to Marty Stuart. The album also includes the confessional track, “Fess Up,” with lyrics like “Places I’ve gone/People don’t come back alive/And the things I have done/Half of them I’m going to deny.”

One of the most poignant moments is Campbell’s song “Bringing the Boys Home” – a true story about his brother who was tasked with escorting the bodies of fallen soldiers to their families during the Vietnam War. The song is performed by Campbell in a classic Johnny Cash-style, reading most of the lyrics, similar to “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.”

“You hear a song like [“Bring the Boys Home”], and you wonder, ‘God, that guy’s got a vivid imagination,’” Campbell laughs. “But it’s no imagination – that’s what happened.”

Although still an underground release on Emperor Records in Baltimore, the self-titled album has received high praise from the likes of NPR Music journalist Lars Gotrich, who called it “the rawest country album I’ve heard in a while.” Campbell says he’s also heard some “outrageous responses” to the album, including a producer from PBS who supposedly called it “a revelation.”

Not quite sure what to make of the praise, Campbell says the album is a throwback to a different era, with lyrics that are easy to understand and relate to – something he was striving for while recording.

“I’m almost 60 and have basically been a failure my entire life,” Campbell laughs. “So if somebody does like [the album], I go with it. It is a revelation.”

Listen to Zane Campbell’s self-titled album on Bandcamp.com. You can also catch him performing at occasional Friday open mic nights at Gracie’s Cafe or sitting at his art and antique store, Child’s Store – both located just over the border in Elkton, Md. Campbell also has a full-band show slated for The Ottobar in Baltimore on October 8, and his brother, Hugh, is participating in a special free concert celebrating the music of Ola Belle Reed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on September 9, followed by a seminar on Reed on September 10.

Reed, who was one of the most well-known progenitors of Appalachian string music in the 20th century. The story traces the timeline of how Southern music migrated during the Great Depression from places like Ashe County, NC, up to and across the Mason-Dixon Line via out-of-work farmers from Appalachia, mutating into its own sound.

Reed and her brother, Alex Campbell (Zane’s uncle), are credited with helping

to introduce bluegrass and Appalachian music to the Northeast through their radio show, Campbell’s Corner, which aired on WASA in Havre de Grace, Md, and later on WCOJ in Coatesville.

The 256-page book is � lled with stories and photos

music

Strike up a conversation with Zane Campbell, and stories almost too unbelievable to tell are sure to emerge.The 57-year-old resident of Elkton, Md., talks fast and vigorously, a deep belly laugh punctuating nearly every sentence. He’s candid and frank when

by Michael Yoder | myoder@flymagazine.net