Kate Campbell Save the Day (Release Date: October 14, 2008)
"I've always written stories about people and everyday living," says Kate Campbell. "But after reading a quote from Frederick Buechner, I kept thinking about the phrase, 'save the day,' and it just began to have a life of its own.”
With her compassionate tone and sometimes-quirky approach, Kate Campbell has made a musical niche for herself telling stories exploring the complex topics of race, religion, history and human relationships. It started with her award-winning debut record, 1995’s Songs from the Levee, and continues with her latest offering, Save the Day. The new project also includes shades of Kate's entire musical history -- running the gamut from R&B and pop rhythms to gospel, country and folk sounds.
Longtime fans will recognize this CD as a quintessential Kate Campbell record. But Campbell confides that she arrived at this collection of songs from a little different approach. "I usually have a theme that I've thought about for two or three years when I start writing for an album, but this time I decided to write about things as they came to me."
With no set agenda going into the project, Kate naturally called on her trusted circle of musician friends to help flesh out her burgeoning ideas. Alabama native Walt Aldridge, whom Kate has known since her days as a staff writer at Fame Music in Muscle Shoals, stepped up as producer, as he did on her previous collections Monuments and Blues & Lamentations. Legendary keyboardist Spooner Oldham, who served as Kate's musical partner on 2006's For the Living of These Days, returns to accompany her on the To Kill a Mockingbird-inspired song "Sorrowfree."
The incomparable John Prine sings along on "Looking for Jesus," a tune with a unique spin on modern-day pilgrimages. Nanci Griffith’s distinctive voice is heard on "Fordlandia," which tells the story of industrial pioneer Henry Ford's failed attempt at building a tire factory in the Amazon. These tunes are the latest examples of Kate's knack for uncovering peculiar, nearly forgotten stories and weaving them into song.
People often ask Kate where she gets her song ideas. Kate explains, “I just find certain things interesting and pay attention to them. That’s the way I’ve always been." Kate's lyrics have often been compared to the works of southern wordsmiths Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, so it's no surprise that several tunes on the project found their inspiration in the literary world. While it may seem daunting to capture the emotion of a finely written novel in a five-minute song, Kate rose to the challenge quite poetically when Gene Cheek asked her to write a song for the audio release of his powerful Jim Crow era autobiography, The Color of Love. Growing up in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in the '60s, Kate has addressed racial tensions head-on throughout her recording career. "These issues with race are things I feel strongly about," Kate admits. "I keep writing about it as a way to reflect upon the past and to hopefully dialogue toward a better future.”
As on songs from Kate’s previous albums, Mac McAnally lends his unique harmonies to "Falling Out of Heaven," a phrase borrowed from the Langston Hughes poem "Daybreak in Alabama." Joan Didion's National Book Award-winning exploration of grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, inspired a rare love song from Kate, titled "More than One More Day." The writings of Saint John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila inspired "Dark Night of the Soul," one of Kate’s most requested since first appearing on 2006's For the Living of These Days. Here, it's re-cast in a full band setting, while another track, "Everybody Knows Elvis," explores the isolation felt by both the King of Rock and Roll and Jesus Christ. The upbeat "Shining Like the Sun" reflects upon the epiphany experience of spiritual author and Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
Kate is now curious to see how these twelve songs fit with the rest of her material in concert. As she continues her musical journey, Save the Day rightfully takes its place among her previous releases, which have earned high praise and features from media outlets like Entertainment Weekly and National Public Radio.
Whether it’s someone who discovers Kate Campbell for the first time, or a longtime fan, the listener soon realizes that each of Kate’s tunes resonates with the hopefulness of the Buechner quote found in the CD liner notes:
“It is no wonder that just the touch of another human being at a dark time can be enough to save the day.”
–Hunter Kelly, August 2008
