Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams are partners in music and life. Campbell, an in-demand sideman, and Williams, a gifted vocalist, met in 1986. They married two years later while doing session and live work with other artists, including Levon Helm, appearing on Dirt Farmer (2007) and Electric Dirt (2009). In 2015, the duo debuted an acclaimed, eponymous album for Red House, and followed it with Contraband Love in 2017. In 2020 they were the subject of director Mark Moskowitz's documentary TV series It Was the Music. In 2023 they released Live at Levon's!, recorded at Helm's studio and performance space in Upstate New York. 2024's All This Time was a studio set informed by the love kept them whole through family crises and a near-death experience.
As a youth Campbell's enthusiasm for rock & roll bands led him back to American blues and roots music, and he developed a passion for artists like Doc Watson, the Rev. Gary Davis, and Hank Williams. Once he mastered the guitar, Campbell learned to play mandolin, bouzouki, violin, lap steel, banjo, and other stringed instruments. During the '70s he fell in with noted East Coast folk musicians Happy Traum and Artie Traum, and later found a steady gig as part of the house band at New York City's country and roots music venue the Lone Star Cafe, backing top-shelf artists including Paul Simon, Judy Collins, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, and Rosanne Cash.
In 1986, Campbell was asked to play pedal steel for a concert at New York's Bottom Line, featuring a singer and actress from Tennessee named Teresa Williams. Williams grew up on a farm in West Tennessee that had been worked by seven generations of her family. Williams was raised with a passion for folk and vintage country music, and while she came to New York City to pursue a career in acting, she didn't turn her back on her love of singing. She worked with the bands Southern Comfort and Swing Fever, and played Sara Carter in a stage production about the life of the pioneering country ensemble the Carter Family. Williams also gained a reputation as a gifted backing vocalist, and worked with Mavis Staples, Emmylou Harris, Hot Tuna, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir. Williams and Campbell hit it off after working together, and the two married in 1988. In 1997, Campbell joined Bob Dylan's backing band as a guitarist, spending eight years on the road as part of Dylan's "Never Ending Tour."
After leaving Dylan's band in 2005, Campbell began working with another icon of American music, Levon Helm of the Band. Campbell became musical director for Helm's band and his series of "Midnight Ramble" concerts held at the converted barn and recording studio on Helm's Woodstock, New York estate. Williams also joined Levon's band, contributing vocals and acoustic guitar; they participated in the recording of Helm's critically acclaimed 2007 album Dirt Farmer, as well as its 2009 follow-up, Electric Dirt. In 2015, after decades of working on other people's projects, Campbell and Williams finally made their official debut with the album Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams on Minnesota's Red House Records. The recording drew international acclaim, and peaked in the Top 20 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart. After touring nonstop for more than a year, they returned with their sophomore album, Contraband Love, in 2017. Included was a cover of Carl Perkins' "Turn Around," that featured Helm in one of his final sessions. They also recorded “My Sweetie Went Away,” penned in 1923 and popularized by Bessie Smith. The road beckoned the duo and they hit it hard, playing the festival circuit across the U.S. and Europe as well as large clubs. The Italian label Route 61 Music released a 2018 concert at the Chiari Rock and Blues Festival as Live from the Archives, Vol. 1 in 2020. The same year, the duo were the subjects of director (and music fanatic) Mark Moskowitz's ten-episode documentary TV series It Was the Music.
In 2019, after months of touring, Campbell and Williams returned to their adopted Woodstock, New York hometown to play two sold-out performances on September 20 and 21 at Levon Helm Studios. Both shows were professionally recorded. In 2023, those shows were culled for the 12 tracks that made up Live at Levon's! on Royal Potato Family. Backed by a crack band, they delivered a compelling assortment of fan favorites, previously unreleased songs, and some unexpected covers. The live album was released as Campbell and Williams were working on a studio project with a difficult genesis. In 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Campbell contracted the virus, and spent weeks struggling with the illness before reliable treatments had been found. While he was isolated in his home in Woodstock, Williams was in Tennessee, where she was helping see her father through a fatal illness, and she could only communicate with her husband by telephone; as she put it, "I held his hand over the phone." Williams survived COVID-19, and as he recovered, he wrote a set of songs inspired by the love that helped him through the ordeal. This became the basis of All This Time, which was released by Royal Potato Family in April 2024.
© Mark Deming /TiVo
Discography
12 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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All This Time
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Royal Potato Family on 5 Apr 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Live at Levon's! (Live)
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Folk - Released by Royal Potato Family on 3 Feb 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams
Folk - Released by Red House Records on 23 Jun 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Contraband Love
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams
Pop - Released by Red House Records on 15 Sep 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Caravan (Live)
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Folk - Released by Royal Potato Family on 11 Jan 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Darlin' Be Home Soon (Live)
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Folk - Released by Royal Potato Family on 2 Dec 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Desert Island Dreams
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Royal Potato Family on 10 Jan 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ride With Me
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Royal Potato Family on 18 Mar 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Way You Make Me Feel
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Royal Potato Family on 20 Feb 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Angel of Darkness (Live)
Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
Folk - Released by Royal Potato Family on 26 Oct 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Other Side of Pain
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Red House Records on 1 Sep 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Hit & Run Driver
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams
Country - Released by Red House Records on 29 Aug 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo