Troy keen

With a brand new album under his belt, Troy Campbell is preparing to do what he can to bring his music to a wider audience. He is, perhaps, best known over here for his opening supports with his friend Juliet Turner. But despite this wide ranging exposure, and healthy gig CD sales, he is little known to the world at large. All that is likely to change with his latest album, his second solo release, on the respected Evangaline label in Europe and on his own M-Ray label in the States. It has been produced by respected musician Gurf Morlix, renowned as producer and guitarist for Lucinda Williams, a hard task master who will only work with material he feels strong enough to pass his stringent quality test.

Prior to this release, Campbell had been making music that grew from the childhood influences of classic country music that his truck driving father played and the soul music that his Korean mother listened to. But growing up in comparative isolation, in Ohio, his first major awakening came with punk and more specifically with the music of roots/punk band the True Believers when they played in his home State. Their mainman Alejandro Escovedo told Campbell and his brother that if they formed a band they could support them on their next visit. They did and he did. Thus the Highwaymen were born. When the Cash/Nelson/Kristofferson/Jennings supergroup emerged, and along with a move to Austin, Texas, they became Loose Diamonds.

Loose Diamonds were a highly respected band within the Austin community but feeling that they had achieved as much as they could, they split. Following that, Troy Campbell recorded his first solo release with a number of different musicians and producers, exploring a wider range of textures in his music than before.

American Breakdown is a successful return to a more consolidated and roots-orientated approach, with great success but it is the strength of the songs that makes it special bolstered by Morlix's gritty and appropriate production, that really makes it special.

Though working out of Austin Campbell sees the world as his base.

“I like living in Austin,” he says, “but my dream is to see the world and connect with as many people as possible,” he says. “I've made friends with a lot of musicians, and they give me their perspective on the songwriting process, it's interesting to see how a writer in Scandinavia differs from one in America, in terms of storytelling".

As to his own writing, he confesses he needs to impose deadlines on himself to get results.

"I will call someone up to see if they want to go to the movies and in the half hour or so that I'm waiting for them to pick me up I will write a song. I also write really well when I'm driving, I take a tape player with me to record what I get". His writing is based on his perception of relationships, often taking different perspectives to explain how he sees things or equally how other people would view him:

“I tend to make a lot of assumptions and what they feel like to me, where I stand, all of it, I tend to do that in relationships too, which is why, maybe, some of them don't last (laughs)".

His musical influences come from all over and like many musicians who tend to get grouped under the Americana banner he sees his work as a distillation of a whole lot of things that work best under the tried and trusted category of singer/songwriter.

“One day I'd listen to Stiff Little Fingers and the next day I might listen to Classic Rock. It just depends, like most people, on moods".

Though he has been solo for a while he still has ambitions to have a band again.

“There's nothing like being in a band,” he reflects, “the companionship, being together and working on a common goal. Having a Nemesis that you can all share".

Meantime, his own ambitions are straightforward. “I'd be lying though if I said that didn't want to sell as many records as possible,” he admits. “I want to connect with people. So if the right deal came along I would never dismiss working with a major label, it's not about selling out, it's about expressing yourself."

Expectations for the new record are high and one can only hope that this time the timing is right for the talented singer and songwriter who Bruce Springsteen described him as "a rare voice" when they met. Both the album and the artist are worth checking out for those who concern themselves with music that has depth and emotion and strong individual talent.