Play What's in Your Heart

For nearly 25 years, Priscilla and I have attempted to display the artist with their art.  The maker with the product. The entire story, rather than just the headlines.  To understand the importance of this, consider 'Mural' by Jackson Pollack. Recent newspaper stories have, to some extent, reduced the painting to being two things: 1) The (almost) physical victim of a flood, and  2) A commodity, like corn, to be (potentially) traded for a quantifiable number of dollars.  Then, as a counter-balance to this development, filmmaker Kevin Kelley created a documentary about 'Mural' that shines light onto a story that has always been much deeper than a couple of headlines.  He does this simply by showing us the larger picture, that is, telling us the fuller story.  With the creation of his documentary Mr. Kelley has, in essence, given 'Mural' back to Jackson Pollack.  Simply put, Kevin Kelley played an important role in moving the story of this extraordinary painting from the Business section of the paper, back to the Arts section.

Music and musicians are no different than paintings and painters.  You hear a song or see a show and a sliver of a larger truth finds its way into your awareness.  But by taking the longer view, with a continued focus, we are able to understand artists in a way that is, ultimately, more satisfying than what we are able get from hearing a single pop song on the radio.   Here are the headlines: His dad is from Tobago and his mom is from the U.K. He was born in Florida. The music of Jimi Hendrix has had a massive influence on him.  Sonny Rhodes saw his potential early, invited him to join his band, and told him to always, 'Play what's in your heart.'  In 2013 he won the 'International Blues Challenge' and the 'Albert King Guitarist of the Year' award.  His name is Selwyn Birchwood, and if you would like to know more about him, to get the 'fuller story', we invite you to join us on Saturday night.

The Bob Legacy

Where do you begin when you begin to think about Bob Dorr?  Such a dramatic legacy of arts & culture, and he's still right in the meaty part of his career. Where do you begin?  But, much like the warning when The Eagles sang, 'Call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye', it's important that we not look through the artist toward their legacy, but, instead, continue to look them straight in the eye asking/demanding, "What else ya got?"  And Bob Dorr has got a lot more!  In addition to lighting up the radio dial with a voice that radiates his complete & total love of music, when Bob is onstage with The Blue Band every song is the greatest song that has ever been written.  Every song deserves every thing he can give it.  And make no mistake, Bob gives every song every thing! That harmonica, the ribbed metal tie as a percussion instrument, that crazy-rough and sometimes grumbly, pitch-perfect-voice ... they are all there to give notice of Bob's care. Bob Dorr is a musical force of nature. He loves his fellow musicians, he loves his audience, and perhaps more than anything, he loves music.  And in the end, whenever that end should come, that will be his legacy. Bob Dorr loved music. And it was that love of music that made us love him. Priscilla and I are very pleased to welcome Bob Dorr & the Blue Band back to Campbell Steele for a Sold-Out show on Friday evening, April 1st. And we're proud to be associated with such a wonderful artist.

Samantha Fish

We are excited to welcome Samantha Fish and her band to play Music in the MUD! for the very first time on Friday evening, March 18th, 2016.  The show sold-out within two weeks of being scheduled and we are already in the process of trying to bring Sam back, sometime in the fall.

An interesting thing that I have learned in the past few months, while booking talent, is that there are a lot of great musicians out there working as hard as they can to get their music into your ears. And thanks to the connections made between these hard-working artists and their fans, by way of the internet, many of our musicians are coming to us with nearly ready-made audiences.  For example: I sold tickets to our Samantha Fish show about 10 minutes after posting the show at our OnLine Store.  And those first tickets were sold to someone from out of town that had never been here ... in fact, they had never even heard of us until they saw, online, that Sam was going to be at Campbell Steele.

And, as a result of the great work being done on the road by Samantha and her band, we have not only sold all of the tickets, but we also have many new people coming to her show, from as far away as Illinois, Wisconsin, Mason City, Des Moines and Keokuk.

Our Spring 2016 season begins with Samantha, and continues on April 1st with another-nearly-sold-out-show featuring Bob Dorr & the Blue Band.

I hope to see you very soon for some inspiring Music in the MUD!

Craig