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Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams at the Lobero!
October 8, 2017 @ 7:00 am PDT
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, “The First Couple of Americana” (Mojo), just released their new Red House album Contraband Love on September 15 and will be in Santa Barbara on Sunday, October 8th at the Lobero Theatre.
Produced by Campbell and comprised mostly of new and original songs he wrote, the 11-track album is the follow up to their critically lauded 2015 debut which The New Yorker called “fervent, insistent” and the Wall Street Journal hailed as “a powerhouse [of] country, blues, gospel and honky tonk.”
Campbell and Williams have embarked on their own recording and touring journey after decades of marriage and seven years working closely with Levon Helm – Campbell as bandleader and producer (for which he won three Grammys), and Williams as singer – and ‘Contraband Love’ features Helm playing drums on the Carl Perkins classic “Turn Around,” in what would be one of his last recording sessions. Other special guests on the album include Little Feat’s Bill Payne, plus another veteran of Levon Helm’s band (and current member of The Lumineers) Byron Isaacs.
On Contraband Love, Campbell’s songwriting takes a darker turn, with three of the eight new tunes exploring themes surrounding addiction. The track “Three Days in A Row” soundtracks the critical seventy-two hour period directly following an addict going cold turkey. “I was thinking about the things I’ve quit in my life,” Campbell recalls. “The last time was cigarettes. I remembered the dreams I had in withdrawal.” Title track “Contraband Love,” a waltzing vocal showcase for Teresa, takes on the other side of the story, when a loved one realizes their only recourse for dealing with an addict is to stand “with arms wide open.”
As well as being a dynamic group in their own right, the duo have long provided musical firepower for fellow artists including Helm, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, Little Feat, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Rosanne Cash. Their 2015 self-titled album earned widespread praise from Rolling Stone and NPR, to the New Yorker and Wall Street Journal and found them touring with Jackson Brown. Starting on September 30, they’ll be touring supporting and performing with Shawn Colvin through mid-November.
You can stream Contraband Love here.