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Q&A by Brad Balfour<\/p>\n
Both a musical odyssey and a deeply personal love story between two musicians, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams’ It Was The Music<\/em><\/strong> is a search for what they call “music utopia.” When this romantic and musical duo step\u00a0off the tour bus and\u00a0into the limelight they make the idea of Valentine’s Day all their own.<\/p>\n Award-winning\u00a0multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, and bandleader Campbell has been hailed for his defining work with such artists as\u00a0Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes and many more.\u00a0Known for her resonant alto and passion for rootsy music,\u201d Williams\u00a0is an exceptional singer\/actor known for her roles as Sara Carter in\u00a0Keep On The Sunny Side<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and the title role in\u00a0Always\u2026 Patsy Cline<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0as well as her serving as a backing vocalist for\u00a0Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Friends and Peter Wolf, to name but a few.<\/p>\n Having set forth on their own joint musical career, It Was The Music<\/em> shows the couple packing their bags, guitars, amps, and 30-year marriage into their SUV and setting out across America to sing their own extraordinary songs along with riveting interpretations of beloved gospel, blues, country, and classic rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n Director Mark Moskowitz<\/strong> follows Campbell and Williams over 15 months on the road, from its starting point on a Friday afternoon\u00a0on Williams\u2019 seventh generation farm in\u00a0Peckerwood Point, TN, to Campbell\u2019s native New York City and the couple\u2019s home in Woodstock, NY, to recording studios, clubs, and theatres across the country. Highlights include live performances at intimate venues and jam-packed music festivals, culminating in its grand finale with selections from the star-studded \u201cThe Last Waltz 40th\u00a0Anniversary Celebration\u201d presented by Lincoln Center at NYC\u2019s Damrosch Park.<\/p>\n The series\u00a0premiered on\u00a0 Sunday, December 13th\u00a0on\u00a0FANS. New episodes debuted every Sunday through February 7th\u00a0(excluding January 3, followed by two episodes available on January 10). Check out (https:\/\/fans.live<\/a>).<\/p>\n Along with the couple\u2019s own personal story, the film includes exclusive interviews and never-before-seen performances from\u00a0Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, William Bell, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Jerry Douglas, Jerron \u201cBlind Boy\u201d Paxton, Garland Jeffreys, Happy Traum, David Bromberg, and many more. But through it all, this movie documents a love story,\u00a0 Campbell and Williams show how love can create the music and how the music can bring us together.<\/p>\n Says Moskowitz, \u201cIt Was The Music<\/em> is about what music means to us. The way my film,\u00a0Stone Reader, is about what books means to us, and my upcoming film, Art Stops Here<\/em><\/strong>, is about what art means to us. In the end, these films are about\u00a0us, how people respond to the arts. Not quite documentary, not quite reality, not quite memoir, not quite even story,\u00a0It Was The Music<\/em> is referential, memory-like. It\u2019s allusive. Things touch other things\u2026much like a song.\u201d<\/p>\n A stellar soundtrack collects previously unreleased music from Campbell and Williams, including very new renditions of songs made famous by\u00a0The Band, Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Buffalo Springfield, and more. They perform alongside such friends\u00a0as Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Bill Payne, and the late\u00a0Levon Helm\u2019s world famous\u00a0Midnight Ramble Band.<\/p>\n The full album soundtrack can be ordered now. the series is also available on\u00a0Vimeo\u00a0and\u00a0Amazon. People can find out how to watch the series and get more info from:\u00a0https:\/\/itwasthemusic.net<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Additional streaming venues will be announced on the website. For more info in general, visit\u00a0www.larryandteresa.com<\/a><\/p>\n LC: I\u2019m of the belief, as naive as it may seem that there are people in this world who are destined to be together. When Teresa and I met it was after a long string of mistaken relationships that I’d put myself through and I was not at all interested in beginning another. I soon found out that this time I didn’t have a choice. We had a connection that I’d never experienced before and I knew I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with this person. Had we not met I probably would have wandered through the rest of my life with a much lower level of fulfillment and enrichment, personally and professionally.<\/p>\n TW: That question has crossed my mind fleetingly on occasion, but my brain never seems to want to countenance an answer.\u00a0\u00a0When we met neither of us was looking for a marriage partner consciously, but when we did meet, our marriage seemed simply imperative.<\/p>\n Q: In what ways do each of you make each other better creatively and personally?<\/p>\n TW: In some ways Larry can know me better than I know myself, and see what I need before I see it myself.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes, he will hold that insight patiently until I come round to that knowledge on my own.\u00a0This can be about creativity or it can be personal stuff.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a very deep thinker.\u00a0\u00a0I contribute to him personally and creatively by nudging him (without saying it directly) to get out of his head and let the inner spirit drive the ship when it\u2019s appropriate.\u00a0\u00a0When we were first married, it seemed he never succumbed to an emotion in an argument. I just thought that was plain weird and would stunt your growth.\u00a0(Stoics out there forgive me here.) I grew up in a house where the storm clouds blew in, the thunder would crash and clear the air, and in the next 5 minutes the whole family would be in deep belly laughs.\u00a0When Larry first engaged in an argument with me, I stopped being angry and just thought, \u201cYeah! Go!!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Ha.\u00a0\u00a0And I think that holds true musically too.\u00a0\u00a0Jump off the ledge emotionally \u2014 when you forget the technique and give in to the emotional flow, it\u2019s heaven on earth. \u2018Course the game is to have the technique and then be able to drop thinking about it at the edge of the stage so the subconscious or \u201cspirit\u201d can take over.<\/p>\n The answer to this question could go on and on\u2026.<\/p>\n LC: I\u2019ve often called Teresa my muse, and until we met I wasn’t even sure what that word meant, but she is a true inspiration to me. Very often when I’m trying to write I think about her putting her soul into the performance of the song and it spurs me on. On a more practical level, I always run a song by her before I let it out into the world because I know she has a great nose for honesty and if something doesn’t smell right she has no problem letting me know. I may protest or push back but ultimately I trust that she’s probably seeing something that I’m missing.<\/p>\n Q:.\u00a0How do you two work together, especially in making this series — is there a specific process or does it change with each night?<\/p>\n LC: As far as this series goes, there really was no process. We both quickly realized that in order to make the film that Mark Moskowitz wanted to make, our only real obligation was to be in the moment and react as we would react to any situation or performance the same way we would if the cameras weren’t rolling. There were moments when one or both of us would say “I wish I hadn’t said that” or “I hope he doesn’t put that in the movie” but I think the final result was an honest depiction of who we are and what we do.<\/p>\n TW: The quandary I\u2019m going to talk about here is addressed in the series in no uncertain terms. We work together very well indeed.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s the easy part. As Larry says, we were both professionals before we met, and I fully believe the passion for the work is what made us professionals and what attracted us to each other to begin with. I have perpetually felt that I could be a much better musical partner if I didn\u2019t have the practical issues of homemaking to contend with.\u00a0\u00a0I think I would be a better musical partner if I could give up all the material stuff \u2014 live in a dorm or hotel where someone else took care of all that, the way it was in college, so you could just focus full time on the work!\u00a0\u00a0I really enjoy homemaking, but I don\u2019t like multi-tasking. You might get this answer from every woman trying to do both. Probably not the answer you were expecting.<\/p>\n Q: How different is your work in being at home and in a comfortable\u00a0environment and being on the road?<\/p>\n TW: Though you miss the people, the one-on-one exchange with them during and after the live shows, the pandemic has given us the time I\u2019ve known I desperately needed since we started our own never ending tour, to \u201crefill the well.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Because we were beginning our duo project while we were still working with Levon, after his passing, there was no pause.\u00a0\u00a0We began touring on our own, supporting that first record, and then the second, with the film crew getting our \u201coff\u201d days more often than not.\u00a0\u00a0So there was no rest.\u00a0\u00a0No stopping to think, to just be, to find silence and quiet to be creative for new material.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s how it felt to me.\u00a0\u00a0I would find myself drawing stick figures of a woman holding with one hand to the caboose of a train hurtling down the track full speed \u2014 the woman\u2019s body, dress and hair flying back from the force, holding on for dear life!\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s how the last 5 years felt.\u00a0\u00a0We needed this reset, like the rest of the world. My creativity needed it!<\/p>\n LC: Being on the road is difficult under the best circumstances. It’s a different hotel every night, erratic sleep schedule and constant upheaval, but it allows you to put yourself in front of a crowd of people who you’ve never met, hopefully express yourself in an artistic and emotional way and make a connection with a crowd of strangers, an incredibly uplifting experience. This year of Covid has allowed us to find out what it’s like to have some semblance of domestic balance and routine (though I’ve mostly been in Woodstock and Teresa in Tennessee where she’s needed to help her parents) and sleep in the same bed every night. I’ve been able to work producing or recording remotely with quite a few people but it’s just not the same as being in a room with a bunch of musicians and an audience.<\/p>\n Q: How different is the experience of recording the live experience and just recording within the studio?<\/p>\n LC: Recording live is always scary for me because though it may have an energy that you can’t recreate in the studio it is what it is and your ability to clean up the performance is limited. I’ much more at ease with the control of a studio environment but I have to be careful not to lose track of the value of a visceral performance.<\/p>\n TW: I like both experiences.\u00a0\u00a0Recording is like creating a tapestry, a poem, so that\u2019s it\u2019s own creative obsession. But there\u2019s nothing like the live thing.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s the only reason I got into this walk of life \u2014 the live thing.\u00a0\u00a0I like to have performed a song many times live before I record it (you don\u2019t always get that luxury) so the song tells you what it wants to be.<\/p>\n Q: In light of the pandemic, how do you hope audiences will experience this series and what will be shared through it?<\/p>\n TW: So many things have happened in my life which have caused me to look up to the sky with complete wonder over the confluence of events, fate with extreme serendipity.\u00a0Mark Moskowitz, the director, couldn\u2019t have foreseen this project would find the correct distributor and come out during a pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0The themes addressed in the series are themes many are experiencing in this global reset:\u00a0what really matters in life, how important our families are to us, how important art is to us and the healing properties it holds, how primal it is in helping us through our deepest hour of need,\u00a0how music speaks to and through our pain.<\/p>\n LC: What we’ve been hearing from many comments is that people who thrive on live music are seeing this as an in depth journey into what motivates them to gather and have this communal experience just at the time when they’re really craving it.<\/p>\n Q: In doing this series of recordings under the gaze of the camera, did it change the two of you in some way individually and collectively?<\/p>\n LC: Honestly, I don’t think it has. As I said earlier, our job was to just be who we are and let Mark tell the story that he wanted to tell. I think for better or worse we’ll just continue down that road.<\/p>\n TW: I\u2019m not aware of any change in us or our work because of being under the gaze of the camera.\u00a0Cameras followed all of us around during the filming of Levon\u2019s documentary \u201cAin\u2019t In It For My Health\u201d for years.\u00a0Being \u201cwatched\u201d is just part of this calling \u2014 revealing, sharing your insides is the gig. Maybe later some change will become apparent to me.<\/p>\n Q: What was shared\/learned in working with director Mark Moskowitz, how was this like or different from your previous experiences in recording and working with other kinds of visual directors (like music video directors)?<\/p>\n TW:\u00a0First, I\u2019ll say one of the best things about doing this film series with Mark and his partner Colleen Atchley was the resulting friendship. (Also the friendship with the executive producer Steve Riggio and his wife, Laura.) Discussing books, art, music has just been a joy!\u00a0\u00a0The passion that they brought to these subjects is what made us know it was okay to go down this road with someone we just met at the signing table after a show at the Ardmore in PA.\u00a0\u00a0About 2\/3 of the way into making the series, after we\u2019d discussed passionately some aspect of the film, Mark, said to me later over lunch, \u201cYou know,\u00a0\u00a0you\u2019re right: this film is about my record collection.\u201d He had the thread of trying to tease out what that ephemeral spark is between the listener, audience and the musician, artist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But he also is a person, who once the series was completed, could say of himself, \u201cYou know what you\u00a0thinkthe project is about until it\u00a0showsyou what it\u2019s\u00a0reallyabout.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I love that!<\/p>\n LC: This was a totally new and unique experience for us. Mark approached us with a vision. He explained it in general terms and we were intrigued but none of us really knew exactly what it would turn out to be. We soon found him to be honest, passionate and trustworthy. We felt like we were in good hands and he gave us the confidence to just do what we do and not think too much about it and though in the moment I couldn’t really conceive of how that would be interesting to anybody I think the final product is a compelling and heartfelt story.<\/p>\n Q: If you had one song\/album\/ band to recommend what one would you two pick together and individually (3 songs)?<\/p>\n LC: This answer would change daily but for now I’d say you have to hear “Mr. Fool” by George Jones. I’ll talk to Teresa and see if we can’t agree on one together.<\/p>\n TW: For us together maybe \u201cYour Long Journey\u201d, by Rosalee and Doc Watson, which we\u2019ve performed for years, probably first at Larry\u2019s dad\u2019s memorial service.<\/p>\n Larry\u2019s band would decidedly be the Beatles, and of course they influenced all of us from that era.\u00a0\u00a0Hank Williams is my father\u2019s favorite and I got a good dose of that at his knee growing up.\u00a0You can\u2019t beat that absolute pain and honesty delivered with deceptive simplicity.\u00a0\u00a0As Hank would tell his band when they ventured off into jazz riffs, \u201cKeep it vanilla, boys, keep it vanilla.\u201d\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m So Lonesome I Could Cry\u201d \u2014 but only by Hank Williams, Sr.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ll throw in Lynryd Skynyrd, Pronounced \u2014\u201cSimple Man\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Hey, it\u2019s always what hit you hard in high school!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-09-at-3.51.36-PM-copy-269x300.png\")
Q: How would your lives have been different had you not met — do you ever speculate on that or not?<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>