One of America’s most in-demand musicians, and the 2008 winner of the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award / Instrumentalist, Larry Campbell requires several long lists to adequately describe his talents and accomplishments.
He is a multi-instrumentalist who has mastered the electric and acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle, Dobro, banjo, and cittern. Besides being Bob Dylan’s lead guitarist from 1997 to 2004, he has toured or recorded with Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King, K.D. Lang, Cyndi Lauper, and Willie Nelson, among others.
These days, Campbell tours and records with Phil Lesh, famed bassist in the Grateful Dead, and Levon Helm. Campbell co-produced Helm’s 2007 album, Dirt Farmer, which won a Grammy Award in 2008 for Best Traditional Folk Album.
Campbell has produced albums for The Dixie Hummingbirds (2003’s Diamond Jubilation: 75th Anniversary), Marie Knight (2007’s Let Us Get Together, a tribute to Rev. Gary Davis), Ollabelle (2006’s Riverside Battle Songs), and Catherine Russell (2007’s Sentimental Streak). Campbell also produced Willie Nelson’s recording of “He Was a Friend of Mine” for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack.
Campbell spent a decade performing on various string instruments in the orchestra for Broadway and Off Broadway musicals, starting in 1982 with Alaska: The Musical. He also played in the productions of Big River, Rhythm Ranchand The Will Rogers Follies.
A native of New York City, Campbell is a self-taught musician. In the late 1970s, he was a member of the Woodstock Mountain Revue with Pat Alger, John Herald, Bill Keith, Jim Rooney, John Sebastian, and Artie and Happy Traum. In the 1980s, he played in New York clubs in bands with Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Kinky Friedman, David Johansen, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Greg Trooper.
He released his own solo album, Rooftops, in 2005.