I’ve known Don Campbell for a long time now, but the last time he and I spoke was in Oct. of 2016. When I discovered that he and his band (made up of Tom Byhrberg on bass and harmonies; Tom Yoder on fiddle, mandolin and keys; John DeQuattro on electric guitar; Gino Grassi on drums; and, of course, Don on guitar and piano) would be performing at One Longfellow Square this Saturday (April 16), I decided it was a good time to reconnect and find out what he’s been up to lately. I arranged a phone interview with him from his Portland home, and I began by asking what he’d been up to since we had chatted last.

Campbell: I’ve been really busy. Prior to the onset of COVID, I was doing 300 or so gigs a year — that’s all coming back. But during COVID we had to evolve, so my band manager and I developed some outdoor shows which have continued even though we are, hopefully, kind of heading out of the world of COVID. We developed some really interesting concerts outside, which seem to be really successful, so we’re going to continue to do those. Some things were born out of necessity and have been really successful. I have an old saying: “Evolve or dissolve,” so we evolved.

Q: (Chuckle) I like that saying.
Campbell: Yeah, and I’m crazy busy. I’ve got a recording studio that keeps me busy, I’m still writing and doing that but nobody really puts out CDs anymore, per se; I mean, some people probably still are.

Q: So what are you going to do instead of releasing CDs?
Campbell: At this point, I’m more into creating singles and writing things for specific needs or inspirations or whatever.

Q: In addition to writing, what else have you been doing?
Campbell: I’ve been playing a lot of piano lately. I mean, I’m always playing my guitar but I’m drawn to piano for some reason. I don’t know why. It’s probably a jag I’m on, but I play more of it in concert and it’s a lot of fun.

Q: Have you done any shows lately?
Campbell: I just played at Aura for a fundraiser for the people of Ukraine and there was a beautiful grand piano there. It was just a pleasure to sit at it. It was donated for the day by the Starbird Music Company. It was in perfect tune and it’s really nice to sit at it and play, and I’m writing with piano in mind, as well.

Q: One of the things about that instrument is you have an orchestra at your fingertips — it has chords and a full, rich sound with a depth you can’t really achieve with a guitar, so to speak.
Campbell: It is, well said. Yeah, it’s a timeless instrument. I think piano will always be in style — you can write ancient songs with it and you can write modern songs with it. There’s a lot of versatility with it.

Q: Now, your next performance will be at One Longfellow Square, correct?
Campbell: Yeah, that’s April 16th and it’s two hours of original music going back to my first CD release in 1991 all the way up to today.

Q: What can folks expect from this particular show?
Campbell: I’ll talk about the origins of the songs and why I wrote them, but also maybe some of the naivety of the early songs and how songwriters mature just like filmmakers. I’ve had a bunch of people say, “When are you going to do a night of just your own music?” Well, for the last 10 years I’ve been mixing my own music with music of other people, and I’ve been doing an evening of Dan Fogelberg music.

Q: Oh, that’s right, that was one of the topics we discussed in our last chat: that double-CD set called “Kites to Fly,” with 23 songs written by that amazing singer-songwriter.
Campbell: Yeah, and this is the final year of doing that. We’ve done it for 10 years and it’s been a lot of fun. In Concord, New Hampshire, we’ll do the Fogelberg music, and for those concerts I do about 80% of his music and about 20% of my own that was inspired by his type of writing. It’s been a really fun itch that I wanted to scratch for a long time, and it’s been nice to pay homage to him as my favorite singer-songwriter who inspired me at a really young age. And it’s been really fun to meet tons of his friends and fans, and it’s been a really warm experience. I’m glad I did it, but I think I’m going to move forward pretty much just doing my own music and continuing to write. I really enjoy looking at a blank page and filling it up with whatever inspires me.

Q: In light of you and your band’s appearance down in Portland at One Longfellow Square, is there anything you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Campbell: I would like to just say thank you for the years of your readers supporting my music and the music of my band. We feel so fortunate to be able to play live music again, we like the camaraderie of being with an audience and being able to talk to them. You know, we have a mandate and it’s to play for an audience not at an audience. We just feel blessed to be able to do what we do for a living. I’ve been a full-time musician since the mid-90s and I just feel pretty fortunate to be able to do that in such a great state, a state that has great listeners and kind audiences, I’ve been very lucky.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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