LARRY CAMPBELL - Rooftops

(Album Review)

Larry Campbell has been a respected sideman as a member of Bob Dylan’s touring band for seven years and has worked in the studio with Rosanne Cash, Jim Lauderdale, the Dixie Hummingbirds and others. Campbell shows he’s cabable of being a frontman with “Rooftops”, his debut disc, which serves as a showcase of his considerable skills. It’s a true solo effort. He performs eleven instrumentals by himself on acoustic guitar with imagination and flair.

Campbell included eight songs he originally learned on the fiddle, and demonstrates their adaptability on guitar. “The Camp Chase” is a sprightly opener that features a melodic banjo part. “The Market Town/Scatter the Mud” is a successful blending of two Irish jigs. The traditional “House Carpenter”, the album’s longest cut at seven-plus minutes builds and subsides in intensity like a classical piece.

The reflective title track was inspired by the New York City building where he grew up practicing the guitar. Like a roof offers a wider view on the world, “Rooftops” should raise Campbell’s musical profile.

Tom Wilk