Larry Campbell (musician)

Larry Campbell (born February 21, 1955 in New York City) is a multi-instrumentalist who plays many stringed instruments (including guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, slide guitar, and violin) in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock. He is most widely known for his playing on Bob Dylan's Love and Theft and for being an integral part of Dylan's live band for several years. He also appeared in Dylan's 2003 movie Masked and Anonymous.

Campbell has had extensive experience as a studio musician. Over the past years, Larry has recorded with Levon Helm, Judy Collins, Linda Thompson, Sheryl Crow, Chris Castle, Paul Simon, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Cyndi Lauper, k.d. lang, Anastasia Barzee and Rosanne Cash, just to name a few.

Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan's "Never Ending Tour" band from March 31, 1997 until November 21, 2004. Through his association with Tony Garnier, Bob Dylan's bass player, Larry joined the band, replacing John Jackson as a guitarist, and expanded the role to multi-instrumentalist, playing instruments such as cittern, violin/fiddle, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, and slide guitar. He also contributed vocals. When introducing Larry and the rest of the band, Bob Dylan often referred to them as some of the finest musicians in the country.

Campbell was felt to have contributed heavily to Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft, with its expansion into the realm of Western Swing and other groundbreaking areas for Dylan. He also was perceived as having a profound effect on the tightness and well-rounded sound of that period's live performances, in part due to his years of experience producing, arranging, and freelancing with a rich variety of styles. During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell performed regularly on New York City's burgeoning Country Music scene, at well-known venues such as Greenwich Village's legendary Lone Star Cafe, City Limits, The Rodeo Bar, and O'Lunney's, near the United Nations.

Since Campbell's departure from Bob Dylan's band, he has continued to make guest appearances with various artists and live acts including Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Furthur, and Phil and Friends. He has also produced albums for many artists, including most recently Jorma Kaukonen.

Campbell toured regularly with Levon Helm, in addition to producing Helm's two Grammy-winning albums, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt, and acting as the musical director for Levon's Midnight Ramble concerts.

In earlier years, Campbell contributed his talents to several musicals. In 1982, Campbell performed in the orchestra for Alaska – The Musical, playing fiddle, acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel and banjo. Campbell also performed in the orchestra for Big River in 1985, and Rhythm Ranch in 1989. In addition, he played pedal steel guitar, banjo, fiddle and guitar for the entire run of The Will Rogers Follies, which opened on Broadway in New York City on May 1, 1991.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Campbell was also a member of The Woodstock Mountains Revue, a unique folk group that featured Artie & Happy Traum, Pat Alger, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, John Herald, Eric Andersen and John Sebastian. The Revue recorded 5 classic albums for Rounder Records, and although Rounder allowed over 50 of their albums to go out-of-print, the band is widely considered one of the premier folk groups of all time.

On Thursday September 18, 2008, at the 7th Annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards Show, Campbell was presented with The Lifetime Achievement ~ Instrumentalist Award.

Campbell is credited with playing banjo, fiddle, and pedal steel on The Black Crowes 2009 album Before the Frost...Until the Freeze. He also appears on Whitey Morgan and the 78's recorded at Levon Helm's studio in December 2009 and January 2010 by the Outlaw Country band Whitey Morgan and the 78's and Last Bird Home by Chris Castle, also recorded at Levon's studio in 2011.Campbell played guitar, pedal steel, banjo, slide, mandolin, and fiddle on Dan Brenner's 2011 album Little Dark Angel produced by 8-time Grammy winner Jay Newland.

Campbell is married to singer Teresa Williams. For the past several years, Campbell has been musical director and bandleader of the Levon Helm Band at the latter's Midnight Ramble concerts.