Kate Campbell

Item: Wandering Strange
Author: Chris MacIntosh

Wandering Strange

(2001)

Reviewed by Chris MacIntosh

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Label Eminent RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2001

americana folk gospel

Right about now New York City and Long Island are waiting to get socked in with at least two feet of snow over the next two days. I hate snow! What can I do to get out of here? I know, I'll go Wandering Strange with Kate Campbell. This disc conjures up so many mental pictures that I can let my imagination take me away from all this white stuff outside. Picture a bunch of guys sitting on a front porch in the country on a cool spring night. Each of them has a tall glass of their favorite drink in one hand and a hot smoking bowl of Captain Black in the other. The topics for the evening range from good music to things of a more eternal nature. Or if you would, picture a group of families sitting on the lawn in back of church on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the summertime enjoying barbecued steak and baked potatoes while listening to a young woman singing and playing her guitar. These are only two of the places that this album has taken so far. One other place that it will definitely take you is to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, home of some of the best music in the world.

With this new release, her first for Eminent Records, singer /songwriter Kate Campbell delivers an album of gospel music in the best sense of the term. What we have here is a collection of traditional songs as well as original tunes and a cover of an old Gordon Lightfoot song. Enlisting some of the best session men in the business, such as Spooner Oldham, David Hood and Walt Aldridge this is a disc that will soon become a classic as well as a favorite among lovers of good music. This is not only a great spiritual album, it is also just good old rock n roll. Bill Mallonee turned me on to Kate about a year or so ago. Remind me to thank him the next time I see him. My favorite cuts are: "10,000 Lures," "Now Is the Day of Salvation" and "Bear It Away"

5 tocks