Hugh & Zane Campbell at The Mainstay, Sept. 6

Hugh and Zane Campbell will show “New River: A family musical history,” a documentary film about their family and its music, sing some of their music and show some of their folk art furniture at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Saturday September 6. The film will be shown at 8 p.m. followed by music but come early to see and perhaps purchase some of the Campbell brothers folk-art furniture. Admission is $15.

Inheritors of a rich family tradition of singing and songwriting, Hugh and Zane Campbell put on a lively, fascinating show. With their singing, playing, and storytelling in the colorful mountain tradition of their ancestors, they share their very personal and unique musical family history, a history that runs from the Scottish Highlands to the North Carolina mountains, to the rural southern enclave along the Eastern Maryland/Pennsylvania border; from a long ancestral line of hillbilly songwriters and recording artists to the music of Zane and Hugh Campbell.

They were born into music. Their great-uncle on their mother’s side, Guy Brooks, was the first member of the family to record. In 1928, he recorded for the historic Gennett label with his band, The Red Fox Chasers. He is credited with having written, in 1929, the first trucker song, “Wreck on the Mountain Road,” which is also considered country music’s first car-wreck song.

On their father’s side is their aunt Ola Belle Reed, their father’s sister, a trailblazing songwriter and folk singer renowned in country, folk and bluegrass circles. She was an NEA Heritage Fellow and recorded for the Smithsonian. Two of her songs “I’ve Endured” and “High On a Mountain” are bluegrass classics and “High on a Mountain,” was a country hit single for Marty Stuart in 1992.

Ola Belle was an early pioneer as a woman in the man’s world of country music, writing her own songs and performing them with her own band, flanked by her brother Alex Campbell and the New River Boys. On their first album for the famous Starday label, she wrote half of the songs, making her one of the first female singer-songwriters long before the term even existed.
She was also a civil-rights activist, who ran her own makeshift halfway house out of her home for years, with no government assistance. Always her own woman, she once turned down Roy Acuff at the height of his career, when he asked her to join his band.

Hugh and Zane have been collaborating since they were small, when they arranged their plastic army men into complicated battle scenes on the living room floor and devised games such as Dead Man, where they stood tall on the sofa arms and fell stiff as boards onto the cushions. They still collaborate today but in different media. They create music and perform together; they design and build folk-art furniture; and they worked with Tom Sims on his New River movie. In all of these ventures, they share their talents and their family stories.

The film, “New River: A Family Musical History Tour” is a musical documentary, directed by Tom Sims, about the Campbell and Brooks families, both of whom have roots in the rich musical culture of the North Carolina mountains. Hugh and Zane Campbell, with fellow musician Gary Irving, narrate and play some of their own and their family’s songs. “New River” was an official entry in the 2007 Festival de Cannes Short Film Program. It has been screened at festivals across the county and at International Bluegrass Music Association’s Annual Meeting. It was called “must viewing” in a review in Bluegrass Unlimited magazine.

In addition to showing the film, Zane and Hugh will perform the songs of their ancestors, tell the stories behind the songs, and share old photographs, records, and other memorabilia pertaining to their relatives’ music. They also sing their own songs, some of which are about their relatives, all in a loose, country-music-style.

Both Zane and Hugh have had some success of their own in the world of songwriting. Hugh’s song, “Shape of a Tear,” was recorded by The Lynn Morris Band and nominated for Song of the Year by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) in 2003. Ironically, his aunt Ola Belle was one of the nominees in 2004 for her song “I’ve Endured,” which was recorded by Tim O’Brien. Zane is best known for having written “Post-Mortem Bar,” which in 1990 appeared in the motion picture “Longtime Companion,” the first American movie dealing with AIDS.

The Campbells will also have on display and for sale some of their amazing folk art furniture and decorative objects. Hugh builds the furniture from reclaimed wood, and Zane paints designs and scenes with great flair and an eye for detail. Together they have created everything from blanket chests with painted quilts on the front to personalized toy boxes, every side painted to represent some aspect of a child’s life.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. It is a 501(c)(3), non profit dedicated to the arts, serving Rock Hall, MD and the surrounding region. It is committed to presenting local, regional and national level talent, at a reasonable price, in an almost perfect acoustic setting. Wine, beer, sodas and snacks are available at the bar.

The Mainstay is supported by ticket sales, fundraising including donations from friends and audience members and an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.