Music Review: Kate Campbell, Save the Day

By Steve Morley

Southern-born singer/songwriter Kate Campbell holds a degree in history, so she’s well aware that her homeland is remembered as much for racial intolerance and the rebel flag as for its deeply-rooted faith and spirit of hospitality. But the singer has done the Southland proud with her gentle, wise and often inspirational music, which recalls the benevolent spirit of the Southern writer Eudora Welty. While Campbell’s latest album, Save the Day, isn’t as South-centric as some of her past work, it reveals Welty’s considerable influence in its plainspoken and non-judgmental observations.

“Fordlandia,” Campbell’s duet with Nanci Griffith, deals with the little-known city and rubber plantation founded in the Brazilian wilderness by automotive industrialist Henry Ford. The fact that the enterprise was a colossal failure might warrant ridicule, though Campbell’s retelling of the story is both matter-of-fact and philosophical. The song’s gently rolling acoustic arrangement turns the tale into a folksy fable that speaks up for those who dream big and reminds us that mistakes are part of the blueprint of success. (“Speaking now in Ford’s defense/ Sometimes things make perfect sense/ The best laid plans of mice and men/ Will often go astray/ All of history’s greatest minds/ Dared to lay it on the line/ They came up short a couple of times/ Before they made the Model ‘T’.”)

In a similar fashion, the banjo-driven “Welcome to Ray” quizzically ponders the extinction of a once-thriving mobile home community without attempting drama or pointing fingers at heartless real estate developers. Instead, Campbell meditates on the meaning of home and echoes the irony of the surviving welcome sign captured for posterity by documentary photographer Daryl Thetford.

Campbell’s title track breaks fresh ground, posing a probing social question over an ambling rock shuffle decorated with bright, Beatlesque guitar. Though Campbell casts no outright aspersions on those who seek wealth and possessions, the song’s sharp distinction between luxury and survival prompts consideration about the things that truly matter. (“What’s it gonna take to save the day/ What you gonna need to feel okay/ If you close your eyes what would you pray/ What’s it gonna take to save the day/ For some people it’s a brand-new car/ For some it’s just a parking space/ A little water in the desert sun/ Or champagne by the case…”) The track’s progressive pop-folk sound appears on two other standout tunes, adding welcome colors to Campbell’s earthy Southern soul and country-folk canvas as well as the potential for airplay on adult alternative radio.

Campbell’s method of addressing spirituality—something she does often—can be unorthodox. “Looking for Jesus,” which perfectly casts folk legend John Prine as Campbell’s duet partner, describes a variety of Savior-seekers ranging from archeologists to the highest bidder on a bowl of cornflakes that resembles the face of Jesus. While Campbell declares that “we all want to believe,” she leaves behind the bittersweet implication that many of us overlook the real Christ in the process of chasing tangible representations. (“Every day the buses roll in/ Hoping to re-trace his steps again/ They’re all wanting to be where the Savior’s been/ Looking for Jesus/ Up to the mountain, down to the sea/ Climb up the limbs of a sycamore tree/ So we can see…”)

Coming from a Southern Baptist upbringing, it’s interesting that Campbell addresses faith from a slant that’s more philosophical than evangelical. But her good-natured and thoughtful handling of all the subjects she covers on Save the Day comprises a potent case for the ongoing existence of old-fashioned Southern grace.

Audio Clips

"Save the Day"

"Welcome to Ray"

"Fordlandia"

"Looking for Jesus"