Fifty-five years ago this summer, The Band released "Music from Big Pink," an iconic album composed primarily in a sleepy town just outside Woodstock, New York.
A year later, hundreds of thousands would flock to the area for what is now considered one of the most important music festivals of the 20th century. When the smoke cleared, the music remained, and that was thanks in part to Levon Helm, drummer and vocalist for The Band.
Levon built a big barn in the woods, invited friends over to jam in his legendary Midnight Rambles, and created a space that became a magnet for talent like Muddy Waters, John Prine, Emmylou Harris — as well as Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams.
This husband-wife duo stopped by for a Live From Studio D session to chat about their time playing with Levon, what life's been like since he died in 2012, and what moves them to maintain the collaborative spirit the Midnight Rambles were known for.
Transcript
Larry Campbell: The Spirit was always there, you know, it was never work. There was never anybody there trying to be at the head of the line, you know, at the front of the stage. Something about when you walked into that barn, everybody just wanted to put their arms around each other, including the audience.
Teresa Williams: That comes down from the top. You know, any organization, a corporation, a church, a theater, it comes down from the top. And so that was Levon's influence filtering down.
Campbell: It was the purest music making experience that we've had. But after Levon died we just looked at each other and said, ‘Well, now what?’
I felt like we had to continue that spirit in some form. And when Phil Lesh called, he wanted both of us. When Jorma [Kaukonen] [and] Jack [Cassidy] called, they wanted both of us. When the guys from Little Feat called, they wanted both of us because of this thing. Jackson Browne, you know, these other people we played with…
Rick Ganley: So you become a unit, a team.
Campbell: Exactly. And I'm not going to tour with anybody now unless Teresa's part of it, you know?
Williams: Oh, don't say that.
Campbell: You know…unless it's Paul McCartney. [Laughs]
Ganley: I want to ask you, too, about all of the years that you've been backing bands. I mean, obviously touring with huge names, [Bob] Dylan and Phil Lesh, and obviously Levon. All of the years supporting and being kind of the arranger and you take care of that band, and then the two of you decide fairly late in your careers, ‘Let's go out and do it on our own.’
Williams: Yes, we're backing them and they are the name. But those people, it's more of an ensemble situation with them. So I never I've never felt like a background singer.
Campbell: It's a whole conglomeration of great musicians and great songs and —
Williams: And you're expected to bring your game and put it down front.
Campbell: As far as I'm concerned, if that path led us to this, then that's the road I should have been on, you know, because what we do now for us— to take what we absorbed from that experience with Levon and try to continue it with our own stuff with her and I together— I can't imagine wanting to do anything else.
Ganley: How do you make it work together now that you're touring together? You're working together, you're recording together, you're backing bands up together. I mean, all of the work that you do together.
Williams: We do have time apart in that I go down to be with my parents [in Tennessee], who I'm lucky enough to still have. My dad passed a little over a year ago with Alzheimer's, and now my mother is in a new part of her life. So I'm there as much as I can.
So if we're not on the road, I'm down there and I want to be there. That's my culture. Hanging with my cousins. And then we're on the road. We're completely together, like you said, and it works. And then you're just so grateful to be together after you haven't been together for, like, weeks or whatever.
Campbell: Yeah, and it works musically because our tastes are a very compatible. Yeah.
Williams I like all genres.
Ganley: Do you like to bring songs to each other and say you know what, let's listen to this?
Campbell: Yeah, and usually we agree. With Teresa, she's attracted to a song first by the words.
Williams: I like a story. The music has to be good too. But the words, I do hear.
Campbell: But for me it's the music first that draws me in. I won't even realize what they're singing about until the fifth or fourth time of listening to the song.
Ganley: You're hearing melody?
Campbell: Yeah, melody, and arrangement, and instrumentation and things like that.
Williams: And I'm in for the whole package.
Campbell: I mean, if she brings a song to me [and] I don't hear it immediately, after a few listens and understanding what attracts her to it, it's like oh yeah, this thing's great. And it's the only area of our lives where she listens to me. So, that helps. [Laughs]
Ganley: If it works, it works, right?
Campbell: Right.
Ganley: Well, this has been a real thrill. I cannot thank you both enough. We've been looking forward to this and having you two in, and it just sounds so good. Thank you.
Campbell: Thanks, Rick. You know, we'll come back anytime, any time. All you got to do is call, as the wise man once said.
