Bringing the Banjo Beyond the Bluegrass
Photos by Sheri Oneal
lthough Ashley Campbell carries the DNA of one of the most talented singers and instrumentalists in the history of American music, she did not aspire to be a musician when she was young. The youngest daughter of country music legend Glen Campbell said, “My brothers Cal and Shannon where more into it than I was. I started playing piano when I was 6 and guitar when I was 15. I just did it for fun and I enjoyed it, but my brothers always knew that they wanted to go into music as a profession. I wanted to go into acting and musical theater.”
Ashley, who is now a highly accomplished and respected songwriter, singer, guitar player, and banjo player, was introduced to the banjo when she was asked to play one in a theater performance while attending Pepperdine University as a theater major. She recalls, “I got into a play called The Kentucky Cycle and the director wanted authentic American folk music. I was kind of known for being able to pick up stringed instruments and play them and she asked me if I’d be willing to learn the banjo for the show. The theater department bought me my first banjo and paid for a couple of lessons and I totally fell in love with the banjo and that kind of music. I took it on my own from there.”
In order to learn how to play, Ashley started taking lessons from Fred Sokolow at McCabe’s in Santa Monica, California. She said, “The banjo that they bought for me was not great and so I quickly bought a Deering open-back Good Time banjo. For the play I needed to learn some clawhammer, so Fred taught me how to play ‘Cluck Old Hen’ and ‘Pretty Polly’ and he taught me how to play ‘Cripple Creek’ in the three-finger style.”
At the time, Ashley was also doing a lot of improv comedy in Hollywood and the husband of one of her improv friends, John Rosen, taught banjo lessons. She said, “A group of my improv friends had a bluegrass band. I went and saw their show and I loved the way this guy played the banjo. I found out that he was a banjo teacher and I started taking lessons. He was in a bluegrass band called the Dust Bowl Cavaliers, but they are also all comedians, which is pretty fun.” Ashley started learning some melodic style banjo playing from Rosen and worked on tunes like ‘Whiskey Before Breakfast,’ ‘Old Joe Clark,’ ‘Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms,’ ‘Ground Speed,’ and ‘Shuckin’ the Corn,’ or as Ashley said, “The usual stuff.”
While most beginning musicians practice for years before they have the nerve to jump up on stage and play for an audience, Ashley’s introduction to live performance came quickly. She started to learn how to play the banjo in 2008 during her junior year in college. When she graduated in 2009, her father was getting ready to go on tour in Australia and New Zealand that November. Ashley asked if she could go along, thinking that it would be a nice vacation. Her Dad said, “Now that you play banjo, you should play banjo on ‘Gentle On My Mind.’” Ashley remembers, “From there it snowballed. His musical director said, ‘Well, if she is going to come, she might as well play in the whole show.’ I had my work cut out for me. I’m a late bloomer, but a quick learner.” It was trial by fire, but Ashley said, “That is my favorite way to do it.”
To prepare for the tour, Ashley, “woodshedded like crazy.” She said, “I worked really hard to make sure that I deserved to be there because I’m not taking a free ride from anyone.” The tour lasted for about three weeks. When asked if she likes to work out her banjo breaks before a show, or improvise in the moment, Ashley said, “I like to work out my solos and put thought into them. It is different when you are jamming and it is just fun. For solos in my shows, I write it and memorize it because it is intentional. It is part of the song.”
Ashley continued to tour with her father after the New Zealand/Australia tour and her brothers also joined in. She said, “It started out with just me touring with him. Later on, when we found out that he had Alzheimer’s, we all wanted to spend more time with him, so Cal and Shannon joined the band. We ended up opening for a lot of my Dad’s shows. With headliners the venue wants two-hours, but he had Alzheimer’s and was older, so we needed an opener because he only did a 90-minute show. We filled that space for him so he didn’t overwork himself.”
The three siblings performed with the addition of a bass player and lead singer. When asked about her experience with that band, Ashley said, “I’m grateful because it taught me a lot about making music and being in a band. But I always leaned towards acoustic music, country, and Americana and that band definitely was not that.”
In addition to having the opportunity to work with her father and his band, Ashley has also found a music mentor in Carl Jackson, who happens to be her godfather. Although Ashley has known Carl her whole life, she formed a deeper connection with him when she started playing the banjo. She said, “I had never been to Nashville until we played the Ryman with my dad in November of 2011. I had met Carl many times before, as a younger person, and I didn’t play the banjo. Now that I play the banjo, we have this really great connection. We started to get together every time I came to Nashville and he would show me some of his famous Carl Jackson licks. He taught me how to play ‘Little Rock Getaway’ the way he plays it…so he kind of took me under his wing as a banjo mentor.”
When asked if she is still learning things from Carl, Ashley said, “Absolutely! He came over about a week ago and we had dinner and he showed me how to play Jerry Reed’s ‘The Claw’. I had kind of learned some of it already, but he showed me some hacks. You know when you learn something by ear and you figure it out on your own and then someone comes along and says ‘There is an easier way to play that’ and you think, ‘Oh, thank God!’”
When asked about Ashley’s banjo playing and overall musicianship, Carl Jackson said, “It’s difficult to only speak a little about Ashley. She is an artist like her dad, not a simple ‘act’ like most that dominate the airwaves these days. Her talents as a musician, singer, and songwriter are off the charts. Focusing specifically on her banjo playing, I couldn’t be more proud of her. When she moved to Nashville, she could already play things she ‘knew’ flawlessly, but was a bit fearful of maybe taking a ride on a tune she hadn’t memorized a solo on. I’ve seen her abilities, as well as her confidence in those abilities, jump by leaps and bounds in the last few years. I want to think I’ve had a small part in helping her make those gains, but maybe that’s just the hopes of a proud godfather who loves her dearly.”
Ashley and Carl wrote a very nice banjo instrumental, “Moustache Man” that appears on her latest CD Something Lovely, released on October 9, 2020. Regarding the title of the song, Ashley said, “I was over at Carl’s house one day and he has a great collection of banjos and guitars. We were sitting on the floor with banjos all around us. I picked up this one banjo that he has and the inlays kind of look like a moustache. The banjo was already in open D tuning and I started messing around and improvising. I came up with the beginning of ‘Moustache Man’ and said, ‘This is kind of cool.’ He picked up another banjo, tuned it to D, and we wrote it right there. It was finished in 10 or 15 minutes. I love that it sounds simple and old school.”
When asked about some of her other influences on the banjo, Ashley said, “Of course Earl Scruggs is great. I also love the way that Noam Pikelny plays. He has such a finesse when he plays the banjo. He is very inspiring and, of course, ridiculously good. I like a lighter touch on the banjo and he seems to have that. I am also a huge fan of Steve Martin’s albums. I taught myself how to play his style of clawhammer, which Mark Johnson taught to him. I got to meet Mark a couple of times and he has helped me out with that style as well. But, I mostly learned my clawhammer style by listening to Steve Martin’s records.”
After mentioning being inspired by the banjo playing of Noam Pikelny, Ashley recalled a time when she took her father to a Punch Brother’s show. She said, “I am a big fan of the Punch Brothers. We had just ended Dad’s tour at the end of 2012 and he was about to start settling down and not go out in public a lot. But we took him to that show in Santa Barbara. Sometimes my Dad would need to get up and wander during a show or in a movie theater [because of the Alzheimer’s], so I asked Noam if he could get us seats near the aisle. But he paid attention during the whole show and he was so into it that he gave them a standing ovation after just about every song. It showed the deep appreciation that he had for excellent musicianship. It was really awesome, and it made me feel good because I was bringing him to something that he enjoyed.”
After the show Ashley took her dad backstage to say hello to the band because he wanted to meet them. Chris Thile was holding his mandolin and Glen Campbell said, “Give me that son.” Chris said, “Yes, sir!” Glen took the mandolin and “started shredding.” Ashley said, “He impressed them. It was cute.” Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge remembers, “Ashley brought her parents to the show and we had the opportunity to meet with them afterward. Glen was very warm and friendly. He was a tremendous musician and we were all tickled that he came and seemed to really enjoy the music.”
Although Glen Campbell was primarily known to the general public as a charismatic entertainer and powerful singer, musicians also remember him as an extraordinary instrumentalist. When asked if she learned anything about playing the guitar or banjo from her father, Ashley said, “Unfortunately, by the time I started coming into my own as an instrumentalist, my Dad was kind of slipping away with the Alzheimer’s. So, I wasn’t able to have that kind of mentorship with him that I do with Carl. A lot of times when I sat down with him and started to play a bluegrass song he would light up and say ‘I know that!’ and he’d start playing it on guitar. But he taught me some guitar licks. He taught me how to play his Jerry Reed style version of ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’ and he taught me how to play the Jimmy Webb song ‘Ocean In His Eyes,’ which is in an open C tuning.”
On Ashley’s album, Something Lovely, she includes a wonderful song written about her relationship with her father titled “Remembering.” One verse states:
First guitar and I just wasn’t getting it right
You showed me how to play it, said it doesn’t happen overnight
And in a couple years I come home and show you how I play “Blackbird”
And though I miss a couple notes you still say
That it was the best you’d ever heard
Ashley remembers that “Blackbird” was one of the first songs that she learned how to play on guitar and said, “One of the first things that I started working on was guitar and I wasn’t very good for a while, but he would smile so big because he loved to see me playing an instrument.”
Since going out on her own, Ashley famously appeared in the video for Rascal Flatt’s 2012 single “Banjo” and has released two albums. Her debut album, The Lonely One was released in May of 2018. That album was produced by her brother Cal and features 13 tracks co-written by Ashley. On that album Ashley demonstrated her strong vocal abilities and subtly weaves her banjo into the fabric of the tunes, giving the contemporary album a very nice roots flavor. Being a banjo fan, two of my favorites on this album were “Better Boyfriend” and “Carl & Ashley’s Breakdown” where the banjo is more prominent. This album also demonstrates Ashley’s wide range of musical interests and abilities. While one reviewer said that the album “struggled to stay focused,” I felt like the variety that Ashley presented was a strength, not a detraction.
As stated above, Ashley’s second album, Something Lovely, was released in 2020 and includes the song “Remembering,” which was released as a single in 2015 and had appeared as part of the soundtrack of the 2014 documentary film Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. Ashley also contributed the song “Home Again” to the film’s soundtrack. In February of 2015, the soundtrack won a Grammy for “Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.”
To my ear, Something Lovely presents more of a country music vibe, especially on songs like “Forever’s Not That Long,” ‘Walk on By,” “Moonlight,” “Remembering,” and her duet with Vince Gill on “If I Wasn’t.” She also includes the above-mentioned banjo duet with Carl Jackson, “Moustache Man.” Again, on this recording Ashley’s vocal and songwriting talents make the album a wonderful listening experience. In fact, I feel that both her vocal work and songwriting have taken a big step forward on Something Lovely. If you have not heard Ashley sing “Remembering,” please go online and take a listen, or better yet, watch the video…just phenomenal. Have a box of tissues handy.
Because of the pandemic Ashley has not had a chance to tour in promotion of her newest record, but plans to do so as soon as she has the opportunity. During the past year she has used her time at home to teach herself audio engineering. She said, “I’ve been teaching myself how to record at home. I got some microphones and Logic Pro and I’m learning how to record some demos and acoustic songs on my own.”
Additionally, Ashley has been working on a book-writing project. She said, “I want to document my experiences touring with Dad and caring for him. I’m collecting all of my journals and expanding upon those. I want it written down so that I can look back on it.”
Ashley moved to Nashville in 2013 and, before the pandemic, occasionally joined Carl Jackson during his regular Monday night gig at the Station Inn. Recently Ashley and Carl have been talking about recording a banjo album. She said, “We are going to revive some of the tunes from Carl’s old banjo album and we are definitely going to do ‘Little Rock Getaway’.”
When asked about her favorite tunes to play on the banjo, Ashley said that she loves playing the old standards like “Salt Creek,” “Little Darlin’ Pal of Mine,” “Ground Speed,” “Shuckin’ the Corn,” and “Whiskey Before Breakfast.” Regarding her three-finger banjo style, she said it was a mix of the Scruggs, melodic, and single-string styles that leans more towards the melodic style. She said, “I like the flow of the melodic style.”
After buying her Deering Good Time Banjo while still in college, Ashley has remained a fan. She said, “I like the warmth of the Deering banjos.” She now owns an Americana model Deering Good Time and a Sierra acoustic-electric Deering banjo. She also has a custom Deering Tenbrooks Saratoga Star, which she helped design and is her main banjo. She said, “I wanted a special banjo, so we picked out the red wine stain and the inlays are these beautiful birds. There is a tree branch and on every other inlayed fret there is a bird on it. At the base of the neck there is a tree that branches out and it says my name underneath it. They also made me a radiused fretboard. It is a beautiful banjo. I love Deering banjos.”
While Ashley Campbells’ albums do not fall into the bluegrass genre, her talent on the 5-string banjo and the inclusion of the banjo does introduce the instrument to fans who may not otherwise have that exposure. It can help bend their ear in the direction of bluegrass. One of the things that inspired Ashley to become interested in bluegrass and country music was hearing the Dixie Chicks. She said, “When I was young, I didn’t think I liked country music because I really did not identify with any of the production styles from the ‘80s and ‘90s. But then I heard the Dixie Chicks album Home and said, ‘Oh, I really like this.’ I thought, ‘This is the kind of country music that I like.’ I loved the acoustic instruments. That album helped me a lot when I was learning guitar because I got the songbook and I started learning how to play and sing songs like ‘Traveling Soldier’ and ‘Long Time Gone’.”
Ashley’s music is something that can help inspire young people to explore the sounds of traditional country and bluegrass music in the same way.
