Love at First Note: Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams

If there ever was a Hudson Valley couple whose talent deserved to land them in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and whose love story bears all the ingredients of a Hallmark movie, it’s Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams.

Larry and Teresa’s creative and life union represents a happy fusion of North and South.

Campbell is a three-time Grammy-Award-winning multi-instrumentalist and producer best known for his years touring and recording with Bob Dylan and then Levon Helm. Somehow, this New York City boy learned to be an authentic master of deep country sounds on guitar, pedal steel, fiddle, mandolin and slide guitar. He has also lent his talents to an astounding array of top-flight musicians, in-studio and on-stage, including Judy Collins, Little Feat, Eric Andersen, Abbey Lincoln, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Shania Twain, Sheryl Crow and many more.

Williams emerged from a cotton farm in Peckerwood Point, Tennessee, to become a fixture in New York City theater and, more so, music. She has brought her powerful lead vocals and sweet country harmonies to her work with Larry in Levon Helm’s band and in collaboration with A-list artists, including Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, The Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, Mavis Staples and Peter Wolf.

The couple bought their home in the Hudson Valley nearly two decades back. Since 2015, they have released four critically acclaimed albums as a duo. Their most recent release, “All This Time”, is a soulful 10-song collection. A few tunes reference the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including Larry’s near-fatal battle with the disease in March 2020.

On July 20, the couple will host one of the most anticipated summer musical events, Larry & Teresa’s July Jam at Arrowood Farms.  The event will feature some of the best local and national talent curated by the couple, including Hot Tuna, Connor Kennedy and Onestar, The Secret Sisters, Jackie Greene, Cindy Cashdollar, Jim Weider, Brian Mitchell and some surprises.

Read on to hear their remarkable story…

INSIDE+OUT: Before we get into music, let’s talk about your love life.  You two met in New York City in a most romantic venue: a rehearsal studio!  So, tell us, what is love at first sight – for one of you, both of you or was it a classic “slow burn?”

Teresa: It was definitely not a slow burn! It happened when I was stepping out on my own doing a gig at the Bottom Line, some real country, a short set of Hank Williams. A friend of a friend hired some musicians to back me and I thought it would be slim pickings in New York City to find people who could play real country music. I was a real snob about country music, especially New York guys trying to play it. When I walked into the rehearsal hall and heard the pedal skill player I thought: “How can this New York City guy be so into this music?” At the end of the rehearsal, I thanked him, our eyes met and I could see right into his soul.  I could see that Larry was the same sweet, wonderful person he is today right at that moment. Over the next year, I would ask about Larry and see his band.  His friend told me he was married, but he wasn’t.  I knew we would get married before we even went on our first date.  For me, it was love at first note!

Larry: My jaw hit the floor when I saw her and then I heard her sing and knew this girl had it all together.  When we were packing up, I was putting out everything to try and get a reaction, having my eyes tell her: “I want more of this.” Fast forward one year to a night when she came to see my band and I told the bass player: “I’m going to marry that girl!”  This was 1986, almost 40 years ago. You hear that there’s a perfect person out there for you and it’s true.

Teresa, what role did that famous Louvin Brothers‘ mix tape play in Larry’s courtship?

Teresa: He courted me with a Louvin Brothers mixtape.  I think he was trying to prove that he knew about the authentic country that moved me, even though he was a New York guy.

Larry: I was enamored with them, the storytelling and their harmony. Yes, and I was trying to show I was way into the culture, that it was a shared love.

Teresa, you’re a native of Tennessee who moved to New York City to pursue a joint career in acting and music. What were those early years like and when did you decide to commit fully to a life in music?

Teresa: I will always have one foot in both worlds.  Friends have always told me that I would have to choose, but circumstances have led me more to music.  When I moved to New York, I was doing straight-up theater but paying the rent as a working musician.  I created the role of Sara for a long-running play about the first family of country music, the Carter Family.  But music heated up after Larry left playing with Bob Dylan and began playing with and producing Levon Helm.  His daughter, Amy Helm, asked me to come up and be on the Dirt Farmer album and fill in for her during the Midnight Rambles while she toured with her band.  This was around 2005.  Ah, Levon. He was my touchstone not only as a musician but as an actor.  He lived the truth.  I couldn’t believe that I got to meet and work with him.

Let’s go back to the beginning. When did you both develop an interest in music and who were your greatest early influences?

Larry: It was February 9, 1964, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan – music’s “big bang” moment.  I have always been interested in music because it has moved me deeply.  The emotion I would feel sometimes was scary.  But the world exploded with The Beatles; it was a sign that this was what I had to do with my life.  I listened to the Beatles and then found they recorded a song by Chuck Berry, so I would absorb that.  The same thing happened with Buck Owens and Carl Perkins.  The music of the late 1960s was amazing.  The rush of great new albums, seeing incredible bands every weekend at The Fillmore East. It was intoxicating.

Teresa: I didn’t have a choice.  Music was ever-present growing up in my house in Peckerwood Point, Tennessee. My grandad played Merle Haggard 8-tracks and my grandmother religiously spun Loretta Lynn. Lynn was my grandma’s Liz Taylor.  The radio played all the classic 1950s-1970s country, George Jones and Conway Twitty.  And every Saturday night, we would come in from working in the fields and watch the Grand Ole Opry.  You would also get great radio from far away if the weather was right: WHBG from Memphis and WLS out of Chicago.  We would listen to high-energy music from Sunday services on black church stations. And there was a ton of great music on television too.  Seeing Tina Turner and Gladys Knight was… wow.  Dad would also teach me guitar by ear and Johnny Cash tunes.  I learned to sing harmony from age four, in church and at home.

Larry, you’re a New York City native who somehow developed world-class chops on a bevy of instruments – guitar, fiddle, mandolin, pedal steel and slide guitar.  So how does a Big Apple Boy become a top-flight country picker?

Larry: I started playing guitar in 1966 and got deep into what was happening, first in rock and pop.  Around 1968, I realized that whenever I heard something deeply rooted in the South – country, bluegrass or gospel – it moved me like nothing else.  Around the early 1970s, I went deep into country.  This was the era of The Byrds going country with Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Poco, the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken.  It was country fused with rock-n-roll, jug band hippies playing Roy Acuff and Doc Watson, the deep deep country guys.  To play it, I had to get a fiddle. Then, pedal steel to play like Sneaky Pete from the Burritos. Then a mandolin and so on.

Teresa: As we say down South, you were “eat up” with it!

Some people forget that in the early 1980s, around the time of the film Urban Cowboy, New York City had a bustling country music scene, with clubs like The Lone Star Café, City Limits, The Rodeo Bar and more. What was it like for you both to grow up together in this environment, one that sadly has receded?

Larry: I went to California for a few years, then spent a few years in Mississippi. I came back to New York City in 1978 because I needed some anxiety in my life (laughs)!  As you said, this coincided with country music becoming fashionable.  It became a fashion fad, with cowboy hats, boots and a mechanical bull in every bar. I played with many bands at the Lone Star – Kinky Friedman, Buddy Miller, Doug Sahm and the legendary George Jones. We also played many times at City Limits, which was more of a dance hall. Then came more clubs like Rascals and The Rodeo Bar.  It was a scene for quite a long time. There was also a corresponding boom in recording.  I was doing lots of soundtracks and commercials along with the club work.

Teresa: We spent many romantic nights at The Rodeo Bar under the smoking buffalo.  The New York country scene was summed up by the name of another club, Denim and Diamonds.

Larry, two of your most notable credits are your years with Dylan on his so-called “Never Ending Tour” and your lengthy stretch as musical director and producer of two Grammy-Winning albums for Levon Helm.  How did these associations come to pass and how did these mentors help shape your musical career?

Larry: When I returned from California, I met Tony Garnier, a bassist I knew from his time with Asleep at the Wheel. In the mid-1980s, Tony got the gig with Bob Dylan. Fast-forward to 1997, Bob was looking for someone who did what I did and Tony recommended me. The audition was playing a bunch of old rock-n-roll and country songs for three days straight.  On tour, we would play songs we hardly went over and many I didn’t even know – that’s Bob’s style. I flew by the seat of my pants with him for eight years.  At the end of 2004, I realized that I had things to do and doing the Bob thing would be the only thing I would have time for.  So, I left and two weeks later, Levon called.  That was the beginning of the most satisfying musical experience I ever had.  Those years were the best. I got to exercise all my creative muscles as a performer and producer.  It was the incubator for what we do now.

Teresa: What we were doing in my family living room as a kid was what we did with Levon.  He wanted a community and we were there to help him out vocally as he recovered from throat cancer.

You have four albums to your credit as a duo beginning with your self-titled 2015 debut.  How has your working relationship as creatives changed over the years through these albums?

Larry: If anything has changed, it’s that we’ve gotten a deeper sense of awareness of who we are and what we do.  It’s a truly collaborative thing even though I technically write the songs. When we’re recording, I’m producing but her opinion is invaluable. Our mission is to tell the truth.  We’ve done our job if we can express what we feel and communicate our truth. Hopefully, that’s something that the listener can grab onto.  It’s about making them feel something else they might not have felt without our songs.

Teresa: Larry does the heavy lifting.  Our mission is always to tell the truth in song.  The first song he slipped to me around the time of the Louvin Brothers’ tape was “Down on My Knees.”  This song, like everything we do, is about the story. His writing on our latest record came from his experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. When my brother passed at 26, it electrified my life.  This was the year I consciously tried to go more into music.  All these experiences pull us into another realm.  I don’t think Larry’s even aware of it.  “All This Time,” the title track to our latest album, represents our philosophy.  You must cherish every moment, experience and relationship because life is fleeting.

When and why did you relocate from New York City to the Hudson Valley?

Teresa: Simple. The reverse commute to Woodstock to work with Levon was killing us!
Larry: I’ve always fantasized about owning a house in Woodstock and an apartment in Manhattan, which is something we’ve accomplished.  We bought the house here in 2008.  We love the natural beauty and the beautiful community of musicians.

One of your local claims to fame is participating in the Woodstock Mountains Review, which features local legends like John Sebastian and Happy Traum.  Who are some of your favorite hometown collaborators?

Larry: Certainly, John Sebastian, Happy Traum and his late brother Artie. Bill Keith was a hero of mine, along with Paul Butterfield and Eric Anderson.  The newer generation has tons of inspiring musicians, such as Marco Benevento and Connor Kennedy.

Teresa: We can’t forget Donald Fagen.  He would come and sit in with us when we were with Levon. His stories are simply amazing.

What are some of your favorite places and maybe even a few romantic ones, to frequent here when you’re not making art?

Teresa: Early in our marriage when we had no money, we would go hiking around Big Indian. The day we bought our house, the first thing we did was hike up Overlook Mountain.  It reminds me of where I grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains. And, of course, there’s Levon’s house. He also grew up like me, working on a cotton farm. His home was like being at home again.  When he passed, it was a huge loss for everyone.

Larry: Well, it almost killed me.  I had a severe case in my system for seven weeks.  Teresa was in our apartment in New York City and couldn’t travel, so I was up here. I was on the phone with her every day, all day. And my neighbors would come by and drop off food by the door. I was a shell and didn’t think I’d ever be able to write, play or sing again.  The profundity of the experience didn’t reveal itself until I started writing songs again. They were all unconsciously about the need for human connection, something we lost during the pandemic.

Teresa: I had rented a car to go to Tennessee to take care of my dad, who had Alzheimer’s.  We were in our New York City apartment and the night Larry felt something wasn’t right, he headed upstate. He tested positive a few days later and my doctor told me I had to stay in my apartment.  When he finally got well enough, I headed upstate.  Then, I went down to Tennessee to spend time with my dad.  Sometimes, I think this happened so I could spend much time with my dad, which I did when the touring stopped.  Once Larry was well enough, he stayed busy recording and producing remotely.  But it did lack that human connection in music-making that we genuinely value.

This month, on the 20th, Arrowood Farms will be the site of a big event you are curating and headlining, Larry & Teresa’s July Jam.  Who is on the lineup and what kind of surprises might we expect at this event?

Larry: So many great people.  First off, a great local guitarist, Connor Kennedy and Onestar. We’re excited about The Secret Sisters, an incredible duo out of Northern Alabama, and Jackie Green, our old touring buddy from Phil Lesh’s band.  And Jack and Jorma, acoustic Hot Tuna, who’s last album I produced.  There’ll be lots of local musicians, including Cindy Cashdollar, Brian Mitchell and Jim Weider, sitting in.  Anything can and will happen.

The music business can be tricky with the longevity of relationships. How did you manage this?

Teresa: Many marriages went by the wayside when Larry toured with Dylan. It was a lonely time for me when he was out with Dylan, but we survived it.

Larry: Playing music together can be so bonding if you don’t get competitive and we don’t.  I love the way she sings and performs and she seems to take pleasure in what I do.  It’s a beautiful thing to do for two hours a night and to share it with an audience.  We manage the ups and downs of the music business by focusing on the joy and wonder of performing together.

Any other couples in the music business who may have been an inspiration in terms of the journey of lasting partnership despite the challenges?

Teresa: There are none. I always thought married couple musical partnerships were cheesy!

Any creative seeds you’re planting for the years ahead?

Larry: Nothing is planned except following the creative urge as it rears its ugly head.  I’m thoroughly committed to spending the rest of my musical life in this partnership and to infuse it with as much creativity and truth as we can.

What about your shared communication through and with music as a potential aphrodisiac?

Teresa: This sums up our entire marriage. It’s the glue that keeps us together.  We like the same music and music is so deeply important to both of us. It’s just really amazing that we found each other, two country music lovers, in that giant haystack that is New York City.

Larry: When I hear Teresa sing, I fall in love all over again.  Good harmony is better than sex and drugs.

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Contributing writer Sal Cataldi is a musician, writer and former publicist living in Saugerties NY.
Photos Courtesy of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams
Photos: Gregg Roth @greggrothstudios + Mark Seliger @markseliger +  Jacob Blickenstaff @jacobblick
Top Featured Photo by Gregg Roth @greggrothstudios

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