Young Nashville mandolinist Casey Campbell is making quite a name for himself, not only as a fine player, but also as a savvy music entrepreneur.
His current album, Mandolin Duets: Volume One, is a case in point. To help introduce himself to the wider bluegrass market, as well as produce some memorable mando music for the repertoire, he invited several of the most respected 8-stringers in the business to record duets with him. Casey reached high, and got Sam Bush, Mike Compton, David Grisman, Ronnie McCoury, Jesse McReynolds, Tim O’Brien, Bobby Osborne, Ricky Skaggs, Andy Statman, Buck White, and Roland White to be involved. That’s some mighty big names in that group.
The attention from Mandolin Duets has led to a pair of IBMA Award nominations for young Mr. Campbell. A Momentum Instrumentalist nomination, which is for artists just starting out in their careers, and one for the graphic design of his album packaging, which features high-quality photos of all the mandolins used on the recording, along with their stories.
Now he will be featured with several of his duet partners on the next edition of Music City Roots, airing live on August 23 from The Factory at Franklin in Franklin, TN. On hand will be Mike Compton, Tim O’Brien, Andy Statman, Bobby Osborne, and Casey of course, with other special guests expected over the course of the program. The mando masters will appear with Casey, and also perform some of their own recorded material.
Tickets are available should you want to attend the live taping, or you can catch it either over the air on WMOT/Roots Radio 89.5 FM from Middle Tennessee State University, or by live streaming from their site. You can also watch the live video stream from the MCR site. Past shows are archived there for viewing as well.
Sounds like a great evening of mandolin music coming up.
