Kate Campbell - Damn Sure Blue

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  1. Damn Sure Blue -:-- / -:--
  2. Change Should’ve Come By Now -:-- / -:--
  3. Long Slow Train -:-- / -:--
  4. This, And My Heart Beside -:-- / -:--
  5. The Ballad Of Ira Hayes -:-- / -:--
  6. When You Come Back Home -:-- / -:--
  7. Sally Maxcy -:-- / -:--
  8. The Great Atomic Power -:-- / -:--
  9. Christ, It’s Mighty Cold Outside -:-- / -:--
  10. Forty Shades Of Green -:-- / -:--
  11. Peace, Precious Peace -:-- / -:--

Damn Sure Blue

Artist
Kate Campbell
Released
2018
Genre
Singer-Songwriter

Kate turned to the Man in Black for inspiration on her latest Large River Music release Damn Sure Blue. Two of the songs from this soulful collection stem directly from Johnny Cash’s prolific catalog—the folk classic “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” and his self- penned “Forty Shades of Green.” Produced by Will Kimbrough at Kimbrough Super Service with additional recording by Robert Lucas at Barefoot Jerry’s Cinderella Sound Studio in Nashville, Damn Sure Blue breathes with Americana soul and features a cast of stellar musicians including Will Kimbrough (guitars, bass, mandolin, banjo, mandola, keyboards, and harmony vocals), Kevin Gordon (guitars and harmony vocals), Dave Jacques (upright bass), Bryan Owings (drums and percussion), Phil Madeira (accordion), Chris Carmichael (violin, viola, and cello), Kate Campbell (piano and acoustic guitar), and album artwork by outsider artist Miz Thang.

Coming Soon!

1. Damn Sure Blue

I’m not bitter, I’m just mad
I’m not broken, but you know I’m sad
What good’s a dream if it won’t come true
Well I ain’t done yet, but I’m damn sure blue

I’m damn sure blue on a sunny day
When the clouds inside won’t blow away
And I can’t see why good people do
Such hateful things, but they damn sure do

An ill wind blows, a robin weeps
For a hungry child out on the street
And a lonely soul in her shuttered room
As the cold world turns, I’m damn sure blue

I’m damn sure blue on a sunny day
When the clouds inside won’t blow away
And I can’t see why good people do
Such hateful things, but they damn sure do

So what about me, I love to talk
But do I dare walk the walk
And look myself in the eye
Or turn away and pass on by

I’m damn sure blue on a sunny day
When the clouds inside won’t blow away
And I can’t see why good people do
Such hateful things, but they damn sure do

I’m damn sure blue, and a hard rain falls
The night sets in on one and all
So where’s the light to guide us through
Well it’s not there, and I’m damn sure blue

Where’s the light to guide us through
Well it’s not there, and I’m damn sure blue

By Kate Campbell & Tom Kimmel
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Morrissette Music (ASCAP)


2. Change Should’ve Come By Now

People got ready for the train to come
I can see ‘em working in the delta sun
Give you forty acres and a mule to plow
Seems like a change should’ve come by now

Mississippi burning for a hundred years
River overflowing in a trail of tears
Separate but equal, how’s that working out
God knows a change should’ve come by now

I never thought I’d have to write another freedom song
I never ever thought that it was gonna take so long
Been fifty years since I was born and wandering strange
I still believe in hope and love and I remember

People got ready for the train to come
I can still see ‘em in the Selma sun
Marching blind but they would not be turned around
Yes, a change should’ve come by now

Four little angels and a world of pain
Bulldogs and bullets couldn’t stop that train
How much more will the heart allow
I know a change should’ve come by now

And I’ve been praying, yeah
A change should’ve come by now
I‘ve been waiting
A change should’ve come by now
And I’ll keep singing
A change should’ve come by now



By Kate Campbell & Will Kimbrough
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Will Kimbrough Music (BMI) Administered by Bluewater Music</p?

3. Long Slow Train

Well the train left the station in 1964
And we sang Hallelujah
Won’t be working on the farm no more
I thought those bad old days were gone
Lord was I ever wrong
But my mama said, now girl you know
We’re bound to get there some day
It’s a long, slow train we’re on

Sometimes I get weary 
Seems like no one hears my prayer
I can see where I was going 
But my feet won’t take me there
I could just lay down and die
But I can’t quite close my eyes
Cause my mama said, now girl you know 
We’re bound to get there some day
It’s a long, slow train we’re on

It’s a long, slow train we’re on
Made of blood and bone
Sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it home
But we’re still moving on

Jesus said, ye are the light
I just pray he was right
And my mama said, now girl you know
We’re bound to get there some day
It’s a long, slow train we’re on

It’s a long, slow train we’re on
Made of blood and bone
Sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it home
But we’re still moving on

It’s a long, slow train we’re on
Made of blood and bone
Sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it home
But we’re still moving on and on and on

By Kate Campbell & Tom Kimmel
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Morrissette Music (ASCAP)

4. This And My Heart Beside

It’s all I have to bring today
This and my heart beside

Now the blue skies have turned gray
The sun has gone to hide

Cold and dark though it may be

I’ve got a fire inside

It’s all I have to bring today

This and my heart beside

It’s all I have to sing today
This and my heart beside
I’ll keep singing anyway
Keep this song alive
A simple tune sung so sweet
Rocks me through the night
It’s all I have to sing today
This and my heart beside

It’s all I have to hope today
This and my heart beside
Give those lost a place to stay
Safe and warm and dry
May that same grace come to me
When in want go I

It’s all I have to hope today
This and my heart beside

This, and my heart, and all the fields
And all the meadows wide

It’s all I have to bring today

This and my heart beside

It’s all I have to pray today

This and my heart beside

Peace be still Lord come what may
In this I will abide

Rock of Ages, help me please
Shine a little light

It’s all I have to pray today

This and my heart beside

It’s all I have to bring today
This and my heart beside

By Kate Campbell & Will Kimbrough
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Will Kimbrough Music (BMI) Administered by Bluewater Music


5. The Ballad Of Ira Hayes

By Peter La Forge
© 1962 Edward B. Marks Music Company (BMI)

6. When You Come Back Home

There will come soft rain
And a cool wind blow
Everything must change
But this I know
That will stay the same
So a love can grow
I will still be here
When you come back home

When you come back home
From around the world
Drifting down like snow
In a sleepless swirl
You can rest your head
And your weary bones
In my simple bed
When you come back home

For all it’s worth
You can run
As far as the road will turn
And still be sure
When you see my window
A lamp will burn

For all it’s worth
You can run
As far as the road will turn
And still be sure
When you see my window
A lamp will burn

There will come soft rain
And a cool wind blow
Everything might change
And still we know
From where we came
Is where we long to go
And ever love remains
When you come back home
Ever love remains
When you come back home

By Kate Campbell & Tom Kimmel
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Morrissette Music (ASCAP)

7. Sally Maxcy

Kind uncle, I take my pen in hand
Collect my thoughts if I can
It’s been three days since a tragic event
To me has brought so much pain
Whereby my dear mama and sisters have now
Joined my dear papa in that house appointed for all the living

And though the distant graves divide our dust
I pray the Lord our souls still meet among the just
My grief is as deep as in the water I did sink
A word of comfort, please send
To your sorrowful niece, Sally Maxcy

Kind uncle, we set out from the shore
Across the Seven Tree Pond
To Union we went to lay in the ground
My friend so dear, Esther Cummings
Returning back home only halfway there
The wind filled our boat with so much water it turned us over

And though the distant graves divide our dust
I pray the Lord our souls still meet among the just
My grief is as deep as in the water I did sink
A word of comfort, please send
To your sorrowful niece, Sally Maxcy

Kind uncle, all was in vain
For vain is our help without God’s blessing
Do pray for me for I am a sinner
Why was I ransomed when my loved ones lost
My daily prayer, can you forbear
Mourning with me from such a distance these afflictions

And though the distant graves divide our dust
I pray the Lord our souls still meet among the just
My grief is as deep as in the water I did sink
A word of comfort, please send
To your sorrowful niece, Sally Maxcy

By Kate Campbell, Joanne Maxcy Martin, Tom Kimmel
© 2018 Large River Music (BMI) / Morrissette Music (ASCAP)


8. The Great Atomic Power

By Ira Louvin, Charlie Louvin, Buddy Bain
© 1957 Sony/ATV Acuff Rose Music (BMI)

9. Christ, It’s Mighty Cold Outside

By Eric Kaz
© 1972 Glasco Music Company (ASCAP)

10. Forty Shades Of Green

By Johnny Cash
© 1961 Songs of Cash, Annie Rachel Music Corp (ASCAP)

13. Peace, Precious Peace


From an old LP by Stringbean (David Akerman)
Songwriting and publishing credits unknown

Damn sure good!”
~ Mike Davies / Fatea Magazine 

“In my humble opinion Kate Campbell is always described as a folk singer, but believe me, she is much, much more than just a folk singer, as this, her 19th album (19th!) proves, she can melt all of her musical influences into something that transcends that rather tired and cumbersome writing style with ease and grace.”
~ Alan Harrison / The Rocking Magpie 

“This may not bring a lot of new fans to Kate Campbell’s music, but will surely please those who have encountered her music in the past, and will again in the future on the strength of this album.”
~ Stephen Rapid / Lonesome Highway 

“Just listen to the title track, ‘Damn Sure Blue’ or ‘Long Slow Train’ and you’ll agree with me that the ghost of Cash has taken over Kate Campbell…..”
Mr Blue Boogie / BillyBop 

“Just by the creative selection of the songs that Kate Campbell is covering on her latest record, ‘Damn Sure Blue’, she is showing how well she knows the glorious history of the american folk and country music, but you may easily accept our opinion that her own compositions on this album will soon also belong to that legendary portfolio of traditional top songs.”
Valére Sampermans / Rootstime 

Kate Campbell… A soundscape built on the three cornerstones, country, blues and folk… A collection of intelligent thoughts on the big US social issues… A super cast of musicians…Her voice always carries a strength, an emotional power, an irresistible charm…Her vocal signature is always a highlight… Excellent album!
~ Radio I.S.A. FM, France

KATE CAMPBELL/Damn Sure Blue: Taking it back to when country and folk were loaded with meat, blood and grit, Campbell’s take on modern times was recorded at the oldest indie studio in Nashville with some Americana pros that feel her views intimately as well. Hard hitting stuff that doesn’t make you want to gargle with razor blades when it’s over, this on the mark throughout. A real ear opener, this set really tells it like it is.
(Large River)
~ Midwest Record

‘Where’s the light to guide us through?’

The first time a Kate Campbell CD landed in my inbox, in 2001, it stayed there until a convincing publicist called weeks later to follow up. Leaving the office I grabbed the hymns-plus-original-songs CD, Wandering Strange, and played it in my car.

The moving lyrics and Kate’s mellow honest voice had me driving in circles on the way home to hear more.

Shortly thereafter I met Kate on the steps of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church — where a 1963 bombing by white supremacist terrorists killed four precious black girls and inspired one of the songs on that earlier album. After we visited the Civil Rights Institute across the street I interviewed Kate for a feature story.

Since then I have enjoyed Kate’s music through recordings and in concerts, including her singing at the 35th anniversary celebration of our publication a few years ago. Now when a new CD of hers arrives it quickly makes its way into my ears and heart.

Damn Sure Blue (available at katecampbell.com) is Kate’s thoughtful musical response to the sad reality of resurfacing and politically emboldened white nationalism that has many of us wondering what has happened to the dream of living in racial harmony and equality.

Most troubling, for many of us, is how fear still causes otherwise goodhearted people —many who have professed Jesus as Lord — to demonize groups of people and act so unloving toward them. As Kate puts it in the title song, “…I can’t see why good people do such hateful things, but they damn sure do.”

Expressing disappointment that the dream echoed by Martin Luther King Jr. decades ago — based on the example and teachings of Jesus two millennia ago — has experienced a setback, Kate in the CD’s second song, “Change Should’ve Come By Now,” laments: “I never thought I’d have to write another freedom song; I never ever thought that it was gonna take so long.”

This CD contains five of Kate’s original songs and a couple where she turns to Johnny Cash for inspiration — including his justice ballad about Native American/military hero Ira Hayes.

Also, with the help of some great musicians like Will Kimbrough who appear throughout the CD, Kate blasts out the old Louvin Brothers song of eternal expectations, “The Great Atomic Power.”

This new CD, however, is rooted in Kate’s melodious righteous anger over remaining if not resurgent injustice and inequality. Yet her music expresses a loss of patience, but not hope.

“I’m not bitter, I just mad,” she sings as the opening line of the title song. “I’m not broken; but you know I’m sad.”

Yet she turns to self-examination in asking: “So what about me? I love to talk, but do I dare walk the walk; And look myself in the eye; Or turn away and pass on by.”

Much of the fear-driven racial insensitivity and ethnic-based hostility in America today is advanced within and by an evangelical church culture — something this singing/songwriting preacher’s kid surely knows. Hence the disappointment and sadness many of us share.

“Where’s the light to us guide us through? Well its not there, and I’m damn sure blue.”

In “Long Slow Train,” she confesses: “Jesus said, ye are the light; I just pray that he was right.”

Kate doesn’t leave her listeners in the dark.
In “This And My Heart Beside,” she prayerfully asks, “Rock of Ages, help me please, shine a little light.”

Order is important. Kate’s begins the CD with the honest confession of being “damn sure blue” about the social climate in America today. Yet she ends with a blessing of hope.

“Peace, perfect peace,” is a moving benediction mined from an old album by banjo-playing Grand Ole Opry star David “Stringbean” Akeman who was tragically murdered along with his wife in 1973.

Damn Sure Blue allows for expressing our frustrations and disappointments that come from social and spiritual failures — but reminds us to not give up hope or abdicate our rightful places in the journey.

“It’s a long slow train we’re on; Made of blood and bone; Sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it home; But we’re still moving on.”

Yes, it is, Kate. And, yes, we are.
~By John D. Pierce / NurturingFaith.net