Release Date: February 20, 2001
Wandering Strange was produced by Kate and recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The CD cover art is by artist Todd Green from his Paw Paw series.
Wandering Strange is a “gospel” album that Kate recorded as an homage to the music she grew up singing in church.
“The perfect CD for Sunday morning coffee.”
– Buzz McClain, The Washington Post
10,000 Lures
Wasn’t no copperhead, wasn’t no cottonmouth
Just a garden snake that brought us all down
It didn’t look deadly, didn’t look venomous
Wrapped around that tree so lovely and sensuous
There’s vices and voodoo always enticing you
From the day that you’re born ‘til the day you leave this world
The devil’s got a line for you for sure and 10,000 lures
You may think I’m preaching, even evangelizing
But what he’s throwing out can be so tantalizing
He’s a master of disguise, he’ll reel you in with power
Roaming to and fro seeking whom he may devour
He knows every weakness, knows just when to strike
You know he was an angel once and he knows what you like
For you it might be money, for me it might be fame
Better cover up your ears now when he whispers your name
Before I end this song, before the music’s through
Oh I’d like to share a good word or two
There’s 10,000 angels watching over you
From the day that you’re born ‘til the day you leave this world
Three rusty nails, that’s the cure for 10,000 lures
Kate Campbell and Mark Narmore
© 1999 Large River Music (BMI) /
Starstruck Angel Music, Inc. / Mitchelltown Music (BMI)
Now Is The Day Of Salvation
Now is the day of salvation
Now is the time to be set free
And it’s yours for the taking
The moment you believe
Now is the day of salvation
Now is the time to be set free
And there is no condemnation
The moment you believe
Like the man on the cross next to Jesus
Who had lived a life of crime
It wasn’t too late for forgiveness
Jesus promised he’d wake up in paradise
Paul and Silas were singing in prison
When at midnight the doors opened wide
The jailer asked what must I do to be saved
They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Kate Campbell and Spooner Oldham
© 1999 Large River Music (BMI) / Spooner Oldham Music (BMI)
Bear It Away
Four little girls dressed up nice
Singing about Jesus, red and yellow, black and white
Dreaming of freedom across the land
And all God’s children walking hand in hand
One deadly blast shattered the peace
Making for a dark Sunday morning on Sixteenth Street
Who can explain such ignorant hate
When the violent bear it away
Bear it away, bear it away
Merciful Jesus, lift up our sorrow
Upon your shoulder and bear it away
It hurts my heart to think of them
Four little girls and what they could have been
But we never know about these things
When the violent bear it away
Kate Campbell and Ira Campbell
© 1999 Large River Music (BMI)
The Last Song
After the supper was over and the table had been cleared away
When the last bottle was empty, there was nothing much left to say
Jesus started humming an old tune, everybody fell right in
They sang the last song, the last song
Matthew started singing the low part, John grabbed the high harmony
Their voices filled up the night air all the way to Gethsemane
Judas walked some distance behind them like he had forgotten the words
They sang the last song, the last song
Just before they got to the garden
Just before they all fell asleep
Just before Barabbas was pardoned
And Jesus was nailed to a tree
I reckon it was some kind of soul song, maybe kind of sad and slow
All about how we get weary, all about holding on
Only Jesus knew what was coming, still he never said a thing
He sang the last song, the last song
He could have made a toast to the good times and only the best for his friends
He could have stayed up late reminiscing about the long strange trip it had been
But he went just like a lamb to the slaughter knowing it was part of the plan
And sang the last song, the last song
Kate Campbell and Walt Aldridge
© 1999 Large River Music (BMI) /
April Music/Waltz Time Music (ASCAP)
The Wandering Strange CD also contains the following songs:
The House You Live In
Come Thou Fount
There Is A Fountain
The Prodigal
Jordan’s Stormy Banks
The King’s Business
Dear Little Stranger
Using Muscle Shoals musicians who’ve backed Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett, Mississippi native Kate Campbell breathes blue-eyed soul into hymns familiar to any conservative Protestant churchgoer of, oh, the past 200 years. Campbell’s own songs provide a uniquely poetic southern complement, particularly “Bear It Away,” a eulogy for four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church.
– Brian Mansfield, USA Today
On her first four albums, Kate Campbell proved to be a writer of such literary grace and penetrating insight that it was a disappointment to see that her new album contained only four originals. But not for long. Wandering Strange is the kind of back-to-roots move that provides an even fuller portrait of an already captivating artist. Call it a gospel record, not the over-the-top, testifying kind, but one that is uplifting in its own sublime way. Recording at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., the daughter of Mississippi Baptist preacher reinterprets hymns she sang as a child, and does so in a style that ranges from her familiar folk-country to the kind of soul/R&B the Muscle Shoals musicians are famous for. In personalizing the old standards this way, Campbell renews their timeless power, and her new songs — especially the soulfully hymn-like “Now Is The Day Of Salvation” and the heart-wrenching “Bear It Away” — expand the gospel tradition in equally absorbing ways.
– Nick Cristiano, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kate Campbell’s fourth album is a collection of gospel tunes, both original, and old-time. If that description seems not to your taste, rest assured that Wandering Strange (Eminent Records) is a most secular-sounding, tastefully executed set of American ballads and hymns that goes down remarkably easy. The daughter of a Baptist preacher, Campbell wrote four of the 11 songs — including (with Spooner Oldham) the lovely “Now Is The Day of Salvation” — and she rescues Gordon Lightfoot’s “The House You Live In” from latter-day obscurity. She drew the remaining six from a 1956 Baptist hymnal, the newest of them written in 1902 and the oldest in 1758. But the disc is far from a history lesson. Campbell has rounded up a hornless Muscle Shoals band of musicians who clearly believe in the messages of redemption and salvation she is singing about. Walt Aldridge on guitar, mandolin and bouzouki and Oldham on piano and Hammond B-3 organ lend power to Campbell’s soulful folk-based melodies, coloring them in stained-glass hues with grace and taste. It’s the perfect CD for Sunday morning coffee.
– Buzz McClain, The Washington Post