Camp to play 2 shows in LR; 1 for home folks, 1 for benefit

Perryville's acclaimed bluegrass and country singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Shawn Camp came up with a solution for averting impending disappointment among the home folks.

When he thought about his forthcoming central Arkansas show as part of the Earls of Leicester bluegrass band, he knew there would be friends and relatives who would be priced out of the $200 tickets for the Friday fundraiser for the Oxford American magazine. And his visits to central Arkansas are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth.

"So I just put together a booking two days before the Earls show," he says. "It won't be a really programmed show, and I expect maybe some deviation from any sort of set list. We'll feel our way through it, and it will be special since I'll have a lot of my family there, who range from Perryville to my dad's people in Conway and my mom's in Benton. I didn't want folks from back home to be left out altogether.

"Plus my dad will turn 80 on the 13th, so we'll have a get-together for him on the day between the shows at South on Main."

Camp fully expects to hear requests from the audience Wednesday, and will try to honor them (but he won't be doing the Earls material on Wednesday).

As he grew up in Perryville, Camp, like a young sponge, absorbed the music his family loved.

"There were house parties at our house, and not far away, in Adona, there was an annual bluegrass festival, and one up on Petit Jean Mountain," Camp recalls. "That was how I learned to play guitar at 5, mandolin at 7 and fiddle at 15, and when I hit 21, I moved to Nashville, Tenn., and started looking around, meeting other songwriters and looking for jobs."

With his strong skills on a trio of instruments, Camp soon found work, going on the road with Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Suzy Bogguss and the Osborne Brothers. And he kept honing his writing and co-writing skills until coming to the attention of several established artists.

Garth Brooks took Camp's "Two Pina Coladas" to No. 1 and Brooks & Dunn had a No. 1 hit with another song Camp co-wrote, "How Long Gone." Other Camp songs were recorded by Blake Shelton, Josh Turner, George Strait and Billy Currington. Meanwhile, Camp was also recording his own material, starting in 1993.

Camp has recorded 10 albums, in his own name and under other identities. His first four (Shawn Camp, Lucky Silver Dollar, Live at the Station Inn and Fireball) were Shawn Camp albums, followed by a duo album, The Bluegrass Elvises, Vol. I, with Billy Burnette. Then came another Camp album, 1994, released in 2010, after having been on a shelf since 1994.

In 2012, Camp and Al Anderson (formerly of NRBQ) and others formed a band, the World Famous Headliners, and released a self-titled album. Camp and different musicians followed with the self-titled Earls of Leicester CD in 2014. This year, both groups released follow-ups: Now Appearing by the World Famous Headliners in January, and Rattle and Roar by the Earls of Leicester in July.

"Jerry Douglas, who also plays with Alison Krauss, had this idea to do a sort of tribute to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and to find musicians who would be ideal in those roles," Camp says. "We only do their songs that came out between 1954 and '69, and really, it's mostly between '54 and '65."

The late Guy Clark was a mentor for Camp; for years Camp would join Clark and bassist Verlon Thompson in doing shows, often for Clark's golfing pals such as Little Rock builder Jack Kinnaman of Kinco Constructors. Clark and Camp wrote songs together, and in 2012, Camp co-produced a tribute album, This One's for You: A Tribute to Guy Clark, for which Camp won the Album of the Year award at the Americana Music Awards.

And in 2014, Camp picked up a Grammy Award for co-producing Clark's final album, My Favorite Picture of You. And in 2015, Camp won another Grammy with the Earls of Leicester when the band won Best Bluegrass Album.

For Wednesday's show, Camp is bringing a full band: Mike Bub on bass; Jimmy Stewart on dobro, fiddle, guitar and mandolin; Larry Atamanuik on drums; Tim Crouch on fiddle; and a special guest on vocals, Lauren Mascitti.

"I haven't ever done a show with Tim Crouch, who is from Strawberry [Ark.]," Camp says. "His brother, Dennis, a bass player, is the same age as me. And our special guest, Lauren Mascitti, who is from Ohio, has a lot of great songs and I've been doing some producing on those. We'll probably cut a record the first of next year."

On Friday, the show is billed as Jerry Douglas Presents The Earls of Leicester, and the group consists of Douglas on dobro, Camp on vocals and lead guitar, Johnny Warren on fiddle, Charlie Cushman on banjo and guitar, Barry Bales on vocals and bass and Jeff White on mandolin.

The event is the Oxford American's Books, Bourbon & Boogie Gala fundraiser, which will also include live and silent auctions, handcrafted signature cocktails, beer and wine and Southern barbecue created and served buffet-style by South on Main chef Matthew Bell.

Style on 10/11/2016