Darick Campbell, gospel musician who upheld sacred steel tradition, dies at 53
DARICK Campbell, a lap steel guitarist with the gospel band the Campbell Brothers, who took the musical style known as sacred steel from Pentecostal churches to the international stage, died at a hospital in Atlanta. He was 53.
The cause was complications from heart surgery, said his brother Chuck Campbell.
Sacred steel traces its roots to 1930s church services at the House of God, a small African American denomination where the steel guitar – a staple of Hawaiian and country music
– emerged as a more portable alternative to the church organ.
By turns mournful and joyous, the instrument energized congregations and fostered a call and response between the chancel and the pews.
While his older brother Chuck played the pedal steel guitar, which uses knee levers to raise and lower its pitch, Campbell played a traditional Hawaiian lap steel. In his hands, the instrument sang like a human voice.
He could create four or five distinct melodic notes while striking a string only once. And his use of the wah-wah pedal, an electronic device popularized by rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, enhanced its plaintive quality.
In House of God churches, steel guitarists typically began on the lap steel and advanced to the more complex pedal steel. But Campbell, who started out as the group’s drummer, found his niche on the old-style lap and stuck with it.
“He played more traditional House of God steel, whereas I was more progressive,” Chuck Campbell said in a phone interview. “We progressed into more of a rock-ish style because of the bigger amps, electronics and the more modern choir songs. Darick was a great drummer, too. He listened to Billy Cobham, Stewart Copeland and Tony Williams, all of whom are fusion players. But when it came to the steel, he was focused on the tradition.”
Darick Everett Campbell was born in Rochester, NY, on Nov 12, 1966. His father was a bishop in the Keith Dominion, a House of God branch. By age 8, Campbell was drumming in the family church group with his older brothers, Chuck and Phillip, a guitarist and bassist, and studying the steel with such elder players as Henry Nelson, Ted Beard and Calvin Cooke.
By the time the Campbell Brothers made their studio debut, with “Pass Me Not” in 1997, the group was rounded out by drummer Carlton Campbell, Phillip’s son, and guest singer Katie Jackson.
“Darick got so good that instead of having one steel player, both of us would play,” Chuck said. — The Washington Post