Rosaryville

Description

Rosaryville is an album the American singer and songwriter Kate Campbell, released on the independent roots-label Compass Records 1999. The album was recorded at American Studios in Nashville, Tennessee; with Kate Campbell producing.

For all the craft and art in Christian music, songs are more often shaped by preachy sermons than strong storytelling. Kate Campbell, recording for folk label Compass Records, writes the other way around.

Her finely-crafted folk and country rock songs are richly peopled narratives, exposing the warm underbelly of the lives we all inhabit. Compared often to Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Campbell’s music is sweet and strong, but her true talent and unique voice lie in the depth and beauty of her literate lyrics.

As suggested in the title, the fourth album from the Nashville-based singer/songwriter expresses a spirituality influenced by the Roman Catholic tradition and its symbols, saints and liturgy. While Protestant listeners may have to make adjustments to allow for ritual prayers and the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, ultimately what connects the music to the listener are the all-too-true stories of lives that resonate with our own struggles. Campbell writes of women and men who’ve found something to hold on to, a faith in God that sustains against life’s harshness. Lush language, human vulnerability and insight flesh out tales of the monk who created the «Ave Maria Grotto», a mother who sings just like «Rosemary» Clooney, and a man mourning his dead wife night after night («Fade to Blue»).

Best are «Rosa’s Corona’s» and «Look Away». The first tells of a Cuban cigar maker who prays quietly for her family who escaped to the U.S. and the pope’s visit while she quietly crafts the product for which her country is most famous. The second wrestles with the South’s history of racial violence – a recurring subject in Campbell’s work – as one woman tries to validate a childhood that nurtured and still enriches her.

Songwriters of this depth and talent are too rare. Christian music fans should not hesitate to seek her out. The best sermons are always in the stories. [Brian Quincy Newcomb, CCM, November 1999]

A Flannery O’Connor quotation on the sleeve of Kate Campbell’s fourth album Rosaryville is a fair indication of what goes on inside. Campbell is a literary southern singer songwriter who tells ordinary stories of every day lives and always brings a depth charge of truth to bear, all with a spiritual twist. Rosaryville is her most fulfilled work to date.

There are the tales; Rosa a cigar roller («Rosa’s Coronas»); a mother about to leave her son an orphan («Who Will Pray for Junior»); brother Joseph building the wonders of the world in his own backyard («Ave Maria Grotto»); and Kate herself and her relationship with home («In My Mother’s House»). There are the one line pearls of simple yet profound wisdom; “It’s a long and slow surrender, retreating from the past” («Look Away»), “Some like to hear themselves talk but seldom say anything at all” («Heart of Hearts»); “And when time erodes everything man-made, true devotion will still remain” («Ave Maria Grotto»). This lady is Nanci Griffith with depth and bite. Brilliant songs, brilliantly executed. Let’s hope they don’t go brilliantly unheard. [Steve Stockman, The Phantom Tollbooth, 1/22/2000]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/rosaryville/32334615)

CD tracklist:

01. Rosaryville – 4:28
02. Porcelain Blue – 3:42
03. Rosa’s Coronas – 4:49
04. In My Mother’s House – 3:35
05. Heart Of Hearts – 3:49
06. Fade To Blue – 3:02
07. Who Will Pray For Junior – 3:56
08. Rosemary – 2:53
09. Look Away – 5:27
10. Ave Maria Grotto – 5:02

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