CMIL Artist of the Week: Craig Campbell

Craig Campbell is nothing new to the country music circuit as he’s been playing it for years.

Though he’s now known for his hit singles like “Family Man,” “Fish,” and “When I Get It,” the Georgia-bred’s career was a long time in the making.

Campbell’s upbringing was, at times, less than ideal. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother later re-married. ”In all honesty,” Craig says, “my life began when my mama married my stepdad.” Years later, when Craig was 11 years old, his biological father died. “The older I get, the more I realize didn’t know him,” Craig admits.

His life, like many down-home country Southerner’s, included twice weekly visits to the Baptist church. The church laid the groundwork for Craig’s musical background, as he was the pianist for the congregation for nine years, and singing the hymns taught him harmony. “In a Baptist church, you have to learn how to sing harmony because the song was not always in your key, so you gotta find somewhere to go with it,” he explains. In addition to the church, Craig’s mother influenced his music as he would ” stand beside her and try to mimic what she was doing.”

Even though he grew up with a solid foundation of gospel music, Craig calls Travis Tritt his biggest influence. He turned towards country music at a young age, but he didn’t start performing until he was 15. His older sister, Lynn, urged him to enter the Jimmy Dean/True Value Country Showdown, a local competition. He sang one of Tritt’s songs and beat out 21 other contestants. Immediately, he knew what he wanted to do.

“I wanted to be on stage for sure,” he remembers. “The crowd response is what drove it. Nothin’ better than to hear somebody applaud.”

Soon after he won that competition, tragedy struck Craig’s family again as Lynn, his biggest supporter, died in a car accident. “It was rough,” Craig recalls. “We were pretty good buddies, you know, and she had a 6-year-old little girl, too, which was the worst part about it. I don’t think I cried up until we told her daughter her mommy wasn’t comin’ home.”

Craig didn’t let the tragedies in his life stop him. Lynn would have wanted him to succeed, so he poured his grief into his music. He won the Country Showdown another time and started a house band at the bar that hosted it, eventually making connections across the country and taking the band on tour.

Finally, in 2002, one of his friends in Nashville called to say he had an extra room in his apartment and wanted to know if Craig would move. “Shoot, yeah,” Craig remembers telling him. “If you can get me a job, I’m there.” And in short order, he’d booked gigs at nightclubs across the city, establishing himself in the Nashville music scene. Craig’s first break came when he was brought in to sing on a demo with Connie Harrington, which led to more and more demo gigs.

“At first it was a job,” he says. A job that introduced him to country music star Luke Bryan, who encouraged him to write his own songs. “I wasn’t used to it, but then I started writing songs that I thought were kind of cool and I’d play ‘em live and people would applaud, and then it started getting to where people were requestin’ ‘em.”

With Craig’s love for the audience’s reaction, it’s no surprise he kept it up. “There’s certain songs—‘Friends In Low Places,’ ‘Dixieland Delight,’ ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ ‘Margaritaville,’ ‘Brown Eyed Girl’—it don’t matter where you are. You’ll get a response,” he says. “It takes on a completely different meaning whenever you can stand up and say, ‘Here’s a song I wrote.’ As opposed to, ‘Here’s a song I like.’”

In the midst of writing and performing, Craig auditioned for the television singing competition “Nashville Star.” Though he didn’t make it, he took away something else from the experience – singer Mindy Ellis. She called him while he was waiting in line to hang out, but he couldn’t leave. “She said, ‘Well, I have a van that has a TV and a VCR. I’ll just come to you and we’ll watch a movie.’ So she came down and we plugged in “Face/Off,” with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and we watched it,” he reminisces. “We’ve been together ever since.” The two are now married with two young daughters.

While he was playing piano for Mindy’s band, one of her friends introduced him to Tracy Byrd, which led to a 15-month tour. His biggest break, however, was when he was discovered by a record company executive at his weekly gig at The Stage. By 2008, Craig was in talks for an album, and in 2010, he released “Family Man” on an EP called Five Spot.

Five Spot was received well, and in 2011, his self-titled album was released. Featuring his debut single, “Family Man,” it’s a throwback to old country, with middle class values and a focus on family. It’s straight-up country, led by Craig’s straightforward singing and the twang of guitars. “Fish,” his second single, is a mischievous take on romance (“fish”standing in for another four-letter word that starts with “f”), but still safe for young kids’ ears.

“When I Get It,” his latest single, takes a subject many blue-collar workers can relate to: the economy. “When I get it, you’ll get it,” he sings matter-of-factly to the bill collector in this toe-tapping, relatable song.

“It’s traditional, back-to-basics, true country music,” he says about his album. “It’s what I am. I can’t be anything else.”

Check out his new video HERE, and be sure to follow him on Twitter and ‘like’ him on Facebook.

He’ll be performing at the 3rd Annual CountryMusicIsLove Concert Benefiting City of Hope on Tuesday, February 21 at the Exit/In in Nashville, TN, along with Michael Ray, Chris Cavanaugh, Kristen Kelly, THE FARM, JT Hodges, Chuck Wicks, Love and Theft, and Casey James. Whitney Duncan, who will host the event for the second year, will also perform. Get your tickets NOW!