| |
2004 NEA National Heritage Fellowships
CHARLES "CHUCK" T. CAMPBELL
Gospel steel guitarist, Rochester, NY
Charles "Chuck" T. Campbell is known as a master of the sacred steel. This form
of music originated in the House of God, a Holiness-Pentecostal church founded
in 1903 by a Tennessee street preacher named Mary Magdalene Lewis Tate. In the
1930s a number of these churches began using the electric steel guitar to
function as the central musical instrument of the religious service, easing the
congregants through contemplative moments and propelling them to ecstatic
celebration at other times. Charles Campbell, whose father was a bishop in the
church, began playing steel guitar at age 11 and today is recognized as a great
innovator and teacher in the tradition. Campbell developed a unique tuning and
set-up for the pedal steel that is today emulated by a new generation of steel
players. While younger players like Robert Randolph have taken the sacred steel
sound into the secular world of arena concerts, Charles Campbell continues to
teach the young and pay tribute to the elders. At the same time, he continually
looks for new ways to give the steel guitar a personal voice of celebration and
praise.
Return to News Index
National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506 |
