Singer Fil Campbell
Music is everywhere in Ireland, including the North, but because of the region’s turbulent past, many visitors never make the trip to counties and towns where the musical heritage remains rich. Singer-songwriter Fil Campbell wants everyone to know: Not only is it okay to head north, it’s desirable.
Born in the border town of Belleek (home of Belleek Pottery) in County Fermanagh, Campbell grew up just yards inside Northern Ireland. Though her friends across the way may have gone to different schools, they all sang the same songs—songs she is now reviving through her concerts, as well as her CD and DVD, “Songbirds: The First Ladies of Irish Song.”
“These are songs I learned as a child. People will remember their mothers and grandmothers singing them, there’s a great familiarity to them,” Campbell explained. “
“Songbirds” features the stories and music of five women who played an instrumental part in the 20th century lexicon of Irish music: Delia Murphy, Margaret Barry, Bridie Gallagher, Mary O’Hara and Ruby Murray. These were the women, all from greatly different backgrounds, who paved the way for today’s female singers.
Originally aired as a critically and popularly acclaimed series for RTE television, the DVD was Campbell’s brainchild. She conceived, wrote and produced the program after she started getting requests from audiences abroad who wanted her to sing “traditional” Irish songs.
“It was a complete accident,” Campbell laughed. “I knew nothing about television, or making a TV program. But we did it, and by some miracle, we actually got it onto prime-time television.”
There is nothing accidental about Campbell’s love for those tunes. In fact, they couldn’t have been more familiar. “It was interesting, coming back to these songs I’d sung as a child. I’ve always loved them, loved Irish music, but I had sort of run away from it for awhile. Around the age of 13 or 14, I wanted to sing pop and the blues. I started playing guitar at 14 and, like all teenagers, I was influenced by the popular artists at the time, like Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, Sandy Denny and Elton John.”
Music, though, had always been a part of Campbell’s life. “I was always singing as a child, and I just always assumed I’d be a singer. I never thought anything else. We got a TV when I was about 6, and I was fascinated by Judy Garland. In my mind, I was going to be Judy Garland when I grew up?not like her, but her,” Campbell laughed. “It came as a bit of a shock when I wasn’t.”
At the age of 10, she began attending a boarding school in Enniskillen. “I was very fortunate because right after I arrived, the nuns put together a show. They brought out a harp, and I started learning how to play it.”
Around the age of 16, Campbell began writing her own songs. “Misty Morning,” a song she co-wrote with a girl from school, won a competition. The first band that Campbell formed was called Misty Morning. It was the first of many.
“I always sang in bands. I never consciously thought about how to go about having a career as a singer, I just did it. In college, at Queens University in Belfast, I got involved in promoting bands. As long as I was involved in music somehow, I was happy. I started out on the entertainment committee, organizing annual balls and dances. My senior year, I became the director of The Belfast Fringe Festival at Queens.” (A festival that ran for 21 days.)
“I loved that side of it, I was good at organizing. After I left college I worked for the Belfast City Council for awhile. One of the first things I did was to direct a Christmas show?it was a dolphin show,” Campbell laughed. “We drained the pool and filled it with salt water. It was just great fun.”
Through all this, Campbell never stopped singing. She released three CDs that include many of her own songs: “The Light Beyond the Woods,” “Dreaming,” and “Beneath the Calm.” She’s toured constantly, mostly with her husband and musical partner, Tom McFarland, and with Brendan Emmet, the third member of their current band.
A new Songbirds CD will be released in a few months, filled with more of the traditional songs popularized by the first ladies of Irish song. “There were just too many to fit on the first CD,” she explained. “This new one will include ‘Johnny the Daisy-O,’ ‘Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry’ and ‘Lowlands of Holland.’ They’re all songs that I’m singing on this tour. I’m really having great fun running around America.”
Fun, yes, but Campbell knows she has a great place to return home to. “I live now in a small cottage on the shores of Carlingford Lough, in County Down. Still right over the border,” she laughed. “I’m at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, and I can look across the Lough and see Finn MacCool in the mountains on the other side. We have a small recording studio in our house, and it’s just a beautiful place to wake up every morning.”
“We’re only an hour’s drive from Dublin. And there’s a huge community of artists and musicians there. We’ve got great music, music that’s full of Irish tradition. And we’ve got great shopping, too,” Campbell added. “So the next time your over, come see the North of Ireland. It’s not to be missed.”
Fil Campbell will be performing at The Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Mt. Airy, this Sunday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. For further information, go to Fil’s Web site: http://www.filcampbell.com/index.htm
Also, check out Fil’s myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/filcampbell
Links to Fil performing some of her songs:
“Good-bye Mick, Good-bye Pat” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJD4UX5_avk
“Seoladh na nGamhna”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3mKvseQuxo&feature=related
“The Homes of Donegal” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3xp_DgHLgQ
“Farewell My Own Dear Native Land” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1puRgf_FJ0
“The Bonny Boy” http://www.youtube.com/user/irishphiladelphia#p/u/3/27gSkn7TLOo
