“Our music and sacred steel music has always been about the congregation, and right now the congregation is starting to be the world.” These are the words of Chuck Campbell, master of the pedal steel and a decades old musical tradition that is only in very recent years being heard outside of a small number of House of God Pentecostal churches. He and his brothers, lap steeler Darick Campbell and guitarist Phillip Campbell, stand poised to bring their roof-raising praise music far beyond the borders of the House of God community. With their unquestioned instrumental mastery, strong family bond and new John Medeski produced album, the Campbell Brothers are bringing their music and spirit to ever widening audiences.

Their music takes its unique flavor from the blending of two steel guitars. “Both of them are primary band-lead instruments,” explains Phillip. “Normally you only have one steel in any band. The Campbell Brothers are unique in that you have two steels. You have the lap and the pedal steel so you’re almost seeing the progression of sacred steel on stage when you’re seeing the
Campbell Brothers.”

Darick plays the lap steel, which has six or eight strings (eight on his) and utilizes a metal bar sliding along the strings to create its distinctive tone. Darick blends sweet sliding melismas, toe-curling bent notes and throbbing, percussive strums to create a frenzy of sound. Chuck is a groundbreaking champion of the pedal steel, a later development of the same instrument which has more strings as well as pedals and knee levers to change the pitch of the strings while playing. In the right hands, these are some of the most evocative, soulful instruments around. Outside of sacred steel, they haven’t usually been associated with African-American music, but more often with Hawaiian and country music. The Campbell Brothers’ sound comes straight from the African American gospel tradition, and their steels call out like sanctified shouts of praise. Their music is hard-hitting and direct, using driving church rhythms and inspired virtuosity to bring the spirit to the listener. Spiritual uplifting is always the goal of their performances.

“That’s what we view the music as because this is our tradition of praise and the way that we celebrate the goodness of God,” states Phillip. “We look at it as, if we can give that to other people and enable them to partake in that same uplifting we get from church, then we think we’re doing
something positive.”

By taking their music beyond the church, the Campbell Brothers are part of the first wave of sacred steelers to bring their sound into the realm of secular music. Robert Randolph, whose first steel was purchased with help from and set up by Chuck, has already made big noise with his incredible, church-honed pedal steel chops. Randolph’s entrance into the jam band world was facilitated in part by Medeski, who teamed him with members of the North Mississippi All-Stars for the album The Word. While some might find it puzzling that music derived so directly from a church tradition would be embraced by the jam band scene, Phillip sees it as a natural fit.

“Chuck once asked what’s the definition of jam band? And the definition we got was that it’s when musicians play a song and yet you could hear it two different nights in a row and it would still be taken to a different place each night. That’s really what the sacred steel tradition is because every Sunday the same songs, pretty much, are sung. Yet it’s the sacred steeler’s job to play those songs and take them to a different place so they don’t sound stale. You can imagine year after year of playing and yet keeping the music fresh, you’ve got to bring something different to the table.”

One of the things the Campbell Brothers bring to the table is a high level of technical ability and musical innovation. By looking to the future they are carrying on a core element of their musical tradition. Willie Eason, the father of sacred steel, was on the cutting edge when he began using an amplified steel guitar in church in the 1930s. Electric lap steels pre-date electric guitars, but in the ’30s the lap steel was the newest thing in musical technology, the first instrument to use electricity in producing its sound. According to the Campbells, Eason and Lorenzo Harrison, another early master of the style, were both avid tech-heads and worked on, and in Harrison’s case constructed, their own equipment.

Chuck Campbell is acknowledged as one of the great modern innovators of sacred steel. In the early ’70s he was the first to successfully apply the broader capabilities of the pedal steel to the style, which had been dominated by lap players until then. He was also the first to play complex chord structures on a steel in sacred steel, taking harmonic cues from Phillip’s affinity for Return to Forever and Jaco Pastorius. He also developed a system of tuning that he has taught to many younger players, including Randolph. His contribution to the music was honored with a NEA Heritage Fellowship grant in 2004, placing his name alongside many stalwarts of American arts.

Another Fellowship recipient that night was dobro grand-master Jerry Douglas, who jammed with the Campbell Brothers backstage. Along with Douglas, the Campbells have been crossing musical paths with the likes of Derek Trucks, the Allman Brothers Band, Steve Gadd, Medeski and other prominent players. These musicians are sharing inspiration with the Campbells, and Chuck asserts: “All these guys that you see in the forefront of music and touring, they’re no joke. Trust me, they’re no joke. It’s amazing, so you can’t help but be influenced, to the point that I actually lent Derek Trucks one of my steels so he’s picking up some pedal steel licks. I’m trying to pick up some slide licks.”

In addition to getting to interact with great musicians from different styles, the Campbell Brothers are also spending more time on the road playing theaters and festivals. They were particularly excited about their upcoming trip to New Orleans.

“It’s a very big deal,” say Phillip. “It’s a very big honor to be even invited to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The list is always a Who’s Who, so just to be counted in that company is always a big deal. We get lots of cool points among everyone that knows us here in our hometown [Rochester, New York] and all around for just being invited. And we’re, looking forward not only the Jazz Fest, but even to play at Rosy’s Jazz Hall. That’s going to be another setting where it’ll be a lot more intimate, it’ll be a whole different vibe in the club.”

With so many new doors opening and the possibilities for sacred steel expanding exponentially, after its seven decades of incubation in church, the essence of what the Campbell Brothers are going for remains unchanged.

“Getting to that spiritual place,” is what Chuck calls it. “And that’s what we’re sharing with not only audiences, but I think we’re more popular with musicians than with audiences, if you will. [After hearing the Campbell Brothers] a lot of musicians say ‘Hey I’m going to go a little further into my spirituality and let go a little bit more,’ because I think the main thing we project is that letting go of oneself and just letting it all hang out in the music.”

The Campbell Brothers perform on Sunday, April 24, at the Jazz Festival’s Blues Tent at 2:50 p.m.