But if that was even possible, Kitchens, as he was about to learn, would first have to save Campbell from himself.Ĭountry singer-songwriter Zane Campbell and his guitar at his home in Elkton, Md. To Kitchens, Campbell was the kind of artist who could save country music from what he felt it had become: heartland consumerism run amok. “I was thinking, ‘Here’s the best country singer in Maryland or anywhere else at a godd- nursing home in Cecil County.’ ” This wasn’t oldies nostalgia but a form of catharsis. But the music clearly meant just as much to Campbell himself. The familiar songs meant a lot to these folks.
He included weepers like Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” a favorite with the audience that often spurred lonely hearts to do just that. He sounded like a mountain opera singer.”Ĭampbell played several sets that kept Kitchens and the residents - among them Campbell’s 90-year-old mother, Eva, and his Aunt Darthula - riveted. “I’d never heard anybody sing with that kind of command,” Kitchens says, “and with all the inflections and nuance in his voice tones and the crazy notes he was hitting, from a growl to a tremble. What he was hearing in Elkton weren’t just tasteful cover versions but masterful interpretations of the country-and-western canon that rivaled the originals. Kitchens had grown up with a Vietnam vet father playing classic country records around the house in Owensboro, Ky. Beyond the sheer force of Campbell’s presence, there was also his remarkable vocal range.