Photo Credit: Blaine Schultz
Bill Camplin
Bill Camplin
“It’s been 14 months so some of these things we are relearning,” said Bill Camplin during Friday night’s at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn. The veteran Wisconsin singer-songwriter, joined by his band, guitarist Jason Klagstad and bassist Paul Wherley, played for a small, but appreciative audience. The show was also livestreamed.
The trio played two sets of “Western music” that included Camplin’s originals “25 Words or Less,” “Cardboard Box” and “Where Do We Surrender?”
Noting Camplin’s recent birthday, Klagstad said he’s been giving Camplin a guitar tuner as a present for the last 20 years. A key component to Camplin’s sound is his use of alternate tunings that characterize the sound of his weathered Martin acoustics.
Another Camplin trademark is his ability to inhabit other people’s material. In 2003 he released an album of his takes on the songs of another birthday boy, Bob Dylan. At Linneman’s, Camplin dug deep, nodding to Hank and Lucinda Williams, George Jones, Greg Brown and Rodney Crowell. Among the highlights were Ian Tyson’s lament of time wasted, “Summer Wages” and a supernatural take on Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty.”
