Christine Campbell

TRURO – Charlottetown native Christine Campbell is bringing her energy to the stage at the Split Crow this week.

Christine Campbell
Now living in Halifax, Campbell was nominated for the 2013 Music Nova Scotia New Artist of the Year and she’s set to perform at the Truro pub at 9 p.m. Friday.

She moved to Halifax seven years ago and formed the heavy rock band Molotov Cocktail, which quickly morphed into Stone Mary, a band that won the Best Loud album award at the 2011 Nova Scotia Music Week.

Throughout the years, Campbell has been writing songs that haven't quite found a place in her hard rock outfits but the songs now have a home on her debut self-titled solo CD, which showcases her bluesy, country roots, and creates a more intimate, stripped down experience for her audience.

She still rips a strong lead, but now does so on an acoustic guitar, dialing it back to play sweeter melodies with intricate picking.

She has recently received standing ovations as the opener for Chantal Kreviazuk at Casino N.B., and at her sets at the Stan Roger’s Folk Festival and the Dutch Mason Blues

Festival. She sold out CD releases in three Atlantic Provinces and has also opened for Bif Naked. She has performed onstage with Tom Wilson, Matt Anderson, Charlie A’Court, Carson Downey and Garrett Mason.

For more information on Campbell, visit christinecampbellmusic.ca. For more information on the Split Crow performance, call the Split Crow at 843-4320. - Truro Daily News

Christine Campbell is best-known locally as the owner of the powerhouse pipes behind Halifax rock outfit Stone Mary, but lately she's been utilizing her dynamic voice for more personal material as a solo songsmith, culminating in this self-titled debut.

The P.E.I.-born singer leans in a more acoustic direction here, but she can’t bottle up that rock and roll energy, and the result is a palpable musical tension that Campbell uses to good effect throughout. She ties her folk/blues/country/pop blend together with those solid gold vocal cords.

She can sing sweetly, and often does, but she eventually drops the reins and lets fly. Or as she sings over a rolling bluegrass riff on How Long, “If I sit too long, I must confess I might explode.”

Campbell unleashes her new songs on Friday at The Company House at 8:30 p.m., with guest Irish Mythen (who cameos on the CD, along with Thom Swift and Matt Andersen), and on Saturday at the Bedford Split Crow at 8:30 p.m.

She also performs later this summer at the Dutch Mason Blues Festival in Bible Hill in August.

Visit christinecampbellmusic.ca. - Chronicle Herald

NEW GLASGOW – Christine Campbell is known for her vicious and dynamic vocal performances with the award-winning rock band Stone Mary, but she shows a more sensitive side of her musicality as she laments love and loss on her debut self-titled solo album.

Campbell says the songs she wrote for Stone Mary were based on themes of growing up and parties, but there’s more to her writing than that. She showcases her acoustic side in the songs on her solo album. The record of 10 original songs features piano ballads, acoustic blues, roots and country, all of which locals can hear when she performs at Thistle Bar and Grill in New Glasgow Thursday night.

“I had love songs that I couldn’t play with the band. You can’t really fist pump to certain love songs, so I thought, 'why not make a whole CD and put all the songs there?'” Campbell said in a phone interview. “For my acoustic album, there was some love songs and a lot of the songs are dedicated to a lot people I’ve lost. I’ve lost a couple guys and music is the way I’ve been able to find an outlet to vent.”

Campbell had some help from some of the East Coast’s most accomplished songwriters including Irish Mythen, Thom Swift and Matt Andersen. Campbell said it was an incredible experience collaborating with some of the Maritime’s best artists.

“Irish is so fun to play with. She’s just a ball of energy and she’s amazingly talented,” she said. “Thom Swift was the first person that I really did a co-write with because he basically came in, played my song and put such a cool spin on it that it just changed the song for me.”

Campbell said a song featuring Matt Andersen is special to her because of the content of the song and the fact that Andersen is someone she looks up to as a musician.

“The song that he sings on is dedicated to somebody I love very much that died when I was young and it was based on a dream I had and a conversation we had in that dream,” she said. “To have somebody that I admire so much playing the part of somebody that I cared about so much really meant a lot.”

Campbell said she will be busy this summer touring to promote her solo album while Stone Mary is on pause. She said Stone Mary will likely rock again, but at the moment the band members are working on separate projects.

Campbell said she isn’t wasting anytime in releasing a follow up to her solo album and will be going to Nashville in June for songwriting sessions for her next record.

“That record is going to be probably more in between Stone Mary and this solo album. I’m definitely a rocker at heart so I’m going to have some of those elements there,” she said, adding that she’ll be playing more piano in her next album. “So it will be a little bit in between.”

The show at the Thistle Bar and Grill in New Glasgow Thursday evening begins at 9:30 p.m.

For more information on Christine Campbell visit christinecampbellmusic.ca

amackenzie@ngnews.ca - New Glasgow News

CHRISTINE CAMPBELL TO RELEASE DEBUT SOLO ALBUM
January 23-Moncton -- Most music fans who recognize the name Christine Campbell as singer, songwriter and guitarist for Music Nova Scotia's Award Winning band - Stone Mary.
Still there is yearning in Christine to express a much different side of her musical personality, and for the last few months she has been focusing her craft as a world-class solo artist. Christine possesses the ability to sing to a room full of people, yet each member of that audience will feel as though they are the only person there. She has a gift to absorb the vibe of any concert hall, bar or basement and make it her own, resulting in a unique, intimate experience that is seldom seen.
Christine Campbell’s solo style is a polished blend of blues/country with just the right amount of attitude. At ease playing acoustic/electric guitar or behind a keyboard, rarely do we see an artist with the artistic ability to completely transform from Hard Rock Goddess to sensitive as silk raconteuse, yet Christine can do so effortlessly.
Christine Campbell will be launching her self-titled solo debut album in Moncton Friday February 15th at the O.C. Nightclub (downstairs) at 700 Main Street. Opening Act: Sarah Jayne Doiron from Moncton. Showtime is 10:00pm. Admission will be $6 at the door. - ENTERTAINMENT PLUS MONCTON: Terry Parker

CHRISTINE CAMPBELL TO RELEASE DEBUT SOLO ALBUM
January 23-Moncton -- Most music fans who recognize the name Christine Campbell as singer, songwriter and guitarist for Music Nova Scotia's Award Winning band - Stone Mary.
Still there is yearning in Christine to express a much different side of her musical personality, and for the last few months she has been focusing her craft as a world-class solo artist. Christine possesses the ability to sing to a room full of people, yet each member of that audience will feel as though they are the only person there. She has a gift to absorb the vibe of any concert hall, bar or basement and make it her own, resulting in a unique, intimate experience that is seldom seen.
Christine Campbell’s solo style is a polished blend of blues/country with just the right amount of attitude. At ease playing acoustic/electric guitar or behind a keyboard, rarely do we see an artist with the artistic ability to completely transform from Hard Rock Goddess to sensitive as silk raconteuse, yet Christine can do so effortlessly.
Christine Campbell will be launching her self-titled solo debut album in Moncton Friday February 15th at the O.C. Nightclub (downstairs) at 700 Main Street. Opening Act: Sarah Jayne Doiron from Moncton. Showtime is 10:00pm. Admission will be $6 at the door. - ENTERTAINMENT PLUS MONCTON: Terry Parker