Copyright theirishworld
Ashley Campbell told David Hennessy about her new album, being inspired to follow her father Glen Campbell into music and why Ireland feels like home to her. Ashley Campbell is touring the UK and Ireland with her latest album Goodnight Nashville. Goodnight Nashville somewhat takes its name from the well known singer relocating from Nashville to London. It is her third studio album following her 2018 debut, The Lonely One and her 2020 follow up, Something Lovely. She has also released as part of Campbell Jenson, a duo made up of her and her boyfriend Thor Jenson. She is also part of Scott Bradlee’s collective, Postmodern Jukebox. Of course music runs in Ashley’s blood. She is the daughter of one of the biggest country stars in history, Glen Campbell. Glen Campbell’s recording career lasted 60 years and his best known hit was Wichita Lineman. He died in 2017 after a much-publicised decline with Alzheimer’s disease. Ashley is the youngest of his children and her most well known song Remembering is a tribute to her father and the devastating illness that took him with its chorus that poignantly said, ‘Daddy don’t you worry, I’ll do the remembering’. Remembering is featured on the Grammy award winning and Oscar nominated album for the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. Once a drama student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, part of the reason Ashley learned had only learned to play the banjo for a part in a play. However in 2009, aged 23, she was drafted into her father’s long-serving touring band on vocals and banjo, alongside two of her brothers, Shannon and Caledonia. She would also sadly become responsible for looking out for him on stage as his illness took over. She also often plays her father’s well known Gentle on My Mind. Ashley’s original music has taken her all over the world, from China to Japan, to the mainstage at London’s O2 Arena to opening for Kris Kristofferson, the Bellamy Brothers as well as playing at Carnegie Hall with songwriting legend Jimmy Webb. Are you looking forward to getting out on the road with Goodnight Nashville? “I’m really excited to get out there and play it for people. “It’s actually my first ever full band tour. “I’ve played full band shows but this is my first tour with a full band of my own music so I’m really excited about that. “I’ve got Thor Jensen, my partner, on guitar, and I’ve got Jack Amblin, the drummer from Postmodern Jukebox, coming out with us and then an incredible bass player named Ben Nicholls.” Does the title Goodnight Nashville refer to you relocating to London and leaving Nashville behind? “Yeah, it’s kind of like a little love letter to Nashville, a little departure from my time spent there and everything I’ve learned along the way. “I really loved every minute of living in Nashville but now I live in in the UK so that decade is over.” Was it the case that you were not enjoying your music as much towards the end of your time in Nashville? “No, the music in Nashville is still killing it but during the pandemic, because all of a sudden as musicians and artists, we couldn’t play live shows, we couldn’t go out and tour, we couldn’t do what we do so I thought, ‘Okay, if I can’t do what I do, how do I want my life to look?’ “And I’ve always dreamed of living in Europe or that European lifestyle. “I include the UK as in Europe still because it’s still that continent. “But I just love the lifestyle of living in a walking city and all the beautiful, old historic buildings. “I thought, ‘How do I want my life to look if music is taken away?’ “Obviously I can still do music which is great but I wanted to choose quality of life and for me, that was my dream, to live in London. “But also most of the touring that I’ve done, even before the pandemic, it was UK and Ireland and starting to get into Europe so it did make a lot of sense for me to move to the UK and now I just love touring there. “It’s so much more feasible and financially doable than touring in the States as a smaller operation.” I bet one song off the album that gets a big reaction is POS referring to a ‘piece of sh*t’.. “Yeah, people really like that one. “I like writing humour into my songs. “POS is based off of a true story. “One of my best friends was dating a guy who turned out to be this POS and she asked me to write a song about him so a lot of the scenarios in the song about like him saying, ‘Oh, I’m watching the snow fall in Denver or Utah’, wherever, and he’s actually at a bar down the street with some other girl, that’s all true stories. “It’s fun when you kind of don’t give it away and then when the line comes in where ‘you’re dancing with the biggest piece of sh*t in town’, people really laugh at that part.” I See You, about being present for those you love, is another meaningful one, isn’t it? “It is, that’s one of the first songs in a long time that I wrote completely by myself because in Nashville they encourage co-writing with other people which I do love but I’m starting to focus more on solo writing and writing a song from start to finish on my own. “That was one of the first ones I did by myself in a long time. “And it really means a lot to me because it’s also about this new chapter in my life of finding myself but also finding the love of my life and experiencing the deepening of a connection with someone over the course of the years that we’re together.” The country and bluegrass great, and also your godfather, Carl Jackson features on the song, Little Rapids.. “Yeah, it’s a rule that I’ve made for myself that every album I put out has to have a banjo instrumental and now it’s kind of becoming it has to be a banjo duet with Carl. “It feels like a nice, consistent thing to do. “I love any excuse to get together and play with Carl. “He’s wonderful. “I’m trying to finagle a duet album with Carl. “I gotta get that in the works soon.” You’re going all over Ireland in this tour, do you find people there really connect to your music? “I feel like it’s a more organic music scene. “People show up and they’re quiet. “It’s a listening audience and it just feels so much more music focused than everything else. “Everything seems like it’s so online focused now and when you just get in a room with people, there’s magic that can be made.” Your father Glen spoke a lot of Ireland, did you always feel that connection to Ireland in your family? “My first time in Ireland was on tour with my father. “This would have been probably 2010 I think. “That was my first time and it was incredible. “I had such an amazing time and since then, I’ve gone back many, many times. “I’ve been just about everywhere in Ireland that you can go, every little town and village and I love every time I get to go back, I just get so excited.” On this tour you are not just going to Ireland’s obvious and big cities but some smaller towns also.. “Absolutely. “I just love it. “I love going to see all these places that most people never get to see.” Did you get your love for it from your father, did he speak of Ireland? “He was always really proud of his heritage. “His mom, my grandma Carrie Campbell, her maiden name was Stone and I think we’ve traced her lineage back to Tipperary. “And then, of course, my dad’s father’s side was Scottish so the Campbell clan. “He’s always been really proud of his Irish and Scottish heritage.” Have you been inspired by Irish music? “I remember when I was in high school, my mom bought me a Chieftains album and I was obsessed with the song The Raggle Taggle Gypsy. “I really liked that one.” That’s a very niche CD to give to a high school girl in America, isn’t it? It’s not obvious in that way.. “I guess not but I just loved it. “And of course, the banjo. “The banjo that I play isn’t necessarily Irish roots but banjo music is linked with the tenor banjo. “I’ve always really wanted to get into playing reels and Irish session music but it’s very intimidating for me because it’s totally different than the bluegrass world and even the old time banjo world so I’d like to spend some more time doing that.” When did you know it was music for you? “Growing up music was everywhere in our family. “My brothers and I played piano and then started taking guitar lessons. “I actually had it in my head through high school and college that I wanted to do theatre and musical theatre and things like that but when I graduated from college, I had just started playing the banjo and I really started falling in love with that kind of folk music. “My dad asked me to go on tour with him and I was instantly hooked on music from that point on. “I guess I was shying away from going into the music thing as a career because it was too obvious. “Both of my brothers always knew they wanted to so I just thought, ‘Maybe I should go a little bit of a different route’ even though it was still a creative route. “But once I started playing with my dad I just thought, ‘Yeah, this is where I’m supposed to be and I really love this’.” Is there a pressure about following someone with the profile of your father into the business? “Yeah but there was never any pressure from his side. “He just was always really encouraging of us to do what we were passionate about but he always was super proud of us and I think he got a real kick out of having me and my brothers in his band eventually.” Remembering means a lot for what inspired it, is it an emotional one to play. “That song is probably my most personal song and it seems to be the song that connects with the most people. “I think it is because it’s a very vulnerable and real song. “It’s just very frank, very on the nose and I think it hits a lot of people emotionally because we all have that kind of relationship in our life. “It might not be Alzheimer’s specifically but it really hits the parent/ child relationship from both angles, from child to parent and parent to child and I really appreciate that it means something to people who listen to it. “I’m really humbled and honoured by that.” As emotional as it is I bet you have to play it.. “Yeah, I can’t not play that song.” You have played massive stages like Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall, what have been the particular highlights for you? “Royal Albert Hall is pretty special. “I’ve actually played it twice now. “It’s such a big room but what I was surprised by was when you get on stage, it feels strangely intimate and it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be. “It’s a really special experience. “But most of my experiences on stage are very special. “I’ve played Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall but one of my favourite stages to play is actually Debarra’s Folk Club in Clonakilty.” Really, what makes that so special? “It just feels like such a special moment. “You just feel so present there. “The audience is just always incredible and it’s just so intimate. “I love an intimate show because a lot of my music feels very intimate. “I like to play quiet and kind of intricately so I think that’s kind of a great place to start.” Does Ireland feel like home? “It really does. “My godmother lives in Belfast actually. “I’ve proclaimed her my godmother even though I met her later in life. “I helped her move there at the end of 2020. “She’s actually Italian and she’s a film editor. “She edited the documentary about my father, Glen Campbell: I’ll be Me. “She’s been living in Belfast since the end of 2020 and so I’ve spent a lot of time up there with her. “She’s the reason that my partner Thor and I recorded our Campbell Jensen album, Turtle Cottage on the island of Mahee off the coast of Belfast. “It very much feels like home there and I just love being in Ireland.” Speaking of the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, what does that mean to you now? “It’s really nice to have that documented and that I can go back and revisit those times even though some of them were difficult to live through. “I’m really lucky in that respect that I have so much footage of my dad, that I can see him anytime I want. “Same with his music. “When he passed away, I made up my mind that I wouldn’t let his music be sad to me, that I would always look at it in a positive light and that he’s with me or kind of standing next to me when I listen to his music. “Because you could go quite the opposite way with that and it could make you sad every time you hear it. “But I made a conscious decision to feel love and positivity when I hear his music.” Would you also perform some of his music to pay tribute to your father? “Gentle on my Mind is kind of a staple of my shows because it’s one of my favourite songs. “It’s a banjo song and it fits in with my story of how I started playing music because I had just started playing banjo. “The reason I started touring with my dad was because he asked me to come and play banjo on Gentle on my Mind in his show so it makes a lot of sense to do. “But I generally try not to do too many of his songs. “A lot of people request him but at some point it just has to be like, ‘Okay, it’s an Ashley Campbell show, not a Glen Campbell show’. “But I’m super proud of my upbringing and where I come from and I’m proud to be his daughter for sure.” Do you feel like a lot of his fans have now become your fans? “Definitely a lot of people are aware of me because of my father so I definitely get a lot of Glen Campbell fans and especially in Ireland, in the UK. “I mean, you could throw a rock and hit a Glen Campbell fan. “Everyone loved my dad over in that part of the world.” Once again I bet you can’t wait to get there and play the album for people.. “Yeah, very much. “I like my shows to feel like it’s not like you could have just put on the album and listened to it. “I like my shows to have a very live element and I like to feature the members of my band and to really play stuff together so there’s going to be a lot more than just the album on my tour. “There’s going to be some bluegrass songs, there’s banjo instrumentals. “My drummer plays a washboard as well so it’s going to be a really fun live event, a lot more than just playing through the album.” Goodnight Nashville is out now. Ashley Campbell is touring the UK and Ireland. For more information, click here.
