Uncle AlbertAt first, the name Uncle Albert seems more likely to call to mind images of your overzealous great-uncle at Christmas, sporting a bright green reindeer sweater and consuming an entire jam cake, than any band you might go see on a Saturday night. A member of the performing arts department faculty seems more likely to be attending an opera over the weekend than performing rock songs at a bar on the Loop. But, if nothing else, Lisa Campbell and the band Uncle Albert defy expectations.
Campbell, a keyboardist and vocalist for the group and a member of both the voice and performing arts faculty at the University, along with her three bandmates, Steve Strayhorn, Tim Albert (Lisa’s husband and the founding Uncle Albert), and Jon Crofton, comprise the rock/country/jazz/blues band that hits up Riddles on Thursday and Saturday nights.
Fortunately for Student Life, we recently had the opportunity to sit down with Campbell and find out about the band, their roots, Bob Marley, and spousal controversy.
Student Life: When did the band first get started?
Campbell: Well, the band first started…oh man, I guess, probably around 1990. It was of course Tim, who at the time was the road manager for another band, the Three Merry Widows, and his brother was the drummer in the band. Basically, they wanted to have an outlet for their music, to just play in their spare time here in St. Louis.
SL: Have the members of the band changed throughout the years, or are all of the current members the original members of the band?
Campbell: (Laugh) Tim is the only original member. I joined in 1993. Steve Strayhorn (the drummer) joined in 2000, and Jonny Crofton, though mostly he’s called Jonny “Bitch” (bassist), has been with us for the most part since 1998.
SL: I’ve seen your shows before, and you play at jazz and blues clubs, but your music seems to also incorporate many rock and country influences. How would you define your style of music and your sound?
Campbell: There’s a Bob Marley saying that says ‘Roots, Rock, and Reggae.’ But we call ourselves Roots Rockin’ Blues. We’re a roots band, but we have a rock influence and a blues influence. Tim and I are both from southern Illinois and there is a certain sound, a certain groove from that area that plays a major part in the way we sound. Some people might call it Southern rock. We’re not really a blues band, or a rock band, or a jazz band, but that’s where we come from.
SL: You’ve mentioned that Tim writes some of the songs and you write some of them as well. Who does most of the writing, and how exactly does that process work?
Campbell: All four of us write. Steve has recently contributed a song and Johnny’s just starting to bring stuff in. When someone brings something in, we all pick up our instruments, sit down and try to make it something fuller and more complete. Everything is an evolutionary thing. That’s why collaborating is such an interesting process. For example on “The River,” we’ve been performing that piece for the past ten years, but over the past year, it’s taken on a whole new being, and that kind of thing really breathes a whole new life into the band.
SL: I know that Tim is your husband. What is it like playing with your husband in the band? Has it ever caused any controversy?
Lisa: Tim and I see our relationship as what’s on stage different than what’s in the kitchen. We treat each other as band members and really distinguish those two sets of boundaries.The joke in the band is that the only time Tim and I argue is in the band. But it really is two separate things. We come from two completely different musical backgrounds. I come from the background of being a schooled musician and Tim comes from the school of hard knocks music. I’ve learned so much from him and he’s learned a lot from me. That’s why it works so well.
SL: Currently, what is your favorite venue?
Campbell: That’s such a tough question. Right now, Riddles is one of our top places to play. The crowd is very open-minded and eclectic. And there’s a large contingent of WU kids that come in and really breathe a lot of energy into the band. Plus, there are two kinds of music that we get to play there. On Thursdays, we get to play a more unplugged, acoustic kind of music and then on Saturdays, it’s the electric more hard-rocking Uncle Albert’s.
SL: What is your favorite Uncle Albert song to play?
Campbell: Well, I have three, and they’re all three of our own pieces. The first is “Workin'” which was written by Tim with his songwriting partner Danny Jackson and it’s also the name of our second album. It’s really become the anthem of Uncle Albert’s. It’s very earthy, and it’s very representative of where we come from. The second is “The River,” which Tim also wrote with Danny Jackson. It just has a certain sensitivity that the rest of us in the band have really picked up on and now we’ve all been able to share in that emotional output. And my third is “Hot Gumbo,” and only because it’s mine. It’s the first thing that I’ve written that people really request.
SL: Ideally, where would you like to see Uncle Albert going in the future?
Campbell: Ideally, we would like to be playing at festivals and concerts on the large scale…with a recording contract. We’ve all been in this business so long, and we’ve all been on the brink of making it, and we just haven’t been able to get over that hump. We’d like to be playing in places where people are there to listen to our music. We have that to some extent now, but we just want to be doing that on a larger scale.
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You can catch Uncle Albert live at Riddles on the first and third Thursdays and the second Saturday of each month. Also, you can check them out at Hammerstone’s in Soulard every Friday night.