The power and the glory of steel.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

There's no telling how people will react to the sounds of sacred steel music, says Phil Campbell.

"Any number of things (can happen)," the Campbell Brothers guitarist says by phone from his home in Rochester, N.Y., "from dancing to jumping around to clapping their hands, standing up, spinning around. Some are crying; some are laughing, smiling. The music affects people on very personal levels and in different ways."

"If things work out, if we get to that level, it's almost like controlled chaos," adds Chuck Campbell, Phil's brother and the group's star steel guitarist. "And the good news is that it is controlled."

The Campbell Brothers, among the best-known practitioners of the steel guitar-driven gospel-blues music known as sacred steel, will make their Oregon debut today at the Shedd.

The concert, part of the Oregon Festival of American Music's Now Hear This series, will introduce audiences to a form of music that is decades old but only recently has caught fire outside its birthplace in the African-American Holiness Pentecostal Church.

The Campbell Brothers - who now play their spiritually uplifting music at festivals, clubs, concert halls and other performance spaces - have been instrumental in getting the word out about sacred steel. And they say the difference between church audiences and secular audiences is not as great a some might think.

"It's sharing the hope, joy, celebration and oneness that the music brings and evokes in church," Phil Campbell says. "That's what we want to share with audiences when we come to perform.

`People may start out thinking that it's a church service and they may start out being quiet and reserved and we say, `No that's not what church is about.' It's about letting loose, letting go, enjoying yourself, clapping your hands, being able to sing along.

`Once they understand that, it becomes more than a concert, it becomes more than a performance. It is really a cele- bration."

Along with Phil and Chuck, who plays pedal steel, the Campbell Brothers include younger brother Darick on lap steel and Carlton (Phil's son) on drums. Denise Brown, one of the group's vocalists (and a Campbell cousin) will join them on the current tour.

"I think sacred steel really is about, first and foremost, playing music that enables an audience to connect to a higher power or plane," Phil says. "And from a stylistic point of view, it's the steel - lap or pedal steel - playing the melody of a song with such precision that people can hear that melody and know what that song is.

`That enables the audience or congregation to sing along with that instrument as it's being played, either in their hearts or minds, or else out loud."

Eastward from Hawaii

Born in the late 1930s, sacred steel grew out of nationwide fascination with Hawaiian steel guitar. The instrument found its way into two different branches of the African-American Holiness-Pentecostal Church, the Keith and Jewel dominions, and became the primary instrument for both divisions.

Lap steel player Willie Eason is credited with introducing the steel guitar to the Keith dominion, the branch the Campbell Brothers are associated with.

The Campbell Brothers have been together since the 1970s, but only within the last decade have mainstream audiences started to call out for sacred steel music. The widespread interest in the genre was partly inspired by the 1997 release of a sacred steel compilation CD produced by a folklorist for the state of Florida.

The album, which came out on the Arhoolie label, was followed by other sacred steel releases, several of which featured the Campbell Brothers.

In addition to being one of the groups that have helped bring sacred steel to the masses, the Campbell Brothers also are credited with being one of the first sacred steel groups to use a pedal steel, an instrument often associated with traditional country music.

Before Chuck Campbell began playing the instrument at the age of 17, the lap steel was the preferred instrument of sacred steel. Unlike the lap steel, which basically is a horizontal band of raised strings with telescoping legs, the pedal steel is outfitted with pedals and knee-operated levers that allow the player to alter the pitch of the notes.

"My vision for the pedal steel was that I could just press a pedal, change the tuning, rather than having to retune during services, and it would allow me to go between the different styles of the guys that I wanted to play with," Chuck Campbell recalls.

"The second part was, I always enjoyed country music and the pedal steel. For us, the `Grand Ole Opry' was one of our favorite radio shows, because it was the only place you could hear steel on a regular basis."

The Campbell Brothers don't just use pedal steel. They break one of the cardinal rules of sacred steel music and employ two steel players: Chuck on pedal and Darick on lap steel.

The Campbells' unusual arrangement stems from a wish by their father, Charles, a Florida bishop who started two churches in upstate New York. He dreamed that all three of his sons would one day play in the same band together.

"Normally, the steel player is in such control of what will be played or what you will do as far as a service," Chuck explains. "He's almost like a lead singer or a conductor of an orchestra. He orchestrates what happens.

`If you have two guys doing this, normally it ends up in a conflict. There's always a battle as to who will dictate if you have two steel players."

Because Chuck and Darick Campbell each specialize in a different form of steel playing, the two manage to coalesce instead of clash. Darick plays in a traditional style and Chuck specializes in a more modern, more complex form of playing.

As a result, Phil Campbell says, audiences don't just hear one dimension of sacred steel, they hear the whole spectrum.

In perfect harmony

You can hear the harmony between the two steel players on the Campbells' most recent release, "On Tour." And you can also hear the wide range of the group's repertoire.

The album, which features recordings made in both secular and nonsecular settings, includes soaring numbers such as the guitar-streaked opening track "Thank Ya',' and more fluid songs such as "I'll Fly Away," a traditional tune with haunting steel guitar phrases.

Along with a shiny cover of "Put a Little Love In Your Heart" and the upbeat original "I've Got a Feeling," the CD includes recordings of church services, replete with testimonies, sermons and moments of spontaneous inspiration.

These days, the Campbell Brothers perform mostly in secular venues. The brothers, who all hold down day jobs, only play a couple of dozen touring shows a year. By not playing too much, Chuck says, the group is able to pour all of its energy into its live performances without compromising.

The ultimate goal, he says, is to reach "the zone": a state in which the entire audience comes together spiritually.

"It's a very special moment that doesn't last a long time," Phil says. "It might only be two or three minutes out of the entire concert. It's one of the most incredible things that can happen, and that's what we always try to achieve.

`We've been fairly consistent. It depends somewhat on the audience, it depends on us. More often than not, we do get there."

Lewis Taylor can be reached at 338-2512 or ltaylor@guardnet .com.

CONCERT PREVIEW

The Campbell Brothers

What: Sacred steel gospel music

When: 7:30 p.m. today

Where: John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts, 285 E. Broadway

How much: $10.50 to $24.50 reserved; half price for high school students and younger

GuardLine: To hear music by the Campbell Brothers, call GuardLine at 485-2000 from a touch-tone phone and request to hear category 9943

CAPTION(S):

Members of the Campbell Brothers band will spread the gospel of sacred steel when they play the Shedd as part of the Oregon Festival of American Music's Now Hear This series. "If things work out, if we get to that level, it's almost like controlled chaos." - CHUCK CAMPBELL, STEEL GUITARIST Please turn to SACRED, Page 15 Sacred: Pedal and lap steel work together for the Campbell Brothers Continued from Page 14