Campbell will be bringing his songs back to his hometown in support of the reissue on Dec. 18 at Blind Bob’s. The show will also feature acoustic sets by Nick Kizirnis and John Dubuc.
Long recognized for his role in shaping the sound and story of Austin, Texas music, Campbell was first schooled at a party here in Dayton by one Ed Pittman, founder of the punk band Toxic Reasons. Pittman arrived with a bag full of records and showed him the difference between Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and The Heartbreakers — Johnny Thunders’ band.
“Ed literally sat there all night while we drank and got hammered and played every record until, like, 6,” he said. “I was, by the end of the evening, an anarchist.”
That crash course in punk sensibility proved foundational.
In 1989, Campbell and his brother Mike caught the True Believers, Alejandro Escovedo’s band, in Austin. After the show, Escovedo told them to form a band so they could open for him the next time he came through. Troy and Mike took him seriously and put together The Highwaymen — not to be confused with the country supergroup — which evolved into Loose Diamonds.
The True Believers’ show helped kickstart Campbell’s Austin chapter, where he remains to this day.
He recalls the Dayton music scene in the late ’80s as “small,” with “the same 100 fans, maybe” showing up to shows. The Highwaymen occasionally shared bills with The Obvious, the former punk band led by Dubuc and Kizirnis.
“I always remember the drive from Germantown on 725,” Campbell said. “Going to Canal Street, meeting friends and feeling like it was so close to me… I just didn’t know, until I was 17 or 18, that there were these other worlds. That’s what gave me that wanting to tour the world. I wanted to see and meet people, because I knew it was endless.”
Campbell’s career since has been mercurial, taking him from touring with “outsider genius” Roky Erickson to filmmaking, animation and soundtracks, and eventually to creating the PBS series “City of Songs,” which explores the musical identities and cultures of cities worldwide.
In 2009, he founded The House of Songs in Austin, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to uniting musicians from across the world through collaboration and shared performances.
Inspired by his work with Danish singer-songwriter Poul Krebs, Campbell launched it as a one-year residency project. It has since grown internationally and earned him multiple honors, including the Folk Alliance International Spirit of Folk Award in 2016.
Nearly 25 years after the release of “American Breakdown,” Campbell reflects on it as not an album about America falling apart — despite the timing — but as a deeply personal reckoning. At the time, he was touring Europe just after a breakup. Playing music gave him somewhere to put the feelings, he said, until eventually the tour ended and he had to sit with them. The record is about being separated from a loved one — an internal look at a person in despair.
Produced by Gurf Morlix, the record captures Campbell at a peak of lyrical clarity: roots music without the costume, an honest blend of folk, alt-country and late-night rock stitched with lived-in detail. Bruce Springsteen once said Campbell’s “vocals have that high lonesome, wide-open sound — a rare voice.”
Long before the Boss’s endorsement, Campbell also remembers an early exchange with Escovedo that pushed him to take the next step. Teasing him, Escovedo asked why he wanted to be “the coolest guy in Dayton, Ohio,” then urged him to move to Austin, write more songs, get kicked around and crash on the Escovedo family couch. Campbell took the advice — and he and his bandmates did exactly that.
“Dayton did so much for me. I learned about music there,” Campbell said. “Whenever I play the guitar and go and connect with people, there’s a burden that I can’t relieve in any other way. I learned that in Ohio. You’ve got to make something and you have to throw yourself out there or the gravity is too strong.”
The reissue of “American Breakdown” will be released Jan. 9 by Chicken Ranch Records.
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Troy Campbell / Nick Kizirnis / John Dubuc
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 18
Where: Blind Bob’s, 430 E. 5th St., Dayton
Cost: $10
About the Author
