The look. The chops. The vibe. Halifax’s Campbell and Johnston are checking all those boxes. Having formed in 2013, they’re sneaking up on a decade together with the release of their latest album Black Market Band.
Every rag in town will tell you of their association with acts like Steve Earle, Burton Cummings and Bob Seger, but what they might not mention is how they got there. For that, you’ll need to dig a little deeper and listen a little closer. Fortunately, the pair have settled on a sound that feels the most right for them. “We don’t mind when people tell us we sound like ‘so and so.’ We’re just like ‘hell yeah!’,” says Johnston.
Their opening volley, “Got To Feel It,” is as much a directive as it is a blistering blues rocker. A driving snare drum plucks you from your chair, and lets you know that, for the foreseeable future at least, you are in Miss Campbell’s house. Over the course of the next seven songs, she and Blake Johnston assure you that it’s a fine place to be.
Campbell’s undeniable vocal ability pounces on you immediately as she delivers a confident, informed, almost maternal warning not to dance too close to the flame. Johnston likens the song’s message to paying attention to the red flags our bodies give us as we age. There’s a time when we feel like the highs will always continue without any regard for the lows. Realizing the fallacy of this is of course what we come to think of as maturing, or growing up. The sound that the Halifax duo has crafted is quite mature indeed.
(Ladies and gentlemen act one has drawn to a thunderous close. Please return to your seats.)
The ultra-soulful “Don’t Leave Me Hanging” ushers you back and lets you settle in while Christine and Blake paint a picture of vulnerability in brush strokes borrowed from the early days of R&B. “Didn’t want to love ya, but we don’t get to choose,” sings Cambell, speaking to how powerless we are when falling in love.
It’s difficult sometimes to see how connections are made; how gaps are bridged. Cold and foggy Halifax is a far cry from the pulse and thrum of the blues clubs of Chicago, yet here are two performers who could just as easily have come from there. They’ve clearly been listening. They’ve definitely been practicing, and putting in the work it requires to make something old sound so damn new again.
The album’s first single, “Bittersweet”, is a sultry, slinky stroll back into the uncertainty of love. “Getting your heart kicked around really wears a girl out,” cries Campbell, like she is praying for a hero. That hero comes in the form of a masterful slide guitar solo that Johnston delivers as if Derek Trucks took the night off and said, “Here, man. It’s your turn.”
Shifting gears into a wah-drenched romp, “Whisky Train” pulls you in with deft solos on guitar and organ. This track could live on any rock record anywhere.
The final cut, “Rock ’n’ Roll Breaks Your Heart” takes us to the exit with soaring vocals and a memorable, descending guitar riff that bookends this record perfectly.
The world as we’ve come to know it; tainted and changed by the last year and a half, hasn’t left Campbell and Johnston unscathed either. Admittedly they’ve had to shake off the rust that gathered when the opportunity of live shows dried up.
“It took us a couple of weeks before we realized it was much like riding a bike,” says Campbell.
Johnston has said he had trouble completing songs, or finishing books; things he had almost taken for granted. Having signed a publishing deal with Sound of Pop, both he and Campbell will have plenty of opportunities to shake off that rust. Couple that with the return of live audiences, and you have a team that is ready to kick the doors down, and hey, with that door swinging wide open, why not walk right in and check out their upcoming shows. There will be lots to choose from.