Ballad of the broken ceiling Issue #38

Isobel Campbell slips one past the stereotypes

By Jennifer Kelly
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 12:00am

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. To these classic male-female pairings, we can perhaps now add one more: Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.

Still, there’s a twist — in the past it has almost always been the guy who wrote the songs, and the girl who interpreted them for the microphone. In this case, however, Isobel Campbell’s words and melodies are crooned in Lanegan’s cavernous baritone, a reversal that Campbell considers an end run around music industry stereotypes.

“I always thought that by getting Mark Lanegan involved in my project, I’ve sort of got one up on the media,” says Campbell in her soft-spoken burr. “It’s kind of slipped through a net. If you get a guy to sing for you, then finally as a female you might be heard sometimes.”

Campbell got her start in the late ‘90s playing cello and singing in Belle and Sebastian. After the band broke up, however, she became involved in a series of lower profile projects, including the Gentle Waves — a partnership with jazz musician Bill Wells — and some solo albums. It was not until Ballad of the Broken Seas, her first collaboration with Lanegan, that she began to receive recognition as a songwriter. The album was nominated for the UK’s Mercury Prize in 2006, and appeared on dozens of year-end “Best Of” lists.

On paper, the partnership seems unlikely. Lanegan comes from the world of heavy rock, with stints in Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, and — most recently — the Gutter Twins. Campbell describes herself as “an old- fashioned person” who listens to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. And yet the two share a love of music — particularly traditional folk — that bridges the gap.

“That music just gets me,” says Campbell citing Jean Ritchie, Anne Briggs, and Woodie Guthrie among her favorites. “I like things to have a lot of heart in them and a lot of soul. Those old field recordings ... have actually, you know, moved me to tears. It just really makes a huge impression on me.”

Campbell began writing the duo’s second album, Sundays at Devil Dirt (released to U.S. markets in November by Fontanta International/V2), composing the bulk of its songs at Allaire Studios in the Catskills region of New York.

Campbell and Lanegan began recording together soon after, during sessions on both sides of the Atlantic — a process that took many months. Dave MacGowan, who has played with Teenaged Fan Club and Mogwai, added pedal steel, acoustic bass, and keyboards, and Campbell brought in a string orchestra to flesh out some of the songs. Yet throughout the album, the focus remains tightly on the two voices; Campbell’s soft and dreamy; Lanegan’s low and extremely masculine. Asked if writing for a male voice forces her to consider gender stereotypes, Campbell replies, “Oh, all the time. As a human being, I think about that all the time.”

“I hate the way that female artists so often just get labeled as crazy or premenstrual ... if they’re not playing the sex kitten,” she adds. “Women can be intelligent, they can be beautiful, they can be exceptional ... they can probably blow a lot of men out of the room with their brains sometimes, and there [are] no limits really. But sometimes, you have to be a bit sly to get things past people.”

cameos and co-pilotry
In addition to Lanegan, Campbell has worked with a variety of other musicians, including:
Belle and Sebastian: Campbell got her start playing cello and singing for this influential twee pop band.
Bill Wells: In 2002, Campbell and Scottish jazz musician Wells recorded an EP of songs inspired by Billie Holiday.
Alasdair Roberts: Campbell and Roberts dug into folk field recordings while working on No Earthly Man with Will and Paul Oldham.
Giant Sand: Howe Gelb’s latest, proVISIONS, features Campbell singing on the ethereal “Stranded Pearl.”