There is a certain symmetry to Shawn Camp playing Nashville’s historic Station Inn, where he recorded a live album in 2004. Some of the tracks from that album made the set list this week as well—”Travelin’ Teardrop Blues” and “My Love Will Not Change,” as well as three also included on his latest album Death of Sis Draper.
Camp dedicated the show on April 2 to the late Ronnie Bowman, who had shared this same stage with him on St. Patrick’s Day, just days before the beloved bluegrass singer-songwriter was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident.
Playing to a packed room, Camp was backed by Jason Carter on fiddle, Mike Bub on bass, Jimmy Stewart on dobro, Larry Atamanuik on drums, and Guthrie Trap on electric guitar. They opened with “A Bad Day for Love,” which, like “Travelin’ Teardrop Blues,” was also recorded by the Del McCoury Band.
The band performed a broad range of music that reminded fans of Camp’s songwriting legacy, as he shared stories of writing with the legendary Guy Clark (co-writer on all but one of the songs on the Sis Draper album), Loretta Lynn, John Scott Sherrill, Gary Nicholson, and more. He also showcased his songs that had been hits for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, George Strait, and more.
“Something Going on in the Stars Tonight,” evoking a slow dance in a jazz club, was followed by “Maybe I Can Paint over That,” a Camp co-write with Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson that delivered by the band, playing it together for the first time, with a reggae feel.
Camp and his compadres enlivened the evening’s performance with running stories behind the songs. He introduced “John Wilkes Booth,” based on a book giving an account of the assassin escaping and living under an alias, adding, “Y’all have your doubts, but I think it’s the truth.”
After break, Camp brought up Lincoln Hensley on banjo and Ashby Frank on mandolin, as well as Jeff White, his fellow member of the Earls of Leicester, to sing vocals as “bluegrass broke out.” They played such Flatt and Scruggs standards as “I’ll Go Steppin’ Too” and “”Gonna Sleep with One Eye Opened,” as well as Tony Rice’s “Mr. Engineer” and “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.”
Taking requests, the band played “Confessing My Love,” before dedicating “Half a Day Away” to Camp’s mother in the audience, who celebrates her birthday on Easter Sunday. He brought out his electric guitar as the last songs of the set picked up the pace, playing Waylon Jennings’ “Long Time Gone” and “Hot Wired,” another Camp song recorded by Del McCoury Band. After midnight, with the iconic venue still packed, Camp had Carter and the band “play it out with a fiddle tune,” closing with “My Love Will Not Change.”
Plenty of long-time fans turned out for the music on Thursday night; others like Laura and Randy, first time visitors from Wisconsin, left as new fans too.
