As a solo artist or in duo with her husband, singer/multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, singer/guitarist Teresa Williams displays her warmly resonant alto singing voice and deep love of traditional folk, country, and Americana, whether showcased on their albums or in session work with artists such as Julie Miller, Levon Helm, Peter Wolf, and Hot Tuna. The pair's self-titled debut appeared from Red House in 2015, and they followed it with Contraband Love two years later. In 2020 they were the subject of director Mark Moskowitz's documentary series It Was the Music. Campbell & Williams returned in 2023 with the concert offering Live at Levon's! Williams was raised on a seventh-generation subsistence cotton farm in West Tennessee; she grew up playing music at home, learning from her parents and singing in church. Influenced early on by the classic titans of country, including Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Loretta Lynn, Williams developed her own honest, emotive style and knack for clear-toned harmonies and accomplished performance style during her teens. However, it was her interest in acting that initially brought her to New York City. There, she continued to perform, working with the bands Southern Comfort and Swing Fever, and even playing Sara Carter in a stage production about the life of pioneering country ensemble the Carter Family. Williams refocused her efforts on music, and soon gained a well-earned reputation as a gifted backing vocalist, eventually sharing the stage with such luminaries as Mavis Staples, Emmylou Harris, Hot Tuna, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir. In 1986, Williams met fellow singer/songwriter Larry Campbell after he was hired to play pedal steel with her at a show at New York's Bottom Line. They were married two years later, and continued to work both together and separately. During the 1990s, Campbell toured with Bob Dylan, while Williams furthered her work as a backing vocalist. In the mid-2000s, the couple found themselves working together, backing singer/drummer Levon Helm of the Band. Helm often showcased the couple out front, and it was during this period that they formalized their identity as a duo. After Helm's passing in 2012, Williams and Campbell began work on their own material, and in 2015 released their debut self-titled album for Minnesota's Red House label. The recording drew international acclaim, and peaked in the Top 20 on Americana/Folk Albums chart. After touring nonstop for more than a year, they issued their sophomore album, Contraband Love, in 2017. Included was a cover of Carl Perkins' "Turn Around," which featured Helm in one of his final sessions. The road beckoned the duo, and they hit it hard playing the festival circuit across the U.S. and Europe. Documentary filmmaker and devoted music fan Mark Moskowitz saw the couple perform in a small club. He was impressed by their performance and repertoire, which consists of originals and iconic covers of vintage country, folk, pop, and rock tunes from the 1950s through the early '70s. He approached them about creating a documentary series on their creative life and process. It aired in ten episodes in 2020 as It Was the Music. In addition, the Italian label Route 61 Music released a 2018 concert at the Chiari Rock and Blues Festival as Live from the Archives, Vol. 1 the same year. In 2019, after months of touring in support of Contraband Love, Campbell and Williams returned to their adopted hometown of Woodstock, New York, to celebrate with two sold-out performances on September 20 and 21 at Levon Helm Studios. The shows were multi-tracked and released as Live at Levon's! in February 2023 on Royal Potato Family. The kinetic 12-track set found the couple backed by a crack band playing fan favorites, previously unreleased songs, and covers. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi

Teresa Williams

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