Biography

TED RUSSELL KAMP TO RELEASE NIGHT OWL

November, 2012 — With his new album Night Owl (January 22, 2013 Pomo Records), Ted Russell Kamp has compiled a deeply personal collection of songs that draws inspiration from the wealth of American music. Ranging in style from rock and singer/songwriter to country and soul, it is Kamp's most thoughtful, melodic and mature work yet as he captures the life of the traveling musician, plying his trade in the hours normally set aside for sleeping. He sings of endless strings of one-night gigs played in smoky bars all over the country as well as the landscape of neon lights and the lonely vastness that is Los Angeles, the city that Kamp calls home.

Decades spent holding down the bottom end for bands as diverse as Shooter Jennings and Wilson Phillips have made Ted Russell Kamp the go-to guy for bands needing a player that can easily and soulfully handle many genres of music. The past five years, however, have found Kamp rising to be one of the current stars out of California on the National and International Americana and Country scenes as he has focused on his own career with constant touring of the US and Europe, and releasing six solo albums. His most recent, Get Back To The Land, received critical acclaim as The Big Takeover described it as “Kamp simply knocks one ball after another out of the park ... Saturated in talent and sincerity, Get Back to the Land is nothing more than good music done right.” The album also received considerable airplay making the Americana Music Association's Top 100 records of the year and debuting at #1 on the Euro Americana Chart.

Easily his most autobiographical work, the newly recorded Night Owl, documents the many phases of a man comfortable in his own skin, yet constantly searching for more answers to the mysteries of life. The record reflects the sound of several cities Kamp has become familiar with from country music roots of Nashville, the rock-gospel blues of Tulsa and Texas and the cosmic American country rock sounds of L.A. All of the songs were written on the road or in brief breaks from touring and the record, produced by Kamp, was actually recorded in L.A, Nashville, Fort Worth, Tulsa and Helsinki, Finland.

Kamp collaborated on Night Owl with many talented musicians. Some of the notable co-writes are “Smile Alone” (with Will Hoge), “Another Love Song”, “My Songs For You” and “My Heart Has a Mind Of It's Own” (with Nashville writer and artist, Eric Paslay), “The Last Drop” (Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke) and “Santa Ana Winds” (folk singer/songwriter Katy Moffatt). “When The Radio Goes Dead” was written solely by Ted Russell Kamp and was originally recorded on the Shooter Jennings' Black Ribbons album.

Ted played many of the instruments on the record himself (electric and acoustic bass, guitars, mandolin, trumpet, Hammond organ and others). Joining him on the album are Michael Webb on keyboards (Poco, John Fogerty), Chuck Blackwell on drums (Leon Russell, Taj Mahal), Danny Timms on piano (Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson), Brian Whelan on harmony vocals and accordion (Dwight Yoakam, Chuck Berry), Jerry Roe on drums (KD Lang, Gretchen Wilson) and Jason Cope on pedal steel and guitar (Jamey Johnson, Secret Sisters).

The path of a traveling musician often leaves the artist longing to connect. With this honest and lush new record, Night Owl, Ted Russell Kamp conveys this feeling and transcends it as he shares his sounds and thoughts with the listener.