Album Notes

Melancholia” is pianist/composer B.K. Campbell’s first professional CD release, although he has recorded many previous CDs. Despite being self-taught, Campbell’s music is very classical in style, and is some of the darkest, most despairing music I’ve heard. It is also very beautiful and intensely personal, telling much about a man who has been to hell and back many times in his life. A very troubled youth, Campbell’s father’s tragic death at a young age haunts him to this day. He spent many of his adolescent years on the street and survived a couple suicide attempts, one of which permanently damaged his right hand - another obstacle to overcome, although it isn’t apparent in Campbell’s playing. Music was not a force in Campbell’s childhood, and he says hearing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” while walking the streets one night shortly after his father died was a turning point in his life. He listened to as much classical music as he could get his hands on, and began playing the piano in the chapel of a church at night, putting his emotional life into music and finding answers and direction that were not available to him elsewhere. Great sorrow and great hardship often drive creativity and artistic genius, and that is certainly the case here. Knowing that the black passion and enormous pain come from the core of a man’s often-tortured soul make the music difficult to listen to at times, but this is the truth of artistic expression, and is not intended to be superficial entertainment for the masses. If it makes you uncomfortable to hear an artist bare his soul, this is not for you… Self-expression at its most personal… Certain to deeply affect those who are receptive to its honesty… A very powerful work...” Kathy Parson’s Solo Piano Publications Review



“I must admit that I have always considered myself the common man’s musician. There is nothing fancy or special about me- I simply get it down. In the end this is the difference between greatness and extinction. If you can work then you must! The artist aspires to fight against the inevitable concept of obsolescence. We musicians are no different from painters or poets. That is, if we are truly artists. What shall be told about us might be as little as the sparkle of a winter star, but it is better than nothing. In art is contained a longer extension of life as well as a fuller lasting amplification of one’s most intimate personality. But it must never be thought that art can enhance a miserable personality- for it can only bring out what is already there. Music shares experience and this is what makes it so powerful. Our business is not popularity it is sincerity and vulnerable transparency. By being honest we win fans because we win hearts in all those who share our common experience.” B. K. Campbell