August 27–September 3, 1998

critical mass

Just Me

		Regular Guy: David Campbell comes to New Hope and Philly

His father's an Australian rock star, but singer David Campbell is making his own mark.

by Steve Cohen

Last Saturday, as part of a PBS tribute to Broadway producer Cameron Mackintosh, a young, good-looking, but little-known singer named David Campbell sang music from two Mackintosh-produced shows, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre. Though he was sharing the stage with original cast members from these and other musical hits, he has yet to appear in a London or Broadway theater himself.

Nevertheless, he made an impact.

How much impact? By Monday afternoon, Campbell's singing engagement at Odette's, starting tonight, was almost sold out. Extra performances were added to meet the demand. Campbell will be at the New Hope restaurant Thursday through Sunday, this week and next.

Campbell is 25, the son of an Australian rock star named Jimmy Barnes, but what's unusual about him is that he sings with the verve and vocal style of an earlier era, like a legit performer of the '40s or '50s. His musical tastes—Gershwin and Porter as recorded by singers like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole—were Campbell's earliest influences as he grew up in the home of his mother's mother, who adopted and raised him.

When David was 11, Barnes reappeared in his son's life, and his grandmother told David how his parents had been teenagers unprepared to marry or raise a child. Jimmy and David gradually developed a father-son relationship, and David also connected with his mother. Both of the parents had married other spouses and David now has six half-brothers and sisters.

This summer Campbell hung out with his father in New York, and they wrote a few songs together. "I started to write music, and he did the words," says Campbell. "They're intimate, personal songs."

In December, Campbell will return to the Philadelphia area to perform with one of his singer-songwriting idols, John Bucchino. They'll be appearing together in a program of Bucchino material for the American Music Theater Festival's cabaret series at Plays and Players.

"I fell in love with his stuff because it's commercial, yet it takes risks," Campbell explains. "John is a sort of modern Randy Newman. Or an urban Jimmy Webb."

He met Bucchino when they each went up to talk with singer-songwriter Amanda McBroom at the end of a show she did in New York two years ago. Since they both live on Manhattan's Upper West Side, they shared a cab back to their neighborhood, then stopped to have coffee together.

They often hang out at each other's apartments. But, says Campbell, it was just last week that he had the nerve to play some original music that he'd just written. Bucchino expanded on the melody and they both contributed words.

As of our conversation last Friday, the song still needed polishing, so he's not likely to sing it at Odette's. But the program will include a mix of standard torch songs with newer material by Bucchino, Newman and Paul Simon. There could be a Sondheim number and a ballad from the Broadway show The Scarlet Pimpernel. Campbell says he likes to keep things loose. "I sit up there and tell stories, gab on and have a good time. I know there's been a lot of hype about me, but I'm just a regular guy."

Campbell has two albums on Philips: Yesterday Is Now and Taking the Wheel. He headlined at Manhattan's Rainbow & Stars and was nominated as 1998's Major Male Vocalist by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs.

Campbell has appeared in stage musicals in Australia—most recently as Marius in Les Miz. He'd like to star on Broadway, but never wants to give up intimate gigs like Odette's, where "you have nothing to hide behind, no sets, no orchestra; it's just me."

David Campbell, Odette's, South River Road, New Hope, Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 27-30, Sept. 3-6, 8 p.m. The performances on the 29th and 6th are sold out. Tickets $20 with $6 minimum. Info: 862-2432.