Update: On January 17 at 8PM ET, the fourth episode of It Was The Music will feature a special livestream event featuring Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams along with special guests Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, and Buddy Miller. The livestream, available on FANS, will be hosted by David Keith.
It Was The Music, a film in 10 episodes chronicling the lives and love of musicians Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, will premiere on Sunday, December 13. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Moskowitz, It Was the Music serves as both a musical odyssey and deeply personal love story of Campbell and Williams in search of their “music utopia.”
Having embarked on a joint musical career, It Was the Music sees the Woodstock couple packing their bags, guitars, amps, and 30-year marriage into their SUV and setting out across America to sing their own extraordinary songs along with riveting interpretations of beloved gospel, blues, country, and classic rock ‘n’ roll.
A three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, and bandleader from New York City, Campbell is a veteran musician hailed for his work with artists including as Levon Helm, Phil Lesh, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, among others.
Williams, an exceptional alto singer and actor known for her highly acclaimed roles as Sara Carter in Keep On The Sunny Side and the title role in Always….Patsy Cline, has also served as a vocalist for Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Friends and Peter Wolf, to name but a few.
Accompanying It Was the Music is a stellar soundtrack gathering previously unreleased music from Campbell and Williams, including new renditions of songs made famous by The Band, Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Buffalo Springfield, and more. The soundtrack features performances from Campbell and Williams who are joined by friends such as friends as Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Bill Payne, and the late Levon Helm’s world famous Midnight Ramble Band. The first track “It Ain’t Gonna Be A Good Night”has been released with the full soundtrack due out December 6. Pre-order and find more info about the film series here.
It Was the Music is first and foremost a love story, with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams showing how love can create the music and how the music can bring us together. The film follows Campbell and Williams over 15 months on the road, starting point on a Friday afternoon at Williams’ seventh generation farm in Peckerwood Point, TN, traveling to Campbell’s native New York City and finally the couple’s home in Woodstock.
Along the way they stop at recording studios, clubs, and theatres across the country, with highlights including exclusive live performances from intimate venues and jam-packed music festivals. The finale of the film features parts of the star-studded “The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Celebration” presented by Lincoln Center at NYC’s Damrosch Park.
Along with the couple’s own personal story, It Was the Music includes exclusive interviews and never-before-seen performances from Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, William Bell, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Jerry Douglas, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, Garland Jeffreys, Happy Traum, David Bromberg, and many more.
Director Mark Moskowitz says of It Was the Music:
It Was the Music is about what music means to us, the way my film, Stone Reader, is about what books means to us, and my upcoming film, Art Stops Here, is about what art means to us. In the end, these films are about us, how people respond to the arts. Not quite documentary, not quite reality, not quite memoir, not quite even story, It Was the Music is referential, memory-like. It’s allusive. Things touch other things…much like a song.”
It Was the Music premieres Sunday, December 13, with new episodes debuting every Sunday, except on January 3 – two episodes will be available on January 10.
