TV star to perform in North Bend
November 19, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Silly songs and lullabies will soon fill Valley Center Stage, as Courtney Campbell sings about camels with runny noses and red raincoats.
Campbell, a singer, songwriter and storyteller, will entertain her audience of 3 years or older youth and their parents at the Valley Center Stage at 2 p.m. Nov. 22. 
Campbell discovered her knack for mesmerizing children through a musical means on a whim, but she began her musical adventures as a child. Her father sang in a barbershop quartet and she took music lessons ranging from piano to singing throughout her childhood.
“I didn’t start performing professionally until I was in college,” Campbell said.
She recalled playing her guitar in her dorm at Green Mountain College in Vermont.
“This guy came in and said, ‘Is that you?’” she said. She replied in the affirmative and he invited her to join the folk music club.
“It was a turning point for me,” Campbell said.
The folk music club’s supportive environment encouraged Campbell to become more comfortable with performing her music in front of a live audience.
After her graduation, Campbell moved to Cambridge, Mass. “where there was a thriving folk music scene,” she said. It was the 1960s, the heyday of Bob Dylan and other folk artists. Campbell composed song after song — but they were mainly of the melancholy sort.
“People used to come clutching their chests and say, ‘That was just incredible, but don’t you know any happy songs?’” Campbell said. “I was in my dark dramatic phase.”
Leaving Cambridge, Campbell traveled the continent, from Colorado to Canada performing her “serious heart wrenching” songs.
Then, funnily enough, Campbell turned into a musical comedian.
By 1987, Campbell was a single mom in Los Angeles with $5 in the bank. A friend of hers who ran a preschool called her out of the blue and asked Campbell to sing for the children.
“I said, ‘I have no idea how to sing for children.’ She said, ‘You’ll come. I’ll pay you.’”
Luckily, a song popped into Campbell’s mind on the drive to the preschool. She was a smash hit and her friend called her back for an encore. Even the parents of the preschoolers wanted to meet her so they could see the singer their children talked so much about.
Turning down a job to work at a military-turned-punk-clothing store, Campbell borrowed stamps and stationary and began mailing her musical program to local schools. Two months later, she was an employed entrepreneur.
Now, the star of her T.V. show “Mustard Pancakes” on the ION network and several CDs, Campbell plans to bring her show to Valley Center Stage. She has already performed in North Bend at the library.
Valley Center Stage owner Gary Schwartz met Campbell when he was teaching a theater games and improvisation workshop in Hollywood.
“She’s very good,” Schwartz said. “She’s got a lot of stage presence.”
This is one of the first shows Schwartz has booked for younger children. If the show does well, it may be the first of many children shows, Schwartz said.
Campbell now lives on Whidbey Island and continues to produce “Mustard Pancakes.”
“Mustard Pancakes” has a story behind it — one that concerns Campbell’s brother and a lot of mustard. During breakfast, her brother filled the maple syrup bottle with mustard and waited mischievously to see her reaction.
“What my brother didn’t know is that I was getting smart,” Campbell said. “I put mustard on my pancakes. I ate everything.”
Some of her fans have tried the delicacy, but that’s not the only subject in Campbell’s songs. One ditty is about a boy who loves band-aids and puts on as many as he can find, “until he realizes that he has to take them off,” Campbell said.
She dismissed the notion that children’s music is all like songs from Barney.
“It’s a family thing,” Campbell said. “There’s nothing better than the parents and the children singing together.”
Admission to the Saturday Matinee is $5 for children 9 and under and $7.50 for adults.
For more information or to buy tickets, call (425) 831-5667 or visit www.valleycenterstage.org.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
