Quality Americana

Taylor Campbell gives us a great song of hope with the hook “I’ll meet you in the by and by” on his new single “Big Machines.”

Cotton Country

Campbell was raised in Shelby, North Carolina in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

“It was a pretty desolate area in a lot of ways,” Campbell said. “I couldn’t wait to leave.”

Campbell picked up the guitar in his teenage years while writing songs. His father played some guitar and his uncle played in classic rock bands. Campbell said his relatives were out of town and it was a special time to watch them perform. He played around with different genres but was mainly inspired by Johnny Cash.

“I just wanted to be able to show a guitarist what I was thinking,” Campbell said, “what the idea was when I was thinking about the song. Once you get over that learning cure I was like ‘oh I can just do it.’” 

It was Campbell’s uncle that worked for the Goodyear Plant in South Carolina that inspired the song.

“It’s one of those that came pretty quick,” Campbell said. “I grew up in cotton country, so everybody worked in cotton mills and different plants and stuff like that. My uncle worked in a factory literally his whole life, and he was due to retire in a year and they told him ‘we’re closing the plant so you can either take half of your pension and retire early, or you can stay on until the factory closes and you won’t get anything.”

Campbell’s uncle soon offered some advice for his nephew.

“It was sort of a warning to me at the time,” Campbell said. “He was like ‘go to school because these factory jobs that everybody grew up doing don’t really exist anymore.’ It doesn’t matter how much they have, it’s never going to be enough.” 

Campbell attended school for architecture and eventually found a career as an engineer, escaping the factory life he was surrounded by as a child.

Support the Artist

“Big Machines” was recorded in San Antonio, Texas in Edit Point Studios and co-produced by Campbell and Brant Sankey. It was mastered by Chris Cline at Civilian Audio with photography by Morgan Cook.

More information on Taylor Campbell Band can be found here.

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