Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, 1953-2013

Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, an Austin, Texas-based performing songwriter, succumbed to liver cancer on Dec. 26, 2013 at the age of 60.The cancer stemmed from a rare form of Hepatitis C to which she had been exposed as a child.

In recent months, many of her friends in the music community in both Austin and in California – where the Austin native lived during much of the 1970s and 1980s and was part of the folk and bluegrass band Fiddlestix– had played benefit concerts to help defer her medical expenses. Among them was noted Austin musician Marci Ball, who told the Austin American-Statesman’s Benjamin Wermund that “Sarah was not part of the scene; Sarah was the scene.”

Beginning in the early 1990s, Campbell hosted weekly “Bummer Tuesday” shows at Austin’s La Zona Rosa, which was owned by Ball and her husband. The “Bummer Nights” later switched to Mondays at Artz Rib House and, when that Austin institution closed, to the El Mercado restaurant. Slaid Cleaves and Butch Hancock joined her onstage for her last “Mystery Mondays” show there on Dec. 23. Campbell’s band and other Austin area friends will gather at the restaurant on Monday, Dec. 30, from 7-10 p.m., to pay musical tribute to her. However, formal memorial services won’t be held until January.

Although not particularly well-known beyond Austin and northern California, where she was a regular fixture at the Strawberry Music Festival for years, Sarah enjoyed the respect and friendship of many notable artists. She released two solo CDs – A Little Tenderness and Running With You. Besides performing with Fiddlestix, she also performed as Sarah Elizabeth Campbell and The Banned and in a duo with Nina Gerber. Campbell’s songs also have been covered by such artists as Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, and Jim Messina. Her most well-known song is entitled “Mexico.”

Here’s a link to a YouTube video of Sarah performing “Mexico” during a house concert last year. She is joined by Blame Sally.

In a Dec. 27 post on the Northern California Bluegrass Society’s website, Michael Hall recalled: In her most memorable Strawberry performance, she appeared onstage singing John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” complete with onstage fireworks that briefly threatened to catch her elegant and elaborate angel costume on fire. He noted that she also joined Prine onstage this past Memorial Day weekend for a duet performance of “Unwed Fathers.” To read the post, click here.

Pre-deceased by her mother, Sudie Campbell, in 2011, Sarah is survived by her brother Bill Campbell, an Austin-based blues guitarist, and her sister Marge Morton, a former personal secretary to the late Lady Bird Johnson.