Ted Russell Kamp - California Son (2024)

It's safe to assume that more albums and songs have been written about California than any other state in the union, such is the love many of its residents have for it.

As far back as 1924 Al Jolson praised the place of sunshine, great beaches, beautiful mountains and the desert with "California, Here I Come," a song from Bombo, a Broadway musical he starred in and helped compose. Later, in the mid-60s, we had The Mamas and the Papas celebrate their adopted home with "Twelve Thirty" and "California Dreamin'." More recently - in 2021 - the great Mexican-American rockers, Los Lobos, released Native Sons, a full length album covering songs originally recorded by local Los Angeles artists to their ususal positive reviews. There is no need to even discuss The Beach Boys - for a long time the Golden State's number one musical celebrants - because so much has been written about them on this blog and everywhere else for decades.

A full one hundred years after Jolson recorded his voice on an old shellac, 78 RPM disc the loving tributes to California continue. For his fourteenth album, roots rocker Ted Russell Kamp has released another ode to the land he adopted as his home and the City of Angels, California Son. The prolific musician has written and released twelve original tracks that are mostly his love letter to the state.

While Kamp can be considered a modern country star, to my ears he's more of an Americana rocker. Branding him solely as one or the other is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Both labels suit him well.

The title track opens Kamp's album by expressing the same sentiments John Phillips' monumental vocal quartet sang about almost sixty years ago when they left cold, dark, dirty New York, "All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray."  "Califonia Son" is also a song about leaving the nation's largest city and heading west on the open road for what Kamp believes will be a better life. He sings, "I left New York in the rear view/With the open road ahead."  Musically, the track features some great bottleneck guitar work.

Kamp serves up pure rockers ("Roll Me Till The Sun Comes Up" and "Every Little Thing"), and "One Word At Time" is a Jackson Browne styled, self-refective piece on which Kamp admits writing songs can be a struggle, but "It's the life I choose and I'm going to find my way." 

Colaborating with the best Americana writers and musicians Los Angeles has to offer - such as Jenny Van West and Robert Rex Waller - help make this one of Kamp's better records, and that's saying something because he has a lot to choose from.