Previously split between Eastern and Western Washington State, Campbell Road is now based in the Skagit Valley, an hour north of Seattle.
We are a four member band playing original arrangements of traditional Irish and Scottish music. Band members include:
Dan Tuttle – guitar, banjo, fiddle, and vocals
Jessamyn Tuttle – flute, whistle, vocals, djembe, claves, and bodhran
Jon Nauert – fiddle, bouzouki, octave mandolin, vocals, and djembe
Barbara Tuttle – bodhran, bones, djembe, tambourine, and other percussion
Although Campbell Road, in its current configuration and under its current name has only existed since 1997, we have actually been playing together for much longer.
The band evolved out of an earlier band that Dan was in, which played under various names, including The Predator Parasites, Violet and the Dead Husbands, The St. Cecilia Ceili Band, and, every St. Patrick’s Day, the Upper Valley Pseudo-Irish String Band.
Jessamyn joined in when she got old enough to be allowed in the bars, and Barbara took up the bodhran. Jon arrived on the scene in 1994, earning a place in the band by marrying into the family. At its peak, the Pseudo-Irish String Band had nine members crammed onto one tiny stage. Shortly thereafter, other members of the band drifted away.
Whittled down to the core family, the band played under the names Tuttle Family Band (too plain), and Fhideag (too hard to spell or pronounce), but neither of these really fit the bill. A new name was needed, but what? We needed a sign…
…About this time, Chelan County decided to rename the stretch of Old Blewett Highway where Dan & Barbara lived to Campbell Road. It fit. It was easy to spell. It was easy to pronounce. The band became Campbell Road in 1997.
So Jon’s dowry was his fiddle and mandolin?
Pretty much!
I don’t think it was our original intention that any additions to the family had to be musical, but it certainly didn’t hurt.