As an Illinois teenager, Kevin Campbell played in a band with a mentor who kept trying to expand his musical horizons. One day, this mentor handed him Steely Dan’s “Greatest Hits.”

One of the tracks stopped him in his.

“I just remember listening to ‘Bad Sneakers,'” he said. “That guitar solo where he peels off into the major seven. And I’m like, ‘I’ve never heard anyone play that note before.'”

By Christmas, Campbell had narrowed his wish list to two possibilities: every Steely Dan CD or every Crosby, Stills & Nash (sometimes Young) CD.

His parents went with Steely Dan. Music aficionados will have his parents to thank when bassist and vocalist Campbell performs at Baker Street Centre on Saturday with the Steely Dan tribute band Brooklyn Charmers.

If you prefer CSN, you may regard this as more of a Christmas tragedy than a Christmas miracle. Just be glad they didn’t buy him the collected Air Supply.

In 2018, Campbell said, his former schoolmate Colin Peterik invited him to get together with other musicians and play Steely Dan songs.

The rehearsals went well and the musicians decided to shoot a video of a performance of “My Old School” and post it to the web.

“It just exploded,” Campbell said. “So, we were like, ‘Oh (expletive)! We’re like a band now.'”

They subsequently learned two hours of Steely Dan material and called themselves The Show Biz Kids after a song on the album “Countdown to Ecstasy.”

“So, our Facebook page is doing good, and we have a website, and we have a drumhead that says the Show Biz Kids on it,” Campbell recalled, “and then we get a Facebook message from I don’t remember his last name. His first name is Jeff. Jeff was like, ‘Hey, you guys sound awesome. We really like what you’re doing. We admire your musicianship. But we’re the Show Biz Kids.'”

One obsolete drumhead later, they became Brooklyn Charmers, named for “Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me),” a song from “Can’t Buy a Thrill.”

Elegant choice. The only drawback is that it leads people who don’t know the reference to think the band is from the New York metropolitan area instead of from Chicago.

“We did not foresee that,” Campbell said. “People get confused and they comment: ‘Come to your hometown!’ Well, we play in our hometown all the time.”

Steely Dan was a famously (perhaps infamously) fastidious band and its fans are equally persnickety. Learning to play the music is nothing like learning to play the songs of Bill Haley & His Comets, for example.

Campbell said the members don’t even agree on which song is hardest to play.

“I would say each song has its own individual challenges,” he said. “Like if you ask the six of us, ‘What’s the easiest song you play? What’s the hardest song you play? What’s kind of medium challenging?’ You’d get different answers across the board.”

The band does not traffic in note-perfect replicas of the songs. Doing so might honor the letter of Steely Dan’s music while missing its spirit. And it’s not very fun for the musicians, Campbell said.

The musicians discuss which parts of the songs demand fidelity to the recordings and which allow room for interpretation. Fans, being fans, find fault with both approaches.

“So we read (these comments) and we’re like, ‘What do we do?’ You can’t make everybody happy, I guess.”

Brooklyn Charmers is just one of many projects its members are involved in. Campbell said the band plays about 30 gigs a year, while he personally plays about 160.

“About 18% of my gigs are with the Charmers,” he said. “I’m in an Allman Brothers tribute. We do everything that Duane touched, whether it’s Derek and the Dominos. (I do) weddings and corporate bands and anything I can really put together. I just played with a Doobie Brothers tribute the other day. That was a lot of fun. And I’m in a yacht rock band. Nice little Steely Dan crossover there.”

As for Brooklyn Charmers, Campbell said his long-term goal (one he believes guitarist Sean Briskey shares) is to play Steely Dan’s entire catalog and do more shows on the East Coast…where their reputation as a “hometown band” precedes them.

Brooklyn Charmers: The Music of Steely Dan: 7:30 pm Saturday, $30 – $55.50, Baker Street Centre, 323 W. Baker Street, 260.426.6434, bakerstreetcentre.com

Home

Can Buy A Thrill