Broadway lights the way for Tevin Campbell

Tevin Campbell was just barely in his teens when he embarked on a successful pop music career, scoring back-to-back hits with the albums "T.E.V.I.N." and "I'm Ready."

At last year's BET Awards, perhaps the most buzzed about artist of the night was one most people hadn't heard from in almost a decade.

Tevin Campbell was just barely in his teens when he embarked on a successful pop music career, scoring back-to-back hits with the albums "T.E.V.I.N." and "I'm Ready."

"I was a surprise guest," says '90s R&B star Tevin Campbell of his appearance on the show, performing as part of an O'Jays tribute with Trey Songz, Tyrese, and Johnny Gill. "(The producers) hadn't told anybody I was even doing it. And when they raised the curtains you could hear the sighs, 'Oh, he's still alive.' You could hear it all over the theater. And then it got really quiet. I was like: 'OK, these people are really listening, trying to see if I could still sing.'"

He proved any doubters wrong that night with a newly powerful voice that had been forged by night after night of professional singing. But casual fans that hadn't been following the career of the singer of such sultry New Jack hits as "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" and "Alone With You" could be forgiven for expecting the worst from an artist who, as far as they knew, had unceremoniously dropped off the radar 10 years before.

Campbell, who performs in Memphis Saturday along with funk legends Cameo, the SOS Band, and rapper MC Lyte at the Soul Food Festival in Shelby Farms, rose to pop music stardom just as suddenly as he seemed to fall from it. Born and raised in Waxahachie, Texas, Campbell was nurtured in his singing career from a young age by his mother, a once aspiring singer herself.

"She was a singer when she was younger but she never had that connection; we're from a small town in Texas," says Campbell. "To this day she's my No. 1 believer."

Campbell was just 11 years old when, through a family connection, his audition tape wound up in the hands of mega-producer Quincy Jones, who enlisted the unknown as one of the vocalists on his Grammy-winning 1991 record Back On the Block. That was quickly followed by a role in the movie "Graffiti Bridge" and a No. 3 hit with the soundtrack cut "Round and Round," produced by the film's star and director, Prince.

With the seal of approval from two of the biggest names in pop music, Campbell, just barely in his teens, embarked on a successful pop music career, scoring back-to-back hits with the albums T.E.V.I.N. and I'm Ready. But by the time of his fourth record, an eponymous 1999 neo-soul effort, it had become clear that musical styles had changed, and Campbell, just 22, wasn't sure how to change with them.

"I was just lost," he says of the period. "The first two albums were very successful, but beginning with my third record, Back To the World, I was just lost and didn't know how to be happy. I was just trying anything."

Campbell spent the next few years getting his head right and in 2005 took an unlikely turn toward Broadway.

"I've been doing shows here and there and every now and then, but the 'Hairspray' thing is really what has taken up most of my time," says Campbell of the hit musical, based on the film by John Waters. "A lot of people didn't know I was in the show, but it was a big deal for me."

Campbell played the role of talented teen dancer Seaweed, staying with the show through the end of its Broadway run early last year.

Fans who thought that the end of his Broadway stint might mean Campbell's return to the recording studio are in for a disappointment. Though he's recorded a dozen or so songs for a potential new album project, for now his attentions are directed toward the stage. At the end of August, he is moving to Australia, where he's scheduled to star in a Melbourne production of "Hairspray" for at least a year.

"When I started this Broadway thing I thought to myself I could do this for the rest of my life," says Campbell, who dreams of someday playing Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye on stage. "If I'm singing live and making people happy, that makes me happy. Making records was just something that happened when I was a kid."

Soul Food Fest: Old-fashioned family reunion

Soul Food Festival organizer Pat Williams is hoping for better conditions for his traveling celebration of food and music than he had last year when the event made its Memphis debut.

"We were very proud of Memphis," he says. "The Friday before the event there was a tornado and it rained like crazy that Friday and there was an 80 percent chance of rain on the day of the festival. We were blessed with a nice day and people just started driving from out of nowhere, and though we didn't get the numbers we were expecting, we ended up with a couple of thousand people."

With a prediction for better weather, Williams is expecting about five times that number of people Saturday with a lineup that includes a dozen food vendors from across the country and a slate of vintage R&B and rap acts that includes Cameo, the SOS Band, Tevin Campbell, MC Lyte, Brownstone and Troop.

"We have some big names on the stage but the food is really the star of the show," says Williams of the food selection, which includes the usual assortment of Southern fare like chicken and dressing, pork chops, collared greens and yams as well as oxtails. "I've got one gentleman who says his barbecue is so good you can eat it without teeth."

An Oklahoma City-based music promoter, Williams started the Soul Food Festival five years ago in Nashville. This year the event will travel to 10 cities with all proceeds going to the Kinfolks Foundation, a nonprofit that provides tutoring services for youth.

Mainly aimed at an underserved demographic, older African-Americans, Williams says he has modeled the event on the old-fashioned family reunion. "It's an opportunity to see people you haven't seen in years. There's nothing like seeing two people who haven't seen each other in 15 or 20 years embrace each other."

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Soul Food Festival

Saturday at Shelby Farms. Gates open at 4 p.m. Tickets: $30 general admission, $50 VIP admission. Tickets available at the gate, by phone at (888) 512-SHOW, and online at ilovesoulfood.com.

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