By Matt Morrissette
While Delaware in general — and Wilmington, in particular — may operate in the shadows of Philadelphia when it comes to a music scene, the area is no dead zone.
And to shine a light on a landscape that formed their sensibilities, Chris Haug and Paul Campagna — friends in life and art — have started a project to document the history of the state’s musical contributions. Beyond the obvious, like George Thorogood and Clifford Brown, the duo aims to chronicle it all — including obscure indie bands of all stylistic stripes.
The Delaware Music History Archive (DMHA) aims to tackle the daunting task of documenting music in the Small Wonder from 1940 to the present. By drawing on their own considerable knowledge and personal collections (and crowd-sourcing the rest), DMHA hopes to assemble an online interactive map featuring photos, videos, show flyers, media mentions, physical releases, recording studios, venues, biographical locations, finals resting places, and any other details that help tell the larger story.
Though currently a resident of Brooklyn, New York after 20 years in California, Campagna spent the formative years of 7 to 18 in Delaware. During that time, he discovered his passion for punk and hardcore music, and with Haug, began collecting records and booking both local and national shows in Newark. Campagna’s return to the East Coast has gotten the band back together, so to speak, and discussions about a previous project got the ball rolling on the DMHA.
“I was working on a new attempt at a music-related television show concept that I’d started a dozen or so years ago — sort of a hidden history, location specific, super deep dive kind of thing,” says Campagna. “I’ve been living in Brooklyn for four years now so the focus of the first season was going to be New York history. I thought season two could be for Chris and me to collaborate on sharing lesser-known histories of Delaware music, threading through our respective and collective music journeys.
“Next thing we knew, the New York and television aspect were tabled for the time being, and we got lost in the weeds gathering Delaware music history.”
Haug has been a crucial player in the local music scene for nearly three decades. There’s a good chance you have hearing loss from his thunderous two-amp bass attack if you’ve ever seen him hold down the low end in Count Von Count, WORTH, or Ringrust. You also may have caught a glimpse of him lugging crates of old psych and soul records around to peddle them or DJ at various venues including The Queen and Wilmington Brew Works. For this project, walking the fine line between being a hoarder and an archivist has come in handy for Haug.
“I call myself an ‘accidental archivist’ in that I never throw anything away,” Haug says. “Just before the pandemic, I unearthed two large crates of posters and flyers from our youth. I also started an Instagram account (@Delaware90sHC) to share the flyers along with photos and video from the shows. I got lots of great feedback including folks sharing their own memories and stories.
“It reassured me that Delaware does have a rich cultural history musically with multiple stories to tell.”
In the short term, Haug and Campagna are looking for public engagement. As much data as they’ve already collected, they need help from musicians, photographers (amateur and pro alike), promoters, venue owners, vinyl collectors, and internet sleuths looking to use their powers for good to fill in the blanks. Additionally, they’re looking for arts grants to secure funding to begin the front-end development.
In the meantime, they’ll be documenting their journey on social media as they painstakingly collect the artifacts to tell the story of music in Delaware and bring their interactive map to life.
In the words of Paul Campagna: “If your uncle played in that obscure soul band from the 1960s, get at us. We’d love to keep the legacies alive.”
— Contact the Delaware Music History Archive at [email protected] if you’d like to get involved