Meet Cameron Melville: Helsinki's Man of Many Hats!

By Jonathan Byron-Woodin Photography by Molinski Photography

A well-recognized and highly regarded member of the community, Cameron Melville can often be seen on a nice sunny day, walking his buddy Shadow up and down the streets of Hudson. Being an approachable and charismatic individual, many stop to chat with him and nearly everyone asks the same question: “When will Club Helsinki Hudson reopen?!” This refers to the city’s world-famous restaurant and music venue, founded by Cameron with partners Marc Schafler and Deborah McDowell; a place that, until the historic shutdown of 2020, was a fixture of Hudson for nearly a decade.

Cameron comes from a family of influential figures. While his grandparents were conservative industrialists or “Republicans of their time”, both his parents deviated sharply from theirs and were thought of as liberal advocates working with the NAACP and ACLU fundraising for civil rights organizations. They also founded the Melville Charitable Trust, an organization dedicated to the eradication of homelessness. Cameron says it was “their cause for the last 20 years of their lives.” Both passed away in 2018, at ages 83 and 84. They are survived by their four sons (Cameron is the youngest), all of whom he describes as fairly politically active, stating “I sorta got that bug [from my Mother and Father], as did my brothers.”

After dropping out of 9th grade, Cameron started his career as a traveling musician. Already an accomplished piano and organ player, he began hitchhiking with touring bands and friendly strangers, making friends at every jam session along the way. By 1975 Cameron found himself in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, where he worked as a moving man with a local moving and storage agent. This led to a career as a truck driver. When an old friend bought an art handling company in San Francisco, every two weeks Cameron helped transport fine art for Artists, collectors, galleries and celebrities traveling up and down the California coast as well as cross country.

While still living in California, cross country travels carried Cameron back to Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he was invited by good friend Peter Lindstrom to be a surprise guest host of a local music venue called Club Helsinki. It was there that he struck up a close friendship (and later partnership in 2005) with Helsinki’s owners, Marc and Deborah.

A couple years later, Cameron took on his largest moving project yet: translocating the club from Great Barrington to Hudson. “It took 6 years to build!” Cameron says. The partners were interested in Hudson for some time; they just needed a space large enough to hold their dream. “A terrific builder, among many other talents,” he continues. “Marc came up to meet me [in California]… We ate Dungeness crab and talked about what could be.” The three partners went back over to Hudson to look at a place they had purchased only the year before, an old factory building located on the corner of 4th and Columbia street. “At the time I had just read a book called The Tipping Point, by Malcom Gladwell… the book had a huge impression on me.” Cameron talks about how much of a leap of faith it was to open a club in what was, at the time, a relatively quiet town. However as he put it, “The writing was on the wall… Something really big could happen here, and I believe it did.”

It certainly did. Since its opening day, the club has brought worldclass musicians to wake up the Hudson art community. Cameron, naturally, moved to Hudson where he operated as the club’s host and emcee. In addition to professional musicians, Club Helsinki also introduced an Open Mic Night that took the region’s local artists by storm. Not only could you play your ‘two songs or ten minutes’ on the same stage as legends, but you also practically received the same treatment; your own monitor mix from a dedicated sound man, your choice of amps, lights, even background musicians who often frequented the club.

In addition to Club Helsinki, Cameron has also opened a few other venues, including an artist and residency program in New Orleans and a large event center near downtown LA. He has hosted and participated in numerous fundraisers for musicians and artists as well as charitable and humanitarian causes.

Son Geoffrey Melville

While single now, Cameron is very proud of his two children: his son, Geoffrey Melville, age 40, and his daughter Shante Melville, age 18. Geoffrey is an accomplished artist, printmaker and silk screener from California; recently relocated to the Hudson Valley. Meanwhile, Shante will be graduating from Buxton School in Williamstown MA, and is headed for a two-year program in Boston. She will be following her father’s path off the beaten track to pursue a career in preservation carpentry.

And of course, who could forget Cameron’s newest family member: Shadow, age 2 (affectionately introduced as “this knucklehead here”)? “He is my pandemic pup and a pedigree mutt. His mother was a golden retriever and his father was a German Shepherd. They weren’t supposed to get together, but they did.” Cameron and Shadow were introduced by a member of Club Helsinki’s former staff. “He was one of 11 puppies!”

Presently, Cameron is putting his years of fundraising experience to good use to support sending medical aid to Ukraine. He works with friend, Malcom Nance who recently traveled from Hudson to Ukraine to fight for the cause in person.

Daughter Shante Melville

Cameron is happy to be living in the Hudson area again. “I grew up [here], and spent the majority of my life in California. The two are very different.” He enjoys the four seasons of New York, as opposed to LA’s ‘fixed climate’, and he loves the local community. “Hudson is popping with all sorts of interesting folks” Cameron says. “We took a gamble and made a commitment to Hudson and to the process by building [Helsinki], and we’re very happy with everything that came about since - except the pandemic, of course.”

When asked what important message he’d like to share with his community, Cameron replies simply. “Although it’s stunningly difficult at times, try to stay positive”