 |
Mike
Craver...
latest CD, Shining
Down (June, 2002) is Mike's third solo release, following Wagoner's
Lad and Fishing
for Amour. Mike also performs on both of Jim
Watson's CDs. For 2005, Mike and NC author Clyde Edgerton have
written a musical based on Edgerton's novel Lunch
at the Picadilly with cast recording available featuring nine new
songs from Mike. Other plays since Rambler days -- Bosh
and Moonshine at the Gaiety Saloon, Oil
City Symphony, which ran for a year and a half in the Circle in
the Square Downtown and was awarded the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle
Awards; Radio
Gals, which won the LA Ovation award for Best Musical l995
and was produced Off-Broadway in l996; and Wilder
with Jack Herrick -- are now being performed around the country, often
including Mike in the cast. Mike arranged the music for Smoke
on the Mountain with Mark Hardwick and also arranged the music
for the third play in the Smoke series, Smoke
on the Mountain: Homecoming. Mike describes himself as a piano
player, guitarist, songwriter, musician, actor, and he's also co-written
a children's book Beaver Ball at the Bug Club. |
Mike at the Eno 2005 (photo
by Bren O)
|
 Mike
Craver live! Check out Mike's
own site for Mike's appearances and sign up for his newsletter.
Mike also has an online
store where you can purchase Mike's music and sheet music |
|
Mike's solo
recordings
(More
Mike Craver recordings with the Red Clay Ramblers and others are listed
on our
Discography page.) |
 |
Shining
Down
A new solo CD from Mike!
He treats us to 14 songs (13 originals) gathered from his plays, his life
with the Ramblers, and an ode to the inventor of the telephone. Will
you like the best the beautiful title song or the macabre "Wee Babe," both
from Mike's Bosh and Moonshine? Musical guests include Chris Frank
("Red Clay Ramblers"), Matthew Weaver, Joe Newberry ("Big Medicine"), Rebecca
Newton ("Rebecca and the Hi-Tones") and Jim Watson ("Robin and Linda Williams'
Fine Group") Six of the cuts first appeared as mp3s on efolkMusic and include
"Diamond Lil," voted efolkMusic's "Best MP3 ever!"
[ more
info | order
]
|
Fishing
for Amour
Mike Craver's first solo recording
(1984) is currently only available on vinyl with a CD version planned.
"Craver's deft keyboard
work and airy tenor are equal to the demands of classics by Coward, Jolson,
Cohan, Gilbert & Sullivan, and John Dowland, whose 'Come Again, Sweet
Love Doth Now Invite' sounds as if it were written last week." --John Stifler,
THE BOSTON GLOBE
[ more
info | order
]
|
Wagoner's
Lad, Mike's solo CD is "a timeless disc of
rare and profound beauty" (Dirty Linen). Mike's
page has the reviews, the songs, and ordering information. The cover
photo "Spring on the Missouri" by Thomas Hart Benton, 1945, is courtesy
of the North Carolina Museum of Art and VAGA, NY, NY.
[ more
info | order
]
|
Meeting
in the Air
Songs of the Carter Family
Meeting in the Air
is a joint project of Mike, Jim Watson, and Tommy Thompson. First
released in 1980, the CD version arrives in August 2004. "They brought
a freshness to these songs back then with their unique blend of voices
- combinations of sweet and hard, intensely focused and full - and their
instrumental abilities, that remains as fresh as it was 25 years ago."
--Alice Gerrard
[ more
info | order
]
 |
Be sure to visit Mike's own homepage
for details his recordings plus all the info about his plays: collaborators,
awards, reviews, original cast recordings, and performances all over the
country
|
Down Home, Johnson City,
TN, with Jim and Bill, August 17,
2002 and January 17, 2003 and
yet again, January 23, 2004
|
Mike at Jim
Watson's CD Release Celebration March 30, 2002, ArtsCenter
|
Mike, Jim, and Bill - O'Blur
reunion - Festival for the Eno - July 4, 2001 |
Mike's first solo concert
in 14 years - July 17, 1999, NC Museum of Art.
|
Ireland
2005
|
Mike at the Carter
Family Festival 2004 with
the brand new Meeting
in the Air CDs!
Carter Fold 2003
|
Mike, Jim & Joe
Eno
2005
|
More
recent concert pics
|
 Mike
writes of meeting Sara Carter and singing at her funeral as well as a new
and poignant sharing of singing for Janette Carter's funeral |
| Pictures
from Mike Craver and Jim Watson's Bull City Cosmic
Hoedown Concert - March 16, 2000 in Durham |
 Mike
wrote "Visiting Tommy" to share with us his
time with Tommy Thompson |
|
