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craig3Bio

Born & raised in Sydney, Australia, Craig started playing music in his mid teens. After having piano lessons for about a year, & with the help of friends and a chord dictionary, Craig taught himself to play guitar well enough to be able to start playing and accompanying himself at school & vacation camps. Many hours were spent jamming with friends in his parent’s garage on weekends and this led to the formation of a couple of bands and ultimately his first official public performances.

Early influences included Arlo Guthrie, James Taylor and Neil Young but his musical tastes were much broader than that. Whilst many of his friends were listening to Hendrix and Cream, Craig was more into the pop music of the day and had a distinct love for vocal harmony bands such as The Byrds, The Hollies & The Beach Boys as well as bands like Jerry & The Pacemakers and even The Monkeys. “I just liked happy little pop songs, and without realizing it at the time, these songs would have a lasting influence on my own writing style in years to come.”

It was probably his liking for the more melodic styles that guided him in the early years.
The west coast sound of the mid to late seventies played a major part in shaping Craig’s musical direction. Over the years Craig has also developed a great love for swing, blues and rockabilly, all of which have a very definite connection to country music as we know it today.

“At around this time I was playing in an acoustic / electric harmony band and we were doing material by The Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Doobie Brothers and I was being introduced to, and becoming aware of many of the great songwriters of the time whilst also being drawn to an area of music that was on the fringes of country. Bands such as Poco, Loggins & Messina, The New Riders of he Purple Sage and The Charlie Daniels Band all captured my interest and the search was on for something that is still sometimes just as elusive now as it was back then.”

At this point in time, Craig was still far from being a country player in the true sense of the word and was still frustrated at not being able to find where he really wanted to be musically.
This all changed in the mid eighties when he heard for the first time a singer by the name of Willie Nelson. “I had never heard of Willie up to this point but a local radio station played a couple of tracks off his new “Stardust” album and I was hooked. It was Willie’s jazz style vocals mixed with country that really got my attention and I knew there & then that I had found where I wanted to be as a performer.”

“For years I’d been circling what I thought I wanted to be musically, but then something would come along that would widen that circle again. These days I play a variety of styles within the broad genre of country music. I really like to see people up & dancing & so there is a fair amount of dance tempo type stuff in all the sets.”

In both his recordings & his live performances you will be treated to everything from tender ballads to straight down the middle country and on to a healthy mix of toe tapping swing & contemporary country songs.

Over the years Craig has won many awards as a vocalist and had a considerable amount of success with his song writing. Craig has released six CD’s to date, the latest being “Famous Last Words” which includes some of Craig’s own works as well as material from some of the best Australian & overseas writers.
Craig has traveled extensively within Australia and in more recent years has also made several trips to a number of festivals in New Zealand. A regular at major festivals such as Tamworth & Mildura, Craig plans to extend his touring schedule to include the U.S., England & Europe where he has had a good deal of success with singles from his earlier albums.


Note. A short, down loadable version of this bio can be found in the “Publicity” section along with a high resolution photo Here

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