“Everything [Joe] touches turns to music” David Grisman

Joe Craven wears many hats and plays many things. He's a madman with anything that has strings attached, including hospital bed pans, gas cans, cookie tins, roasting pots, fiddles, mandolins, tenor guitars, sax, cuatro and a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, latex squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and...himself. His stage setup more often resembles a yard sale and Joe's unusual approach to music making is the stuff of local legend and national acclaim. But there's more to Craven than meets the ear. He is a musician, but also a visual artist, former museologist (museum science), educator, storyteller, chili pepper and garlic fanatic, loving father, and an advocate of "demystifying" art through self-expression as a daily ritual.

 

For almost 17 years, Joe Craven was the highly respected multi-instrumentalist with the David Grisman Quintet... yeah, Joe was the guy with the Ralph Stanley autographed bongos and fiddle. Having played and/or recorded with Jerry Garcia, Stéphane Grappelli, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Persuasions, Psychograss, The Alison Brown Quartet, Darol Anger, Rob Ickes, Ken Nordine and many others, Joe's phone rings often for studio work and he has performed music & sound effects on a wide variety of recordings including commercials, soundtracks, computer games and several Grammy nominated projects.
Joe Craven performs material from his release CAMPTOWN – a collection of traditional fiddle tunes set to an international panorama of world inspired rhythms and instrumentation, and MO' JOE – a project of new interpretations for American folk songs. His latest CD is DJANGO LATINO - a Latin interpretation of the compositions of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli. Joe shatters musical boundaries while honoring folk, jazz and world traditions, performing solo, as a duo with bassist and pianist Sam Bevan and with his various groups. His long-standing trio consists of John R. Burr, of the Alison Brown Quartet, on keyboards and key bass; and Kendrick Freeman on drums and percussion.

Joe is also a festival emcee, where he began as an "after hours" host at the "Strawberry" Music Festival and, since then, has been a master of ceremonies at the "High Sierra," "Pine Mountain" and "Live Oak" Music Festivals in California, the "Harvest Festival" in Georgia, "Rockygrass" in Colorado and the "Old Settler's Festival" in Austin, Texas.
As an educator, Joe's clinics, workshops and school presentations on music participation have captivated audiences around the country. He's worked with students from preschool to adult in a variety of settings. He completed his first artist in residency at California State University – Chico to rave reviews and has expanded his educational outreach to museums and music camps ranging from Irish fiddle to international percussion. According to Joe, "Music is imagination, expression, therapy and living in the creative spirit. It doesn't need labels as much as it needs opportunity. Through exploration, practice and sincerity of application, you can make music on just about anything." And he's proven his point by playing everything from dashboards to squeeze toys to his head. "It's great to just pick up things like an empty water jug, garden tools or your pet and discover their inherent musical qualities, as well as your own," he says. "It's not the thing, but the process of how you connect with it that makes great music.

This will be Joe’s first appearance at the California Autoharp Gathering. He has entertained sold-out performances in the Fresno area with his amazing variety of musical creativities. We have given Joe an autoharp and have challenged him to create his own style, without any pretensions! His performance and workshops at the Gathering are simply not to be missed!

“Don't throw it away – redefine it as a musical
  tool –teach it to a child – leave it as a gift."
         – Joe Craven