Daily Inspiration: Meet Shawn Craver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Craver.

Shawn, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I picked up music as a kid in the Appalachian Mountains from family and friends. My mother played the piano at church and her side of the family has always been quite musical.

Our church sang old hymns from the 1800s and family reunions were filled with fiddles, mandolins, and banjos. My mom’s dad moved from West Virginia to the Baltimore area and played in a radio band after World War II.

He maintained a jam at his house throughout the 70s and 80s. He had a poster of Johnny Cash in his music room and it all made a big impression on me.

Around 12 or 13, I began playing different instruments and played one of my first paying gigs when I was 15. I’ve been a gigging musician ever since.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t exactly been a smooth road, but an adventurous one. After high school in the 80s, I took a guitar and began crisscrossing the United States by train and by bus. I did a lot of busking and ended up in San Francisco at 19 or 20.

The coffee-house scene was good there and I got to know a singer-songwriter named Jeff Pehrson who later went on to play with the members of the Grateful Dead in a band called Furthur. I learned a lot from some really good musicians in the Bay Area, had a gig at The Owl and Monkey Coffee House, and was beginning to write some good songs… but the city was a struggle for me.

I was homesick for the mountains and had to get back. In the mountains, I began playing churches and singing old gospel songs but knew I wanted something different so I ended up traveling west again. In the 90s, I was playing bluegrass in the upper Midwest. The Midwest gave me some balance between east and west and allowed me to play music and be stable since my adventurous rambling made it difficult to get established anywhere as a musician.

Bluegrass was fun but realized it was the pre-bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes that meant something to me so I honed in on that. Playing that music is a challenge because it’s misunderstood. When I moved to Wichita, I was a guy named Shawn who played the fiddle so everyone thought I was Irish!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I currently play the fiddle and guitar in a folk band called the New Time Bards. We specialize in pre-bluegrass Appalachian folk songs. We also feature some of my original songs so we can go from a traditional Appalachian ballad like Barbara Allan to something more rock and roll.

In traditional music, I specialize in fiddle tunes and songs from the Potomac Highland region of the Appalachians where I grew up. My original music goes in other directions with influences like The Cure, Johnny Cash, and The Beatles. I’m happy to say that I play gigs on my own terms and don’t fall into themes or caricatures.

I’ve played the biggest Irish festival in the United States and have played bass in a little pick-up blues band. The fiddle is where I feel most expressive and love to play solo fiddle gigs for attentive audiences where I can tell stories about the old mountain fiddlers I knew and stories from my rambles.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Over the years, when I put music first as a vocation, things fall into place. The right friends, relationships, living arrangements, etc.

When I get lazy with music and think it’s time to get a “real job” things don’t go so well. After a few times through that cycle, I’ve learned to listen to music. The universe has a way of chasing us down and giving us what is best for us. Accepting it is how I kind of see luck.

I don’t know what is around the bend, but I know if I’m taking a fiddle or guitar with me, things will be fine. When I get on stage I am part of a community larger than myself… and people like what I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shawncraverfiddler.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/newtimebards
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bardfiddler
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAASAREvOzGVjPXlwJ47jMA