 |
Mike
Craver...
is solo on his latest CD,
Bosh & Moonshine
(2013), 17 songs from his plays Bosh and Moonshine, The Belle
of the Wabash, Sarah Bernhardt in Texas, and Oklahoma Hale
& Damnation. Shining
Down (2002) is Mike's third solo release, following Wagoner's
Lad and Fishing
for Amour. Mike also performs on all three of Jim
Watson's CDs. Mike has also completed two projects with NC author
Clyde Edgerton. The latest (2009), The
Bible Salesman, includes a recording of Mike and Clyde doing a
variety of new songs and old favorite hymn tunes that
set up and comment on the scenes and story. For 2005, Mike and Clyde
wrote a musical based on Edgerton's novel Lunch
at the Picadilly with 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)
|
 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 |
 Craver,
Hicks, Watson, Newberry - pics from the shows, performance dates, all
you need to know |
|
Mike's solo
recordings
(More
info on Mike Craver recordings with the Red Clay Ramblers and others is
on our
Discography page.) |
 "For
the past four years I have been writing and performing musicals for the
Northwestern Illinois Theatre Coalition. These shows (BOSH AND MOONSHINE,
THE BELLE OF THE WABASH, SARAH BERNHARDT IN TEXAS, and OKLAHOMA HALE &
DAMNATION) follow a motley band of 19th century music hall entertainers
as they wander through the Midwest. The troupe includes a saloon singer,
a Shakespearean tragedian, a love-struck young couple, a gunslinger, and
an undertaker. I have picked 17 of my favorites from these shows and put
them on this cd. I hope you might like it!" ------ Mike |
 |
Shining
Down
A 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 ]
 |
Theater....
   
Radio
Gals | Oil City Symphony | Lunch at
the Piccadilly | The
Bible Salesman
|
 Mike Craver's Mould's Undertaking Buy CD: Mike's Store
Sapsucker (2020) Based on characters shared between Mike's 5 musicals and their scores.
Five Little Sinners, When I Was a Little
Wee Babe, Good Time Girl, The Wayward Sister, It's the Actor's Life for
Me, The Ballad of Fannie Mae Garrettson, Simon Peter, I Ain't Dead Yet,
A Bell Jar in Washington Square, I'll Get You Coming & Going, I'm
Going to Join the Foreign Legion, The Ballad of Mysterious Dave Mather,
From Austin to Abilene, Goodbye Big Jim, My Heart Belongs in Illinois,
When You Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil, Asenaloogah, Alas I'm a Poor
Little Woodpecker, I'm a Little More Comfortable, Fester in the Western
Sun, The Great Cimarron Cyclone |
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
|
 Mike
writes of meeting Sara Carter and singing at her funeral as well as a 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 |
|
