MIKE CRAVER grew up in Lexington, North Carolina and was attracted to folk music at an early age. He was a member of the Red Clay Ramblers for many years, playing piano and writing songs for the band, broadening their repetoire and helping establish them as "American's premier whatzit band". He left the Ramblers in the late '80s and moved to New York City to pursue full-time work in musical
theater. He co-authored and performed in award winning off-Broadway productions The Oil City Symphony, Smoke on the Mountain, and Radio Girls.Mike has also recorded three critically acclaimed solo albums Fishing For Amour, Wagoner's Lad, and Shining Down. He returned to North Carolina in the late 1990s, and has resumed performing his music, occasionally with fellow former Ramblers, while continuing to write songs and shows.
"Former Red Clay Rambler Mike Craver is a walking anachronism, a songwriter of extraordinary talent who distills elements of traditional British and American folk song and Tin Pan Alley into a mesmerizing original blend. Based on turn-of-the-century stories from Craver's Piedmont North Carolina heritage, "Wagoner's Lad" is a breathtaking song cycle, filled with vividly detailed characters relating their bittersweet first-person ballads, accompanied by Craver's keyboards and guitar, and sung in his warm, engaging, and intimate style. This is, quite simply, a timeless disc of rare and profound beauty that grows better with each new listen." Gene Hyde, DIRTY LINEN
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