Joe Craven is an American freestyle folk, world and roots music multi-instrumentalist, singer and educator. He is the Director of RiverTunes Music Camp and a Co-Director of the Wintergrass Youth Academy. He plays a wide variety of string instruments, including fiddle, mandolin, ukulele, tres,

cavaquinho The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings. More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of ins ...

balalaika The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...

, as well as percussion, including a pickling jar, a credit card, or a jawbone. Craven is a well known sight at acoustic music festivals and, for many years, was violinist and percussionist for the

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

Quintet. Craven lists some of his influences being Jimi Hendrix,

dumpster diving Dumpster diving (also totting, skipping, skip diving or skip salvage) is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is n ...

Hermeto Pascoal Hermeto Pascoal (born June 22, 1936) is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a significant figure in the history of Brazilian music, mainly known for his abilities in orche ...

, thrift stores,

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of A ...

, educator and aesthetician

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

, beachcombing,

Carl Stalling Carl William Stalling (November 10, 1891 – November 29, 1972) was an American composer, voice actor and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' shorts produced by Wa ...

Eddie Palmieri Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive. Early life Pal ...

, field recordings,

Tiny Moore Billie "Tiny" Moore (May 12, 1920 – December 15, 1987) was a Western swing musician who played the electric mandolin and fiddle with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the 1940s. He played with The Strangers and Merle Haggard during th ...

, Los Pleneros De Viente Uno,

Darol Anger Darol Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Career Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandol ...

and The Horseflies. Craven has played with many notable musicians including

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

Stephane Grappelli Stephane may refer to: * Stéphane, a French given name * Stephane (Ancient Greece), a vestment in ancient Greece * Stephane (Paphlagonia) Stephane ( grc, Στεφάνη) was a small port town on the coast of ancient Paphlagonia, according to Arria ...

Alison Brown Alison Brown (born August 7, 1962) is an American banjo player, guitarist, composer, and producer. She has won and has been nominated for several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck, for her unique style of ...

Rob Ickes Rob Ickes hymes with "bikes"is an American dobro ( resonator guitar) player, born 1967 in San Francisco, California, United States. Ickes moved to Nashville in 1992 and joined the contemporary bluegrass band Blue Highway as a founding member i ...

and

David Lindley David Lindley may refer to: * David Lindley (musician) (born 1944), American musician * David Lindley (physicist) (born 1956), British theoretical physicist and author * David Lindley (badminton), see 2009 All England Super Series – Mixed doubles ...

. He performs solo and in different sizes and versions of his own projects, most notably The Joe Craven Trio.

Discography

* ''Camptown'' (1996) – An album of classic American/Celtic fiddle tunes. * ''Mo' Joe'' (2002) – A collection of classic folk and bluegrass tracks performed in a variety of styles including jazz, hip-hop, rock, and pop. *''Django Latino'' (2004) – A Latin-inspired collection of Django Reinhardt compositions performed on a wide range of instruments, including Joe's Mandolin, Mandola, violin, cavaquinio and percussion. *''Foakee'' (2009) – In collaboration with bassist/pianist/composer Sam Bevan, traditional songs and instrumentals. *''All Four One'' (2011) – Original compositions by the four members of the Joe Craven Trio. Instrumental works and two songs paying tribute to the Blues, New Orleans, Swing, Funk and Bluegrass,as well as music of Brazil, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Ireland. *''Garcia Songbook'' (2018) – An album of songs written or previously performed by

. With The Sometimers (Jonathan Stoyanoff, Bruce MacMillan, Barry Eldridge, Hattie Craven).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craven, Joe Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American multi-instrumentalists American male singers American folk singers David Grisman Quintet members Psychograss members