The road is home for modern-day musical troubadour John Craigie.
A Los Angeles native, Craigie has toured through Moscow on and off over the last five years and decided to make it one of his first stops on a three-month celebration tour of his eighth and latest album, “The
Musician John Craigie will perform at Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre as part of an album release tour.
Apocalypse is Over.” Craigie will release his CD, perform and share the stage Thursday with Northwest musicians Bart Budwig, Marshall McLean and An American Forrest at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.
“I’m based out of California, but I don’t live there because I’m out there touring. I was born in L.A. and started playing guitar in high school. That was the late ’90s and grunge was really hip,” said Craigie, who listened at the time to bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. “I went to college in Santa Cruz … when I got exposed to Bob Dylan and James Taylor, who are more appropriate for my skill level. I graduated with a degree in mathematics and I taught for a very short period of time, and
didn’t really care for it.”
Craigie began playing guitar at different shows in town and decided to make music his career.
“I realized I needed to play every day to make it,” he said. “I went on my first tour to Colorado and back and realized that was the way to do it.”
Craigie’s September schedule includes five Oregon shows in a row, a two-day break on the road, the Moscow performance, a Sandpoint show and then Spokane, followed by a three-day break on the road, two western Washington stops and a day break. He finishes with four shows across California before he starts off on what he calls his “Crazy Texas and Utah Album Release Loop.”
“I sing a lot about traveling, because that’s what I do,” said Craigie, who recently spent time in New Orleans, which inspired his latest CD. “New York or L.A. are consumed with business aspects … but what I like about New Orleans is it’s off the radar and people just want to play music for the sake of playing music.”
He just returned from Burning Man, an annual art and music event that takes place in the Nevada desert.
“I go there every summer and those performances definitely stand out, mostly because it’s such a huge gathering and such a technodominated festival that I find that people are very enthusiastic about live music at that festival,” he said.
While Craigie plays folk and singer-songwriter styles, he said his latest CD is influenced by his time in New Orleans, with an addition of horns and honky-tonk piano. The Kenworthy performance also should generate a few laughs, Craigie said, as he tells humorous true stories.
Americana musician Marshall McLean will perform as part of John Craigie’s album release at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre in Moscow. Bart Budwig and An American Forrest will open for Craigie, too.
“Moscow’s always been a special place for me and I always have met great people,” Craigie said.
Spokane musician Marshall McLean, also appearing in Moscow, first performed with Craigie back in early 2006.
“Over the years, we’ve kind of played shows on and off together as he’s come through the area,” McLean said.
McLean and his band plan to release an album dubbed “Glossolalia” in November, but he said he’s traveling with just his bass player, Justin Landis, for the Kenworthy performance.
“We’re Northwest Americana,” McLean said. “It’s like indie rock — we don’t really have anybody that we’re trying to sound like, we’re all into singer-songwriters for the most part. Ryan Adams would be kind of a reference. We’re Ryan Adams meets a Northwest feel.”
Opening for Craigie are McLean, An American Forrest (fiction, folk and indie group) and Budwig, another Americana musician who Craigie said pulled him into the Moscow music scene.
Presale tickets for the show are $7 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/442240 or $10 at the door. The concert begins at 7 p.m.
Craigie’s new album will be for sale at the event.
A live studio performance and interview with the Kenworthy performers will also take place at 4 p.m. Thursday on KUOI radio at 89.3 FM or www.kuoi.org.
More information can be found on Facebook at this shortened event link: http://on.fb. me/162PU4X.
Treffry can be contacted at (208) 883-4640 or ltreffry@inland360.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @LindseyTreffry.
->if you go
WHAT: John Craigie album release, featuring Bart Budwig, Marshall McLean and An American Forrest
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 S. Main St., Moscow
COST: $7 presale at www.brownpapertickets.com or $10 at the door
