Sonoma musician profile: Joe Craven in the dirt

“20 Feet from Stardom” is a:

a) 2013 movie about unsung rock and roll back up singers

b) 2019 movie about then-Vice President Mike Pence

c) 2021 movie about the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccanneers offense, as they protect and assist quarterback Tom Brady.

The answer is a), the movie awarded Best Documentary at the 2014 Academy Awards. The film tells the compelling story of the singers behind the singers, the ones just out of the spotlight. They provide texture and harmony to a performance but are relatively unknown to the audience.

“20 Feet From Stardom” could also be the title of a movie about Joe Craven, the multi-instrumentalist who has made a musical impact standing just about that far from some pretty well-known musicians, namely David Grisman and Jerry Garcia.

Craven and his family live in Dixon, a place Craven jokingly refers to as “the former gateway to the Milk Farm.” He and his wife have raised four children there, the youngest of which, Hattie, performs with her dad regularly. Joe and his daughter, with his band Joe Craven and the Sometimers, have performed in Sonoma a few times in recent years.

Craven said, “I lived in Kentucky and Tennessee. Primarily the two places I grew up in were North Carolina and Georgia. I moved around a lot as a kid.” Along the way, Craven learned how to play a few instruments. He is known as a percussionist but can bang out a tune on the “violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar/banjo, mouth bow, canjoe, cuatro, CBG, berimbau, balalaika, boot ‘n’ lace and double-necked whatever,” according to his website.

He is a busy guy, billing himself as a “musician, educator, emcee, visual artist, actor, former museolthoughtogist, ambassador of artful living and fashion insultant.”

Reached at his home, Craven spoke primarily of his teaching, his music camps (both online and in person), his time playing behind Garcia and Grisman, and getting his hands dirty at an organic farm here in Sonoma.

The pandemic has stopped his touring, but the thoughtful yet jocular Craven has switched gears to something he has really enjoyed. Craven explained, “It (working on the farm) has been wonderful for me. It’s been very therapeutic to be in a situation where I am isolated from other people, working outdoors, digging in the dirt, helping things grow, making things better.”

Craven is jazzed about his role there. “We live in a part of the world where people can be growing food year-round. We have been growing food since September… and it’s thriving.

“We’ve had just a few hard freezes. As long as you anticipate that and protect the crop, you can grow stuff all the time,” Craven said.

Noting that the site is a “full-blown mini-farm, solely in the service of growing food,” Craven said his labor there “provides me with therapy as much as making money. It’s good for my head space.”

That “head space,” where his musical imagination lives, has allowed Craven to play with many people in many configurations.

Craven was David Grisman’s “Ed McMahon,” 20 feet away on stage, for 17 years. That musical partnership with Grisman let Craven get close to Grisman’s friend, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Garcia tapped Craven to play with him - violin and percussion - for five years.

Craven spoke of the Jerry Garcia/David Grisman collaboration that he became involved with. “The Garcia/Grisman project started in winter of 1989. David and Jerry just by happenstance ran into each other at a party. Jerry was feeling his mortality at the time, and said to David, ‘Why don’t we get together and play some music, kick around the old tunes?’”

Craven continued, “They realized it would be really great to have a rhythm section behind them. David said to Jerry, ‘I’ve got a great rhythm section.’”

It lead to a casual audition, Craven said, “and musically it just clicked.”

The new quartet, including bassist Jim Kerwin, released several fine recordings. “The first one (‘Jerry Garcia/David Grisman’ 1991) really made quite a splash. There followed a jazz-oriented project. There was one called ‘Not for Kids Only’ (1993), which was just a bunch of old folk songs, inspired by folk revival groups like the New Lost City Ramblers. ‘Shady Grove’ (1996), another bunch of old folk songs. A lot of stuff created in a very short period of time.”

He forgot to mention “Jerry Garcia/David Grisman, Been All Around This World” (2004) on which Craven plays on eight of the 12 songs on the recording.

Craven has an interesting take on his years in a band fronted by the Energizer bunny of guitar, Garcia. “For me, the gig was like being paramedic. I was just on call. David never knew when Jerry would call. There was not a lot of advanced notice. We were basically working our schedule around Jerry’s schedule.”

He continued, “A lot was accomplished in just a few years, until Jerry checked himself into a rehab facility and never came out.” Garcia died of a massive heart attack in 1995 at the age of 53.

Craven has found time to create quite a following in the teaching and music-camp world. His “Rivertunes” camp was a summertime destination for dozens of aspiring musicians and music lovers. The camp began 10 years ago along the American River in Lotus, California, and eventually moved to the Morro Bay area until the pandemic required a change of venue to an online format.

The digital nature of things these days, with Zoom being the common factor, makes things difficult. But Craven is a positive guy. He has noticed the good in it all. He said, when the camp went online after months of attendees being shut down in their own homes, “People were visibly emotional as we looked at the Zoom screen. They were expressive, joyful, there were tears of happiness in connecting with each other, even though we are looking at each other in these little boxes, Hollywood Squares of Steroids.”

When things do open up again and Craven washes off that good local organic dirt, look for his band to play nearby. Their marvelous, rootsy, American music is just what a live music-thirsty crowd needs to feel good about itself again.