FIDDLER TRAVELER BARD...

Shawn Craver, raised in the Central Appalachian Mountains, crafts elemental, pre-industrial music rooted in Old-World and American traditions. With the rare ability to take his instrument "from the call of a dove to the dance of a storm," Shawn is an Appalachian romantic, descended from centuries of musicians and storytellers, and has performed at universities, festivals, and concert series, including as a panelist with New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley. 

Craver's journey began in 1970s Appalachia and carried him west in the 1980s, sleeping in deserts and caves, sharing music among train porters and wanderers in places like Yosemite and Santa Fe. Fiddling led him into academia as a first-generation scholar earning degrees in English and Theology, where his life continued to follow the wild threads of romance, story, and song. A published poet, Shawn's work has appeared in Coelecanth Journal, And/Both Magazine, and other journals. A novel is now at hand, populated by grave diggers, witches, and wart cures.

Not content to be out done by "no-accounts and ne'er do wells", Shawn carries the burden of being a five-time Maryland State Banjo Champion (clawhammer) and a former Mid-Atlantic Mandolin Champion—a title he jokes he won "only because I had the most strings in tune, seven out of eight." He adds, "In Jewish mysticism, seven signifies the completion of nature and eight the transcendence of nature, so I suppose that's the best I can make winning a mountain picking contest sound."

" The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." —W.B. Yeats