[publicity photos] [Sonic Bids EPK]
 Craig Bickhardt’s new CD Brother To The Wind contains some of the best work he has done in a
long career dedicated to ennobling the art of song. One listen and you'll be reminded of the days when artists like
James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot were pioneering
the singer-songwriter genre.
"Music used to change people,” Bickhardt notes.
“Records used to be made for careful listeners who read the lyrics and talked
about the songs, interpreted their meanings.
That’s the kind of music I relate to.”
Craig is following in the traditions of his admired predecessors.
For the project, Bickhardt dug
deep into his 800-tune catalog. The
record contains songs that have already proven their strength, having been recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie
Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Tony Rice, Charlie Louvin and others. But Craig is not merely some hit maker
capitalizing on his thoroughbred discography.
Throughout
his extraordinary career Craig picked up many believers among the better
artists of his generation. You can hear
them sitting in on nearly every cut of the CD; Janis Ian, Beth Nielsen Chapman,
Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Maura O'Connell, Rusty Young, Jack Sundrud and a host of others. "I wanted to include some of the artists and friends I've
known and respected on this CD. You get
to a point where you realize you don't have forever in this world. It's time to
do the things I've put off, and one of those things is to sing and pick with
these great people I've met and admired.
Native
Pennsylvanian Craig Bickhardt’s big break came unexpectedly in 1982 when he was
chosen to write and sing two songs for Robert Duvall's Academy Award winning
film "Tender Mercies". In the
wake of that film’s success, Craig made his move to Nashville where his
songs found their way onto platinum and Grammy winning CDs by legends such as Ray
Charles, B. B. King, Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, The Judds and Dianne
Schuur to name just a few. Along with
his friends and collaborators Thom Schuyler, Fred Knobloch and Don Schlitz,
Craig also helped to establish the original Writers In The Round series at The
Bluebird Café.
He went on to have three hits as
an artist when he joined Schuyler and Knobloch to make their SKB CD No Easy Horses for MTM Records. The group's version of Craig's song
"Givers And Takers" entered the top ten on the Billboard country
charts in the fall of 1988. His work on Music Row garnered him several boxes
full of awards from ASCAP, the CMA, and the IAMA.
In 2006 Bickhardt made the bold move to leave
Nashville and return to the concert stage and to his roots
in eastern Pennsylvania. Since his move
he has shared the stage with Kathy Mattea, Judy Collins, Billy Joe Shaver,
Livingston Taylor, and Janis Ian among others.
His performance at the 2008 Philadelphia Folk Festival prompted the
concert’s promoter Jesse Lundy to say, “Craig Bickhardt stands among the giants
of songwriting. His main stage show at this year's Philly Folk Festival was
absolutely outstanding.”
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