This will be a labor day Pot Luck BBQ topped off by the exquisite music of Craig Bickhardt. Check him out here:http://www.craigbickhardt.com/
Reserve your spot now by emailing farmhouse103music@gmail.com
When Craig Bickhardt steps onto a concert stage, he comes equipped with his trusty acoustic guitar, but he's also accompanied by something invisible, yet ever-present: the stories of a lifetime, vividly translated into words and melody.
Craig is a singer/songwriter of the old school – you can hear echoes of such 60s folk revival artists as Tom Rush, Gordon Lightfoot and Eric Andersen in his work. Added to this is the melodic sophistication of a Jimmy Webb or a Paul Simon, as well as a spare but telling lyric approach. “I admire songwriters like Woody Guthrie and poets like Robert Frost because they created functional art,” he says. “Too much music today is just for the singer, not for Everyman. I think of my work as a "Please Touch‟ museum – I want my songs to be sung until they‟re worn out.”
Also crucial to Craig‟s art is his virtuosic guitar work, interweaving folk, blues, country and ragtime influences into a unique whole: “The guitar isn‟t just an accompanying instrument for me – sometimes it‟s the front man and my voice is the accompanist.”
A Craig Bickhardt live set is a mix of absurd anecdotes and personal confessions, accompanying a well-stocked bag of original tunes and the occasional choice cover. His decades in music have given his performances the depth of experience – his love songs seem sweeter and more poignant, his story-song narratives more true-to-life than they could have in the past.
“I think people come to my shows to be reminded that there‟s something profound in the small stuff we experience every day,” he says. “My goal is to get an audience to look deeper at the things we all take for granted.”
Craig Bickhardt travels light to his gigs – but he brings a great deal to the stage. He combines a seasoned troubadour‟s easy command of his art with a beginner‟s passion to win over his next audience and top his next song. The stories of his lifetime are simply too good not to share.