The Joe Craven/David Jacobs-Strain collaboration began in July of 2000
when they first met on stage at the California World Music Festival.  
With an immediate sense of a common bond, they took turns joining each
other's sets throughout that memorable weekend. That chance meeting has
has evolved into a series of performance collaborations.  Their
performance credits as a duo include the Millpond Music Festival, the
Willamette Valley Folk Festival, Freight and Salvage, Biscuits & Blues,
Henflings, Espresso Garden, St. Johns Pub, and Central Oregon Community
College.


Their performances as a duo branch outward from the acoustic country blues
genre, with the added dimensions of modalities, percussive rhythms, and
harmonies drawn from the blues' indigenous cousins from cultures around
the world.  Their sound is big, exotic, and full of improvisational
adventures in search of deeper meanings in the traditional acoustic
musical form and features the best of each performer's talents and
virtuosity.


Multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven is best known the as percussionist and
violinist with the David Grisman Quintet for the last twelve years.
In addition, he is a popular solo artist in his own right.  Guitarist and
vocalist David Jacobs-Strain, at age seventeen, is receiving international
acclaim for his soulful performances of acoustic roots blues.



JOE  CRAVEN 

"Exciting" - Chicago Tribune 

	"Virtuostic" - Los Angeles Times 

	"Crowd pleaser" - New York Times 

	"Magical" - San Francisco Chronicle



Joe Craven's brilliance on string instruments such as fiddle, mandolin,
Turkish saz, Puerto Rican cuatro and a world of percussion instruments is
the stuff of local legend and national acclaim.  But there's more to
Craven than meets the ear. He is not only a successful musician but also a
visual artist, museologist (museum science), educator, loving father, avid
runner, and an advocate of "demystifying" art and making music a household
phenomenon.


Since 1989, Joe Craven has been a highly respected sideman with the David
Grisman Quintet. He has kept impressive musical company over the years,
playing and/ or recording with Jerry Garcia, Stephan Grapelli, Bonnie
Raitt, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Tom Waits, Tony Rice, The Persuasions, Mark
O'Connor, Psychograss, Darol Anger, Rob Ickes, the Turtle Island String
Quartet and many others, including California groups Way Out West & Mumbo
Gumbo. He is a sought after studio musician and has performed music &
sound effects on a wide variety of recordings including commercials,
soundtracks, computer games and several Grammy nominated projects.


Joe Craven is a musical archeologist, bringing fresh interpretations to
archival treasures. " I love how the process of folk music works...pieces
learned from the aural tradition of observation - homemade and handed down
person to person - generation to generation: Tunes and songs embellished
and altered with different versions through time ultimately creating new
music altogether. In the world we live in, when you learn other people's
music you learn about your own", Craven says. Craven's debut 1996 release,
"Camptown", is a testimony to this folk music philosophy.

 
www.joecraven.com


www.acornmusic.com/bio-joe.htm


DAVID JACOBS-STRAIN

Guitarist, David Jacobs-Strain, sings and plays the country blues.  At age
seventeen, seasoned with performances at the some the West Coast's premier
blues and folk festivals, he is gaining an international reputation for
his intensely soulful singing and slide guitar work.  His style is
unmistakenly personal and improvisational, yet steeped in tradition. 


	"The textures and layers in these tunes are powerful and 
	 intoxicating.  There is an ageless mysticism resounding in 
	 the chords that connects with the hurt hiding inside you."
	"...it's like he's channeling spirits."


 		--Bill Fountain, Southwest Blues Magazine

	
	"... has assimilated both the the vocal and picked language of
	 blues so thoroughly that he is writing convincing originals."


		--Mary Armstrong, Philadelphia City Paper
 

	"Your first thought on hearing him is not how young he is,
	 but how good."


		-- John Foyston, Portland Oregonian



In 1999 and 2000 David became the youngest ever instructor at Centrum's
Port Townsend Country Blues Festival.  This year he joins the Blues Week
staff at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virgina.


In an interview by Val Cormier in the Vancouver, BC, "Discorder" David
responded:  


	"It wasn't an immediate thing, but I was drawn by the ragged
	honesty of the blues.  Structurally, it's simple, but the feelings 
	and raw nature are not simple at all.  It's a bit like haiku.  And 
	it's powerful for people regardless of their social or ethnic 
	background.  It think that anyone with emotions can play the blues.  
	I don't have a problem singing someone else's story, as long as I 
	point out it's their story.  I play music that's meaningful to me, 
	that is, it has honesty, soulfulness and respect for its original 
	creators."


David's performance credits include Wintergrass, California World Music
Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, Portland Waterfront Blues Festival,
Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Northwest Folklife,
Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, Vancouver Island Blues Bash
(Victoria, BC).  Most recently he was featured in Denver's "Roots of The
Blues" Festival in a program with Larry Johnson and National Heritage
artist, John Jackson.



www.efn.org/~dj_s