Mike Craver

Mike Craver is a North Carolina-based songwriter, actor, and composer. Off-Broadway credits include The Oil City Symphony (co-author and original cast member, cast recording, Drama Desk award), Smoke on the Mountain (arrangements, published by Samuel French), Radio Gals (co-author and original cast member, cast recording, LA Ovation award, published by Samuel French), Wilder (co-author and original cast), original music for Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, and Bland Simpson and Jim Wann's Diamond Studs (cast recording and band). Mike also arranged and wrote original material for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming (published by Samuel French).

He has worked in theatres across the country, including the Pasadena Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA. Commissioned work includes three musicals (Bosh and Moonshine, The Belle of Wabash, Sarah Bernhardt in Texas, and Oklahoma Hale and Damnation) based on a troupe of actors and musicians touring the American West during the 19th century. Mike collaborated with southern novelist Clyde Edgerton on a musicalization of Edgerton's novel Lunch at the Piccadilly.

Mike graduated from the University of North Carolina and was a member of the Red Clay Ramblers for many years. Recorded work includes nine Red Clay Ramblers albums. Craver has released three solo albums – Fishing for Amour, Wagoner's Lad and Shining Down – and recordings of two musical projects with Clyde Edgerton – Lunch at the Piccadilly and The Bible Salesman. He currently plays with the old time string band Craver, Hicks, Watson & Newberry. (Photo by McIntyre Photography).