| The Cravens
Original and Traditional American Music |
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Tim Craven and Mike Rovine
State College, Pennsylvania
In the Fall of 1972, Tim Craven, pictured above on the left, left McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a still thriving steel mill town near Pittsburgh, and came to Penn State University. He walked into the Jawbone Coffeehouse and sang a mixture of Bob Dylan songs and original songs (like "Oedipus Should Have Known", "Night Like A Hammer", "I Love My Smokey Western Pennsylvania Milltown Home!", "The Alleyways of Britain" and "Rosy"....probably the first song ever written about an automated bank teller) while playing his guitar upside down. Unaware that he was playing the guitar upside down, he thought the person pointing this out to him was just a heckler. Tim became a leader in the folk music scene of the early 70's. Four hundred songs, five collections of poetry and two plays later he is now playing original and traditional American music (folk, bluegrass, old-timey, blues) with son, Oliver, wife Kimberley, Matt Burkholder and as often as he can with Mike Rovine. Tim and Mike have played in The Rustical Quality String Band together since 1978. Tim was also the original lead singer for the bluegrass band Whetstone Run. A graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg he has served as a pastor in the Lutheran Church since 1987. His faith experiences as a pastor have deeply enriched his Gospel music and enable him to sing these songs with an authentic and soulful passion. His time as the overnight taxi driver in State College and his travels throughout the nation have also found him singing everywhere from famous places like The Birchmere Club in Washington D.C. to infamous places like the back of a Greyhound Bus. Once late in his career, Bill Monroe, who was sharing a bill with the Rustical Quality String Band, told all the people who were waiting in line to talk to him to, "make way....bring that singin' preacher up here. I like the way he sings." These days the band is also happy to occasionally include Andy Thacker on mandolin.
 Oliver Craven has been playing the violin and fiddle since he was five years old. He also currently plays with Grammy nominated songwriter Adrienne Young of Nashville, Tennessee, who was voted one of the top five songwriters in Nashville in 2007. Classically trained, Oliver has performed folk and bluegrass on stage since that time. His passionate and improvisational style is unique as he is capable of playing in traditional folk, bluegrass, old-timey and blues styles but is just as likely to play something nobody has ever heard before.
 Oliver is an excellent songwriter, has a strong singing voice and is skilled on the guitar
(both acoustic and electric), the mandolin and the resonator guitar or dobro.
 Kimberley Bates Craven has been playing the acoustic bass with Tim for concerts and recordings from Maine to Kansas and from Illinois to North Carolina since 1979. Her steady hand and eagle eye keep the band in line. She has even been known to tell a joke and is rapidly developing a sweet singing voice to match her smile.
 Matt Burkholder has been playing bluegrass since he was a child.
His musical and vocal harmonies to traditional and original songs
add a rich dimension to the band's sound.
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©2006 Craven Family Band. All Rights Reserved. 717-738-3838
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