Grapevine Music Agency - representing some of the finest roots musicians from the UK and North America. Folk, Blues, Country, Americana.
Jim Crawford
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"Jim Crawford has the voice & soul of an angel. An effortless singer & gifted musician. Wrap this up with a wicked sense of humour & you're listening to a world class artist." Chris While
“Jim Crawford’s exquisite fingerpicked acoustic
guitar, electric slide, a touch of banjo and ukulele, not to mention his fine
voice,as he delivered a mix of superior Delta and country blues covers,along
with his own wonderful Americana-flavoured songs.” Grahame Rhodes
"This is what roots music needs so badly, a superb musician, having a
good time and sharing it with the audience." Peter Baker, Blues In
Britain
"Superb performer, great songwriter" Paul Jones, BBC Radio 2
"The finest country blues player in the U.K." Ben Andrews
Jim Crawford was born in Bury, Lancashire, U.K. in 1958. His father was a
drunken Irishman, his Mother wasn't. At the age of four he began
lessons on the cornet only to have his hopes of becoming the next Louis
Armstrong dashed when he was involved in a bizarre accident involving a
mouse and a fish tank. By age seven his aim was to play football for
England. His complete inability to kick a ball more than a few feet plus
his skill in being able to run only in slow motion, soon put paid to
that idea. By age ten his mind was made up. He was going to be an
ASTRONAUT!! As he couldn't even spell the word astronaut, the writing
was firmly on the wall for that idea too. After several years in a
blurry wilderness, at the age of seventeen, he finally hit on the bright
idea of becoming an itinerant singer/ songwriter. He's looked back ever
since. By sheer good luck he has ended up living in the picturesque
village of Appledore on the North Devon coast with his wife (the renown
sculptor) Maggie Curtis, his beloved old hound dog "Ry Cooder", several
chickens, and a hive full of bees.
Jim Crawford is something of a Blues enigma. A shy and retiring man who
readily admits that recording studios fill him with dread and that he’d
rather go fishing with his dog for company, has, none the less, toured
much of Europe and the U.S.A captivating audiences with his intimate
blues style.
Softly spoken, Jim totally surprises his audience when he breaks into a
number with a resonant, barrelhouse blues vocal and for years has been
revered among professional musicians as a consummate finger picker and
slide guitarist.
He first came to the attention of a wider blues audience when invited to
record a session for the BBC’s Paul Jones Show. When quizzed by Mr.
Jones about recent concert work we glimpsed the sense of humour that
lights up Jims live shows when he wryly replied, “I've just played at
the Appledore school fete where I was second in the popularity stakes to
a bouncy castle !”
Jim is currently writing material for a new solo album “Roots and
Originals” which will be available along with his previous albums "Blues
Boy" and "When the Rains Came". The title track from “When the Rains
Came” was covered by Beth Rowley on her No1 album “Little Dreamer”
(along with tracks by Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson).
Our View: A great musician with a winning personality. A very
talented guitarist, equally at home finger picking or playing the
meanest slide imaginable, you won’t find a guitarist in Britain who
doesn’t rate Jim as one of the best. On stage his warm hearted dialogue
with the audience never fails to impress.