Craven, Clements setting up shop

I solicited my friend Farley for the scoop on Joe Craven (pictured with Vassar Clements). The multi-instrumentalist has played with everyone from Tony Furtado to Jerry Garcia and he'll be calling Athens home this weekend. On Friday you can find him conducting Joe Craven's Rhythm Workshop & Community Jam at Nuci's Space and on Saturday he'll be at the Seney-Stovall Chapel with The Vassar Clements Holiday Band. Here's what she had to say:

"Joe is not just an entertaining musician with a penchant for the absurd, he is a teacher and a student at once, and will draw you into his performance by including you as though you're part of the show itself. His gift for gab is unprecedented and his musical knowledge impressive. Joe is a perpetual student of music; always looking for the next expression or breath or object to make music with. And Craven's openness and expression of gratitude for the gifts he's been given make it all the more fun for him to share it with his audience. No matter who he's performing with; an elementary school class or on stage in front of a thousand, he's at home and loving every minute. ...

"Bring a fiddle, bring a hand drum - or just bring a couple of spoons; anything goes at a Joe Craven Performance Workshop. The Athens show will be a little more special than the usual. Craven will open it for a Community Jam, so be prepared for a couple of hours of anything you want to make of it."

For more information on Saturday's event at the Chapel that will feature a set by local songwriter Ralph Roddenberry and the incomparable Mr. Clements joined by notable sidekicks David Blackmon, Count M'Butu, and others, visit here.

Posted by David Eduardo at December 15, 2004 02:37 PM