© 2008 Shawn Craver
When Shawn was 11 years old, he began making banjos from coffee cans and fishing line at his home on Roman Nose Mountain... a year later he decided he needed some real instruments and proceeded to get a guitar, banjo and a harmonica... A native of the Potomac Highlands region, he put the music of his friends, family and neighbors to good use and quickly became known as a good picker who could play "anything with strangs on it." His original and traditional music has been featured on National Public Radio, TV and many festivals throughout the country. In 1999, he recorded with Matt Pederson a disc of mostly original tunes featuring his guitar playing and songwriting called "Over the Blueridge." Listen to JOSHUA from that CD. In 2000, he played on a fine CD with Dick Kimmel and that disc has been heard worldwide. (Click the link to hear Shawn play guitar with Dick on "Fishing Creek Blues." Shawn is a 4 time Maryland State Banjo Champ (Old-Time), Mid Atlantic Mandolin Champ, fiddler, singer and a respected source of traditional music of the Allegheny and Potomac Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains. For the past twenty years he has collected and practiced this "old music"... Ballads learnt from his Grandmother, dance tunes from the region's fiddling tradition, as well as melodies passed down from his Scot-Irish Great Grandfather. His fiddling is purposely void of modern sounds and he has worked hard to preserve the voice of what he calls the "Allegheny Fiddle Style" which is characteristically different from other Appalachian styles. As a fourth generation "mountain" musician, his repertoire runs as deep as his family's roots (and Native American roots) in the hills of Garrett, Tucker, Ritchie, Mineral and other counties in Maryland and West Virginia. His most recent recording is entitled "Fiddle in the Laurel," a collection of 12 traditional fiddle tunes from the pre-1900 tradition that once abounded in the region. Click to hear Hell on the Potomac. Many of the tunes came from family and friends.
