This is my country, this is your country too

i'm very much enjoying the road trip with Sheena Grobb and Darryl Anderson - great music, lovely people and we're in an RV. I drove for about an hour today and think i could swing it as a long haul trucker.

had a wonderful drive with jeff golfman on the way to Treherne, experiencing a torrential manitoba prairie rain leaning into the windshielf of a convertible beetle (top down of course!). bumped into jan braun from uWaterloo days at her organic cafe in downtown winnipeg. Have played a lot of great shows.

Haven't found a bad apple in the whole bunch of people i've gotten to meet and cities in Manitoba. Warm, friendly, welcoming - great audiences at each show.

so - to the weekend.

this friday, sheena and I are playing at the axis cafe (http://www.axiscafe.ca/) in Edmonton, AB - please call the venue to hold tickets/seats. its going to be busy. tickets can be purchased at www.sheenagrobb.com. And after the show, we may all just head over to check out the Trailer Park Boys who are in town to take in their scatalogical musings.

this saturday, i'm playing TWO shows in Calgary (7pm + 9PM) at the Ironwood Cafe with the talented Dave Simpson, and a host of other local musicians. The tickets are available for purchase at the www.craigcardiff.com store, $10 for the early OR late show OR $15 for the whole night. Call the ironwood (www.ironwoodstage.ca) to reserve a table for either the early or late shows, or the whole darn evening. Dave's mom and I will be working the door - be sure to say hullo.

Early show will be a songwriter in the round format, and then later in the evening we bring out the full band to accompany dave and myself in songs.

Summer is packed with shows in July and August. I hope to see you out there.

Thanks for your ears -

-c

Jun 20, 2008 | 0 comments

COCA songwriters showcase

thanks to all the presenters from various campuses across canada who lent us their ears to hang out at the pinnacle penthouse and listen to love songs, breakup songs, and songs with swearing. be sure to check out all the artists who performed and book a show or two with them.

thanks for your ears -

-c

Jun 10, 2008 | 1 comment

Craig's music to be featured on the Vinyl Cafe this weekend

Hi Craig,

My name is Julie Penner and I'm the music producer for CBC Radio's Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean.

I thought I'd let you know that we're playing "When People Go" on the program this coming weekend. Shockingly, your song is the closer for the show :)

The Vinyl Cafe airs nationally on Saturdays at 10 AM (Radio Two), Sundays at noon (Radio One) and Tuesdays at 11 PM (Radio One).

We've been wanting to play your music for quite a while now, and I'm glad it finally worked out.
Hope all's well,

Julie Penner
Music Producer
The Vinyl Cafe

www.vinylcafe.com

May 12, 2008 | 6 comments

crossed borders

crossed borders - many thanks to ashland, charlottesville, and westfield
thanks to Ashland Tea and Coffee, Polly King and her brilliant house concert series and Haley Mustard for the Clean Air fundraiser show. i met great people (wes swing and co) and had a great time. looking forward to the return trip!

saturday may 10th - ottawa area white water rafting/camping trip + performance!
there are still spots for the white water rafting trip + performance + camping happening this coming saturday may 10th. The trip has been planned by Amy Flexman and will be a lot of fun. You can find out more here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=13349450027 or purchase your tickets at: http://craigcardiff.com/whitewater.cfm.

touring this summer
i'm excited to be touring extensively this summer with Sheena Grobb throughout Western Canada in june and august. I'll be performing in northern ontario throughout July and still have some open dates to fill (July 10+11 amongst others). I've also been invited to perform at the Peterborough Folk Festival. All the shows are up and posted at www.craigcardiff.com/performances.cfm . Tickets will be available for sale online at both craigcardiff.com and sheenagrobb.com.

new mp3 albums available from the craigcardiff.com store
we've added a few other albums available for purchase on craigcardiff.com, as well as creating an MP3 bundle where you can purchase the whole lot for less! Visit www.craigcardiff.com/shop.cfm for info.

us touring in the fall
we're in the process of building the fall touring in the US - if you have any venue recommendations or would like to host a house concert, please get in touch with us at bookings@craigcardiff.com

glen phillips is coming to Canada!
those of you luck enough to be in atlantic Canada for the Loyalist City Folk Festival at the end of May need to check out california native Glen Phillips (www.glenphillips.com). I've gotten to play with glen a number of times and he's phenomenal. If you're there, check him out. While we've got him in Canada, people should try to find other shows for him. Write to susie@flemingartists.com to recommend ideas.

free cd's for summer camps
thanks to all the camps who booked shows as part of the july touring. we're sorry we haven't been able to accomadate all requests for shows in June and August, BUT, here is the next best thing - if you're a camp and would like some sampler albums sent to your attention, please email isa@craigcardiff.com with 'free cd's for my camp please' in the header. be sure to include a phone number and mailing address where she can follow-up with you.

recording plans for new album(s)
Plans are in the works for two albums out next december. both will be studio recordings, one featuring all new songs (working title is 'floods and fires') and the other featuring my favourite covers by female songwriters (working title 'mothers and daughters'). the idea is to record early in the fall, release some of the songs to radio and make the album fully available for Tuesday December 2nd, 2008. Details are still developing so, if you have a song that you'd recommend me covering for the covers album, send me an email to craig@craigcardiff.com.

watch craig:
click here to watch a performance of 'when people go' from the Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC_______

thanks to factor.ca
a thank you to factor.ca - i've been very fortunate to have recieved sound recording and tour support from factor.ca (the foundation to assist canadian talent on recordings). These grants have helped make tours that were otherwise improbable financially make sense and come together.

links to check out
www.craigcardiff.com
www.facebook.com/craigcardiff
www.sonicbids.com/craigcardiff
www.myspace.com/craigcardiff

May 8, 2008 | 0 comments

white water rafting near ottawa - may 10th

amy flexman of nipissing U is organizing it mostly for NU Eddies, but other people have been asking for info (queens and uOttawa peeps).

Rafting, camping, food + show is included - reg price is $185 for everything. The way they have it organized is if you sign up before May 1st, the cost is $125. If you sign up after May 1st, the cost is $145.

Amy has room for 80 people to raft on the saturday - and then a performance in the evening. it should be lots of fun.

Right now, its just the saturday - if there is interest, they'll open up Sunday for rafting, and just have everyone come up for the Saturday evening performance/party.

to see where its happening, visit www.whitewater.ca

to find out more details and actually purchase the package, visit http://craigcardiff.com/whitewater.cfm

if you have any questions - email amy flexman directly at:
amyflexman@hotmail.com

Thanks for your ears -

-c

Apr 20, 2008 | 0 comments

On The Way To Philadelphia

hope this finds everyone well - my nerves are frayed with waiting - won't winter just go away already. its been like the gregarious drunk in the bar, not knowing when to leave and hanging around far too long.

great little off-radar shows in london, kingston, peterborough and now down to philadelphia to open for lucy kaplansky. watch for more summer updates.

Mar 29, 2008 | 3 comments

back from washington

lots of driving, lots of great people. thanks to everyone for the shows in pullman, WA, bellingham, WA and Prince George, BC. a bit of an easter break and then onto Canadian and US shows.

Mar 21, 2008 | 1 comment

PDF album art now available! judy garland and goodnight now available for digital download! gas sta

I'm a bad updater - the southern US tour with lucy was great. had some creepy gas station run ins which gave song material. saw this neat character named ben skyn playing at a dive bar. great lyrics. surreal bar.

digital downloads and downladable lyrics booklets. i've recieved a number of emails requesting these, and so i'm working from the veritable beginning and end into the middle on this one. Both Judy Garland and Goodnight Go Home are now available for digital purchase (encoded at 320 kbps) on the site by going to the 'shop' section. With spiffy PDF booklets to boot! If you already own the albums, but want to check out the album art, you can just download it from the link off the album in the discography section. Goodnight's album art is the actual printer file version (with all the fan submission pics) so the pagination is a little funky. I'll chip away at them and send out notices in the next week or so when new albums + booklets are available for download.

show section has been removed from this page to make it an easier read, BUT show info is constantly being updated in the 'performances' section.

i've spent a bunch of time working on new songs - here's one that came out this week.

floods and fires
all the things we lost in the flood
all the things we lost in the fire
these things never brought love
(old) snakesins disposed expired

sleepy headed lost in your compass
so much so that up was down
all the tricks, addictions, distractions
that we used to keep our light down

and we won't be remembered for how low we hung our heads
and we won't be remember for the things we never said

mixed tapes and bad reviews
naked pictures that i took of you
old keys to older doors
the couch you hated, the sweater you adored

all the things we lost in the flood
all the things we lost in the fire
these things never brought love
(old) snakesins disposed expired

and we won't be remembered for how low we hung our heads
and we won't be remember for the things we never said