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From the Sept.2009 issue of OffBeat magazine, New Orleans, LA
Craig Caffall
Hold Me Up
GRA
By Cree McCree
During his five-year stint in the Crescent City, Craig Caffall earned his Ph.D in New Orleans music, playing back-up for Irma Thomas and gigging with everyone from Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. to Cyril Neville while playing with his own band, Big Train. But it was “Mudbugs and Dixie Beer” that really put him on the map. This rockin’ paean to local culture blasts over the loudspeakers every time the Acadiana Mudbugs play a home game in Lafayette, spreading the crawfish gospel throughout the Southern Indoor Football League.
Like “Mudbugs,” Hold Me Up was written and recorded in New Orleans, then remixed in Sausalito, California, near where Caffall lives when he’s not touring with Maria Muldaur as her lead guitarist. There’s no mistaking the Big Easy influence, especially on R&B slow-burners such as “Try.” But Caffall busts Southern boogies blues and big rig rock just as hard, making this a great road-trip and party album.
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Discography
Craig Caffall "Hold Me Up" on GRA Records, Maria Muldaur Live also on GRA Records. Rolf Cahn and Friends, indie recording
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Bio
Craig Caffall says music has been a major part of his life since he started playing drums at the ripe old age of eight. After traveling for six months in Europe with his mother Eve and step-father John Muir (“How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive� circ. 1969), the folks shipped Craig off to attend boarding school in England where he took up the guitar and started playing the blues. “I noticed that drummers don’t get seen, let alone remembered as much from the stage and that guitarists/front men definitely get noticed� Caffall said jokingly, “but the real reason is at the time it was easier to show up with a guitar and amp than a whole set of drums.�
Caffall started playing professionally when he was 17, playing in clubs in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he backed up a female singer Jeannie Lynn from Chicago. “She used to sing at a Holiday Inn somewhere outside Chicago. Then she moved to San Miguel and would sing at Mama Mia’s bar. She would sing five songs then go out into the audience and schmooze the crowd. Meanwhile I would stay up on stage and sing the rest of the set. After a couple of months of this the club owner gave me my own show.�
Spending half his time in Mexico and half in the United States, Caffall’s musical influences comes from Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Funk, Latin, Ranchero, Norteño, Reggae, Folk and Bluegrass.
He was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and has lived there permanently for the last nine years, forming his own band, The Craig Caffall Band, which has had several incarnations. And for the past five years Caffall has been the lead guitarist with Grammy nominated, award winning Blues singer Maria Muldaur (“Midnight at the Oasis�circ. 1974), touring extensively nationally and abroad in countries like Japan, Canada and Mexico. While Caffall has been with Muldaur he has played with or shared the stage with
Lori Lewis, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Wier, Linda Tillery, Holly Near, Tracy Nelson, Annie Sampson, Kita Bill, Austin De Lone, Norton Buffalo, Dan Hicks, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, J.D. Souther, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dave Mason, Dr. John, Blind Boys of Alabama, Taj Majal, Bobby “Blue� Bland, Devon Allman, Greg Allman and Friends, Buddy Guy, David Nictern and Lee Oskar to name a few.
In 2008 Caffall appeared on Muldaur’s Live in Concert CD/DVD package released through GRA Records featuring a live performance of “Midnight at the Oasis�.
GRA liked Caffall’s work so much on the Muldaur project that they signed him to a deal and released his CD “Hold Me Up� this year which Caffall will be out this summer promoting playing shows behind it.
“I have learned a lot more about music since I started playing with Maria and one of the things I love about her repertoire is her love of New Orleans music� comments Caffall admiringly. Before Caffall moved back to the Bay Area in 2001, he lived in New Orleans for five years working in bands and also making a living as a carpenter. “A musician has got to eat and buy strings for his guitar� quips Caffall half-jokingly about his construction capabilities.
In 1999 Caffall released his first CD “Roll On Big Sister� recorded entirely in the “world famous� French Quarter in New Orleans. “I had members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra playing on my album. I even tried recording oboe and electric guitar double solos on one track� remembers Caffall. “We brought in people off the street to help us with “crowd noise� on another track. The sessions were a lot of fun.� Fun is definitley what Caffall had while living and playing in New Orleans.
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