Two decades after getting his start on the local music scene, Greg Craft is still strumming his guitar, playing solo gigs in area restaurants.
Now after much painstaking work, and personal financial investment, Craft’s country music CD “Just Running Around” is on sale. He started out just hoping to sell a few CDs here and there at his local shows. It has evolved into much, much more.
Craft wants to make a difference in the lives of children who are fighting cancer. All of the proceeds from the CD’s physical sales for the month of October will be donated to the Cure Childhood Cancer foundation, Craft said.
Craft got the idea by chance when in a local recording studio. As he waited, another area artist was wrapping up a track especially made for one particular cancer victim whose photo was propped up on the console. It turned out that it was the girl was the daughter of that artist, Ryan Burton, and the story of her battling cancer for about six months at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta touched Craft.
The song for a girl named Callie, called “Sometimes You Got to Fight” is available on iTunes, Craft noted.
The CD is selling for $10 and is available at the Olde Courthouse Tavern in downtown Fayetteville and at Ted’s Montana Grill in Peachtree City. Craft also is offering to hand-deliver copies to anyone who purchases in October to make the deadline for the Cure Childhood Cancer foundation, and he may be reached at greg@gregcraftmusic.com or by going to www.gregcraft.com and selecting the option for “contact.”
The CD can also be purchased at the website, Craft said.
“Just Running Around,” the title track written and performed by Craft, is about a husband whose wife “runs around town” doing errands while managing to spend time with other people. The husband is left to wonder what “he” looks like.
All but one of the other songs center on a male character and relationships, two of which were also authored by Craft: “All Mine” and “Good Times.” The “other” song will be recognized as a Christian tune performed by Third Day: “Thief” which is about his character finding his faith via the song in which one of the thieves hanging on the cross next to Jesus asks the Son of God to remember him, Craft said.
With music professionally recorded by Nashville studio artists, the CD also highlights Craft’s deep, rich voice and a country style that is almost a throwback to “old school” country as opposed to the more glitzy and slick country artists on the Nashville scene today.
Craft got his start in the early 90s with a band called Southernbred that included area musicians Randy Watkins, Kenny Carnes, Jim Allen and Tim Greer. Their first gig was in what is now the “north” Kroger in Fayetteville, playing on wooden pallets covered by a red astroturf-like carpet.
The CD has been a chance for Craft to revisit tracks he recorded in Nashville about 20 years ago, as he was unsatisfied with the results. Now he’s happy with the final product.
“I just hope people like the music,” Craft said.
A long-time Fayetteville resident, Craft has since moved across the county line but he still works here, and he still plays his music here too. He started guitar lessons in East Point as a youth spending afterschool time with his grandmother, and his interest in music took off from there.
If you pick up a copy of the CD, you should note the first three tracks were those authored by Craft and the first person he thanks on the CD liner note is “the Lord up above for everything” followed immediately by his wife Gini for her encouragement and support along with his family, friends and fans who “always seem to show up when and where I’m playing; it’s a great feeling to see you guys in the crowd.”
It should also be said that each of those three songs is about someone in Craft’s life, and he has personally informed each of those people, but he will leave it a guessing game as to whom he is singing about.
The CD has been a labor of love for Craft, who has spent 10 months ushering it to completion. Craft calls music his hobby, but listening to “Just Running Around,” one could make the argument that music is his calling.
He is already working on writing a song for his next album. He is fed not just by his love for music, but by positive feedback from fans.
“I’ve had people come up and say ‘I really like your sound,” Craft said, adding that he also enjoys “just seeing people enjoy themselves while I’m playing.”
“I’m not always exactly perfect, but if you can portray some feeling and some emotion in what you’re doing, people can relate to it,” Craft said. “Like I’ve said before, words tell the story; music lets you feel it.”
