Friday Sept 18
David Kraai and Saddle Tramps
at Town Pump Tavern
8:30pm
" The seventies: country rock, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco, Neil Young, New Riders of the Purple Sage and especially the influential Gram Parsons. If you like the things that have just been mentioned, there is a very good chance that you will fall for David Kraai and his Saddle Tramps because, as no other, this man knows how to call on the atmosphere of the heyday of country rock. " - Rootstime E-magazine, January 2008David Kraai and Saddle Tramps
at Town Pump Tavern
8:30pm
David Kraai (pronounced cry) was born in New York City and raised Upstate in the ever present shadow of the Woodstock music scene. Growing
up listening to many diverse styles of music, David eventually attended and graduated from Binghamton University before returning to live in the city of his birth. There he played music constantly and eventually began traveling the country, visiting everywhere; making brief stops to live in Texas, Oklahoma and Los Angeles.In 2001, David returned to Upstate New York and began work on a new batch of songs that would examine and express what he witnessed from America. David’s first outlet for these was as a member of the highly traditional country group The Old States.
In May 2004, David Kraai released his debut solo album, A Denim Fall. The concept: no frills, just pure examination of the human condition and foundations of songwriting. The album of mellow, Sunday morning, jeans and t-shirt songs and spare, golden, countrified folk music immediately made Kraai a fixture in the New York folk scene. Regularly playing such notable venues as CBGB’s and The Sidewalk Café, invitations soon came for Kraai to pay homage to his predecessors and play at tribute festivals for Gram Parsons, Gene Clark and “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow out in California. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the world caught on and songs off A Denim Fall would begin being played in films and on radio stations as far away as Belgium; one track would even be selected for inclusion on Neil Young’s Living With War Today website as the number 2 protest song of the times.
It wasn’t long before David would hit the studio once again; equipped with some new instrumental skills (banjo, dulcimer, harmonica and mandolin) and a tight group of musicians.
Joined by Jon Stern (of ska/funk legends Perfect Thyroid) on bass, Chris Ragucci on drums, Sean Powell on electric guitar and Marty Hodulick on pedal steel, David Kraai & The Saddle Tramps spent over a year recording their follow-up album, 2007’s high & lonesome. Showcasing the band’s ability to dole out both traditional and progressive, acoustic and electric, laid-back and upbeat, country and rock, it would earn them not only consistently solid reviews but slots on television and radio, headlining stages at festivals and be named the 79th album of the year by WNCW.
Now, with a whole slew of instruments that need to played, songs (old and new) that need to be sung and people that need direct and emotional music to heals their souls, David Kraai & The Saddle Tramps continue traveling down the never-ending road that is life.
www.myspace.com/davidkraaihttp
www.myspace.com/townpumptavernllc
