About Me
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 had witnessed from America. David’s first outlet for these was as a member of the highly traditional country group The Old States. With their singular sound, The Old States quickly became Upstate favorites and Kraai gained attention as the main songwriter and force behind this group’s high lonesome sound. However, The Old States’ days were numbered and, determined, Kraai went into the studio to capture on tape the songs he had put so much time and effort into crafting.
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 the foundation 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 one of the top 10 protest songs of the times.
The subsequent years of touring saw Kraai playing onstage with legends like Pete Seeger, Bill Keith (of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys) and John Simon (producer of The Band and Janis Joplin), as well as future legends like Tim Easton, and sharing bills with the likes of Victoria Williams, Dar Williams and members of The Flying Burrito Brothers and moe. 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 who individually had already shared stages with Bruce Springsteen, Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), Little Feat, The B-52’s, Third Eye Blind, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Fugees and members of The Band.
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 land them not only consistently solid reviews but slots on television, radio and headlining stages at festivals. In support of the album, David would find himself booked as part of a national tour honoring late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in Florida performing at yet another Gram Parsons tribute, playing with legendary drummer N.D. Smart II (of Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris’ Fallen Angels, Mountain, Great Speckled Bird and The Remains) and interviewed on Amsterdam radio by poet, activist and counterculture impresario John Sinclair.
Now, with a whole slew of instruments that need to be played, songs (old and new) that need to be sung and people that need direct and emotional music to heal their souls, David Kraai & The Saddle Tramps continue traveling down the never-ending road that is life.
