Craig Cummings

In February 2009, Craig released his first full-length recording, Road Trips and Relationships. Most of the songs on the CD were written between June 2007 and January 2008. The songs celebrate the beauty of interpersonal relationships and how meaningful relationships help us navigate the challenges of our everyday lives. The road trip songs cast the relationship dynamic against the back drop of the American experience and examine how relationships sustain us as we move from place to place – and as we alternate between feeling apart from, and a part of something special.Craig is joined on the CD by a terrific collection of musicians from the mid-Atlantic area. Bob Hume (guitar), John Walker (drums), and Bryan Smith (bass), all hail from northern Virginia and are fixtures in that area’s musical scene. Wall Matthews (guitar and keyboards) is one of Craig’s closest friends and an accomplished musician with credentials that include releasing 6 solo recordings. Dave Hadley (pedal steel) is a gifted musician who appears live with, and on the recordings of many area musicians. The CD was engineered by Nick Sjostrom at Clean Cuts Music in Baltimore. The recording was mastered by Bill McElroy at Slipped Disc Audio in Ashland, VA.Craig was born and raised in Baltimore. He grew up on the west side. Although he currently lives outside of the city limits, his love affair with all things Baltimore remains strong. He has, however, managed to shed some of his once distinctive Baltimore accent, and tries his best to limit his love affair with vowels and double negatives.Craig has been a part of the mid-Atlantic music scene for many years. His songs reflect the diversity of modern American music, blending influences from country, folk, rock and roll, and blues music. His distinctive voice, fascination with carefully written lyrics, and rhythmic guitar style were developed in the singer/songwriter-dominated 1970s and have been fine-tuned over many years of live performances. Craig calls his style "east coast Americana." In the same way that Gram Parsons tried to blend musical styles to create his cosmic American music, Craig's experiences playing rock, soul, country, r&b, and the blues, has resulted in a hybrid of Americana sounds unique to the east coast.Road Trips and Relationships is an indie release and is available on CD Baby, iTunes, and Napster. Links to these sites can be found on Craig’s website, http://www.craigcummingsmusic.comCopies of the CD are also on sale at Craig's iive performances.