Craig Carothers is an American singer-songwriter originally from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, who now lives in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. Carothers's "Little Hercules" was recorded for

Trisha Yearwood Patricia Lynn Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is an American singer, actress, author and television personality. She rose to fame with her 1991 debut single " She's in Love with the Boy," which became a number one hit on the ''Billboard'' c ...

's 1996 album '' Everybody Knows''. The record went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

Biography

Carothers grew up in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. His parents, both public school music teachers, introduced him to a wide range of music, including

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

, classical, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

. Carothers also cites a number of

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

, pop, and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

influences.Biography
from craigcarothers.com Early in his career, most of his performances were in the Pacific Northwest, playing primarily in his hometown of

. During those years he shared the stage with a range of notable acts, including

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, po ...

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

John Gorka John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement." Personal life Gorka was raised in the Colon ...

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has been awarded ...

Patty Larkin Patty Larkin (born June 19, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a founding member of Four Bitchin' Babes. Her music has been described as folk-urban pop music. Life and career Patty Lark ...

, Michael McDonald,

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray was the fir ...

, Richard Thompson, and David Wilcox. In 1995, Carothers began taking trips to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, and other Southern cities,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, and

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

. Some of his performances at Nashville's

Bluebird Café The Bluebird Café is a 90-seat music club in Nashville, Tennessee that opened in 1982. The club features acoustic music performed by both established singer-songwriters, and cover artists. The Bluebird receives over 70,000 visitors annually. T ...

were featured on the

Nashville Public Radio WPLN-FM (90.3 FM), is a National Public Radio-affiliated station in Nashville, Tennessee. Since June 2011, the station has employed exclusively a news and talk format; until then, the station carried at least some classical music. The station m ...

program '' Players and Poets''."WHAT'S HAPPENING :Folk music news & information", ''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing Out ...

'', 42:2, Fall 1997, p.10 Later that year, Country music artist,

recorded his song, "Little Hercules," leading to a

Gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

. A publishing deal followed, and over the next few years a number of other artists recorded songs written or co-written by Carothers, including: Berkley Hart,

Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that re ...

Kate Markowitz Catherine Judith "Kate" Markowitz (Born 28 April 1956) is an American singer-songwriter known as a backup singer who has recorded and performed with a number of singers, most notably James Taylor but also Willy DeVille, Shawn Colvin, Mylène Farm ...

Lorrie Morgan Loretta Lynn Morgan (born June 27, 1959) is an American country music singer and actress. She is the daughter of George Morgan, widow of Keith Whitley, and ex-wife of Jon Randall and Sammy Kershaw, all of whom are also country music singers. Mo ...

Peter, Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary was an American folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival phenomenon. The trio consisted of tenor Peter Yarrow, baritone Paul Stookey, and contralto Mary Travers. The group's repertoir ...

Sons of the Desert A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

, and

Andrea Zonn Andrea Elizabeth Zonn (born 1969) is a singer and fiddle player who grew up in Urbana, Illinois. She grew up in an environment surrounded by music. She sings, and plays classical violin, and is fluent in numerous other musical genres. Zonn first ...

, to name a few. In 2000, Carothers moved to

and has continued to tour more widely ever since. Other notable accomplishments include: * Writing songs for an indie film called The Californians, including the title track. * Being one of the winners of the Mountain Stage NewSong Festival in

Shepherdstown, West Virginia Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located in the lower Shenandoah Valley along the Potomac River. Home to Shepherd University, the town's population was 1,734 at the time of ...

in 2006. * Joining the faculty of the NSAI (

Nashville Songwriters Association International The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) is a 501(c) not-for-profit trade organization that works to help songwriters in three ways: through legislative advocacy, through education and advice about the actual craft of songwrit ...

) song camp.Bessman, Jim, "NSAI Holds Summer Camp for Songwriting Hopefuls", ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', 113:31, August 4, 2001, p.45 * Teaching at the Swannanoa Gathering in

Black Mountain, North Carolina Black Mountain is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,848 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town is named for the old train stop at the Black Mountain Depot ...

. * In 2012, Carothers became an adjunct professor at

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

Frost School of Music Frost School of Music is the music school at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. From 1926 to 2003, it was known as University of Miami School of Music. Academics and programs The University of Miami's Frost School of Music was on ...

. When not traveling to perform at dozens of shows each year, Carothers continues to write, produce, and teach. Carothers' latest studio album, Alpenglow, was released in late 2016, and features two songs co-written with

Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...

, "Alpenglow" and "Alma Mater."

Discography

* ''Haunted'' (1981, Nebula Circle) * ''Go 90'' (with Dan Brandt and Kip Richardson) (1984, Silent) * ''Greenhouse FX'' (Craig Carothers and The Nerve) (1990, Silent) * ''Home Remedy'' (1994, Silent) * ''The Craig Carothers Trio'' (featuring Gary Ogan and Tim Ellis) (1994, Silent) * ''Air Mail Blue'' (1996, Silent) * ''Acoustic Set'' ive(featuring Tim Ellis) (1998, Dwight Rabbit) * ''The Card'' (2002, Dwight Rabbit) * ''one revolution'' (2003, Dwight Rabbit) * ''Solo'' (2006, Dwight Rabbit) * ''Nothing Fancy'' (2008, Dwight Rabbit) * ''Inventory'' nthology(2009, Dwight Rabbit) * ''The Vagabond'' (2012, Dwight Rabbit) * ''2-FBYCR'' (with Don Henry) (2013, Dwight Rabbit) * ''Live at the Woodshed'' (with Steve Seskin and Don Henry) (2014, CHJS LTD) * ''Roadwork'' ive(2015, Dwight Rabbit) * ''Alpenglow'' (2016, Dwight Rabbit) * ''The Prequel'' (2017, Dwight Rabbit)

Songs Covered

A number of songs written or cowritten by Carothers have been recorded by other artists. A few examples are: * "BFD" – recorded by

, Berkley Hart, Don Henry * "I Can Count on You" (Craig Carothers, Angela Kaset) – recorded by

for '' Show Me How'' (2004) * "Invisible People" (Craig Carothers,

Gene Nelson Gene Nelson (born Leander Eugene Berg; March 24, 1920 – September 16, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, screenwriter, and director. Biography Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he and his family moved to Seattle when he wa ...

) – recorded by

for ''In These Times'' (2003) * "I Won't Let Go" – recorded by

for ''Map of the World'' (2003) * "Little Hercules" – recorded by

for '' Everybody Knows'' (1996) * "Welcome the Rain" – recorded by

for ''Love Goes On'' (2003) * "Whoop-De-Do" (Craig Carothers, Angela Kaset) – recorded by

for '' To Get to You: Greatest Hits Collection'' (2000)

References

External links

Craig Carothers – Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carothers, Craig American male singer-songwriters Musicians from Portland, Oregon People from Nashville, Tennessee Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Singer-songwriters from Oregon