Shawn Craver

Shawn Craver is a traditional Appalachian fiddler who began playing a banjo he made from a coffee can as a kid in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and Western Maryland.
Shawn Craver performs old-time music music across the country, from The North Texas Irish Festival and more recently The Kansas State Fiddle Championships. Shawn Craver is the leading exponent of the traditional fiddling of the Potomac and Laurel Highlands of the Mid-Atlantic Appalachian region where his familial roots go back centuries.

Early Years

Through his teens he played various stringed instruments including the electric guitar, mandolin, and finally the fiddle. Although interested in traditional music, he pursued songwriting and was involved in various bands playing what was called “college rock”. At the same time, he spent hours with his grandmother, Ireta Skipper, learning traditional music. Her father and his twin brother were both fiddlers born in the late 1800s and she would hum the tunes to Shawn. The Skipper Family () was and is known for stringed instrument music in the region.

Fiddling Influences in the Potomac Highlands

After high school, Shawn moved west and began to realize the uniqueness of Appalachian music, and found he knew quite a bit of it without putting much thought into it. He realized that his jamming buddies in the rock scene didn’t know the traditional tunes that Shawn “thought everyone knew.” After travels in California, Branson (Missouri), and South Dakota, he immersed himself in the music of his region. In the 90s, Shawn made treks back to the mountains and learned from Western Maryland and West Virginia fiddlers like Grover Broadwater, Larry Rush, J.C. Hollis, Patrick Skipper, and younger champion fiddlers like Phillip Birkby. While living in the Mid-Atlantic region, Shawn won a few contests numerous times including Maryland State Banjo and Mid-Atlantic Mandolin.

Composer and Session Musician

In the 1990s, Shawn Craver's compositions were recorded by the budding “young bluegrass” movement and he became known as a versatile multi-instrumentalist. A fiddle tune he wrote called “Angelfire” was recorded on the debut album of The Barbed Wire Cutters, a Washington state band that SPIN Magazine called the “pioneers of the young bluegrass revolt.” Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Shawn played guitar in various bluegrass ensembles including recording guitar with pioneering melodic clawhammer banjoist Dick Kimmel on "Fishing Creek Blues" for Copper Creek Records of Virginia.

A Dedication to the Fiddle

The fiddle remained in the closet until 2000 when he picked it up again and played it with more conviction and authority. At the death of his grandmother and a traumatic life event that left him at a difficult crossroads, Shawn says "I poured my soul into the fiddle."