Remembering Craig

Craig Johnson
1953-2009

No rack can torture me,
My soul's at liberty.
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one

- Emily Dickinson

When Craig first heard us play at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda, MD, he said that we were the band he wanted to play with. Little did he know that he was exactly the one we wanted to play with, too. He gave us a distinctly new voice that has left an indelible mark on Old Time music.

For over 30 years we shared much more than our music. Craig's son Alec once said that we "drank too much beer and laughed at things that weren't funny". He was mostly right except for the times when we didn't drink enough beer and when things were really funny.

Now that the little black train has left the station we hope that wherever it is going the passengers don't mind the music coming from one of the seats because, as Craig's daughter Sally wrote in a poem for her dad, "I stay happy because the song still plays."

Craig's only solo CD, "Away down the Road," is available on 5-String Productions