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For the past 35 years, Craig Woodward has worked as a performing musician starting his career at 18 when he was able to drive himself to gigs and was legally allowed to perform in licensed venues, his first outings were as a solo performer, performing America pre-war style ‘country blues’. His is well-known in Melbourne for his regular string band sessions where he fosters and mentors many young players of old-time, cajun and creole music. Having studied deeply himself he is a willing teacher and passer on of the traditions.

Craig started digging back to find the roots of contemporary music and found himself developing a strong passion for the early blues, leading him to the discovery of American ‘Southern’ traditional music styles, in particular Appalachian ‘Old-time’ and ‘Stringband’ music, and the French ‘Cajun’ and Creole music of Southwest Louisiana and East Texas.

His shift from the African American country blues to the music of the Southern Appalachians and the prairie and bayou of the deep South, lead him to transition from playing guitar exclusively to the study of 5-string banjo, fiddle, mandolin and the single row diatonic button accordion.

He has been a performing member of the Le Blanc Brothers Cajun Aces. His first professional Old-time ‘Stringband’ line-up Headbelly Buzzard started a weekly residency at the Rose Hotel in Fitzroy in the 90's, moving to Clifton Hill then a move to Friday nights at the Railway Hotel in Nth Fitzroy where the band continued to perform weekly with a band name change to Flying Engine Stringband continuing for nearly 20 years. Over this period the band recorded and released two studio and two live albums as Headbelly Buzzard following up with a more recent Flying Engine Stringband studio album in 2018. 

Craig has travelled to the USA on various occasions to research, perform, formally study and visit with traditional and professional musicians in the ‘Old-time’ and Cajun music genres.

Craig Woodward (VIC)