Country & Folk Musician Daniel Cravens talks about his new single “Play Cowboy”
Who are you?
“I’m Daniel Cravens, and I’m a musician. I grew up in a small church in the east mountains of Albuquerque, little town called Cedar Crest. I’ve spent most of my life there. My pops’ side of the family has been in New Mexico a long time and my mother is from the midwest.”
“I had a lot of country music and cowboy influence growing up that I hated until I was about 15. I’d watch country music videos because they were the only thing to watch once MTV was over every morning. Even though I wasn’t into it I noticed the attractive people and the quality of the videos, and that the songs were well recorded.”
“It seemed like a lot of girls were into Country. Especially in my community Country was everywhere. It was familiar. The air around us was Country and old Folk songs. My dad would play Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, and James Taylor. My parents didn’t like The Beatles. I didn’t hear anything like that until high school.”
“My parents played in the church band and when I was old enough I started playing the bass alongside them. The church was a half mile away and I’d walk there, that’s when I started playing in front of people. I had been taking guitar lessons since I was really young and I had lots of friends who played too. Back then I was such a bad student and I never did my homework. I would fake it on stage and play the only song I knew.”
What do you do now?
“Throughout Covid I’ve helped the church mix live sound. I was also a bartender and a caretaker for a couple young men with disabilities.”
“In 2017 Connor Morrison and I started our band The Meanderings. I wrote a couple original songs to start with and I hit up friends to see if they wanted to be in a band. My stuff was so folky I think it scared some people away. Connor was willing to lean into that. Songwriting is hard and sometimes they come out softer and more precious than I want. Finding someone else who was willing to lean into a style that wasn’t ‘cool’ was huge for me. If you’re a 24 year old kid playing tender folk tunes there are a lot of venues that won’t take you seriously.”
“We played at Ale Republic (now Rumor Brewing) and that changed things for us. After that we gained a little traction.”
What’s been your most fulfilling moment?
“I don’t know man. They have all been baby steps. But the biggest was getting into Rio Grande Studios and recording our album ‘Downtown Days.’ It took us four years to get there and some lucky connections. We worked with Kenny Riley and he didn’t mind how precious we were. He helped us find our own weird style. That’s when it felt like we actually were musicians.”
“Connor and I made our first album “Entering Cedar Crest” in his spare room and we worked on it for two years. It felt like forever. We would listen to tracks and go back and change them and just beat them death. When we got in with Ken we would do one take of a song and it would sound great. We were able to produce a lot really fast when we dropped the perfectionism. ‘Downtown Days’ was awesome.”
Tell us about a challenge you’ve faced.
“I faked an illness so that I didn’t have to go to high school. I wasn’t much of a liar before that, but high school was a hard time. I was a terrible student. I ended up moving to Australia and I had a few good teachers there and a fresh start. I began to realize how disingenuous I was, and I wanted to change that.”
“After the dust settled I told my family and friends that I had lied to them for years about my illness. Everyone was forgiving and accepting. If anyone’s reading this who knew me back then, I owe you an apology. Coming clean on that was a pivotal point in learning who I was. I think being honest is an important part of making music, at least the kind of music I want to hear. I hear pop songs that are riddled with lies and people love them. The stuff I like, you got to be real and I wasn’t real in those years. I’m trying harder to be now.”
How do you cope with nerves?
He laughed.
“Having played a lot of shows, I’ve learned the best thing is hydration. I’ve definitely had too many drinks and not played well. Having one drink before you go up helps but if you overdo it you’ll sweat on stage. With shows around here you often have to set up on your own. You’ll sound check and then get right on stage. Good hydration will help you more than you realize, then afterward you can have yourself a shot. I like tequila!”
Who inspires you?
“Tom Petty, John Prine, Chris Thile from Punch Brothers, my bandmate Connor Morrison. Those are the big four. Also Ben Folds. Maybe don’t include that one”
He smiles bashfully.
“I just love his music. He’s irreverent and he’s expanded the horizons of what you can write a song about. “
What would you want to remind yourself in 10 years?
“Oh wow... “
He puts his glasses on and casts his eyes out the window.
“I’ve spent the last decade of my life kinda just doing the same things. If you feel stuck you have to do something different. So in 10 years I want to remind myself to keep turning the page. If you’re going to write an autobiography you don’t want it to say: ‘These 20 years I’ve been doing the same thing… the end.’”
In the spirit of turning the page, what’s something new you’d like to try?
“I wish I could play proper Bluegrass. I consider myself a decent guitar player but I can’t play those Bluegrass rippers. It would be cool to play like Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers or Tony Rice. He was a great Bluegrass picker.”
What’s on the horizon?
“The other half of The Meanderings lives up north in San Jose now so it’s harder for us to work together. I’ve been working with a cello player and that’s been great. I’m also learning to play a better solo show.”
“We’ve been working with Joey Stackpole on music videos and songwriting with Levi Lobo and Sam Barrett. I’m releasing a single on May 6 which is so exciting! It already seems so far in the rearview mirror because I finished these songs last year and am only just now releasing them. They dip really aggressively into the Folk/Country vibe of ABQ’s east mountains.”
Tell us more about your single.
“First here’s a shout out to Kendra Werner (IG @outofthewoodstraining) for doing such a great job with the album artwork!”
“I wrote “Play Cowboy” about working on my great aunt and uncle’s sheep ranch in eastern New Mexico. It’s a very old heritage kind of place. Helping my old man with his vineyard also influenced it. It’s about getting a job done. Sometimes you got long days but it’s a part of being a cowboy, not that I am. It’s called ‘Play Cowboy’ because I got to play cowboy for a day.”
“I also titled the song out of respect for real cowboys in an ironic way. There are folks that come through New Mexico that made a lot of money somewhere else. They buy ranches and put 50 head of cattle and have other people manage it for them. By their approximation they are ‘cowboys.’ But they only experience the fun part of ranching. Real cowboys got it rough.”
“It’s scary to put this song out. It’s not your indie rock that everyone likes, but if you’re ever out past Tijeras headed east on I-40, this song will hit right. That’s the kind of air it belongs in. I don’t know if it will hold much of a candle in the city. Hell, it might!”
Stream his single “Play Cowboy.” Check out Daniel and Connor’s band The Meanderings as well as Daniel’s instagram @dannycravens
Edited by Sonya Burke