We've been playin' this rocky mountain, honky tonkin, bluesey, rockin style down at the local saloon

8 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Country-Rock, COUNTRY: Honky Tonk

Show all album songs: Horse Named Harley Songs


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Reccomendation from James Talley....

You never know where you are going to find a good song, or a good musician; but one thing is for certain, they are all not in Nashville , New York , or Los Angeles . There are thousands of great local musicians in cities all over America and the world. I was out in Washington State a few years ago and ran into Fred Crabtree, who lives in Idaho . We met that evening in their hotel room and swapped stories and songs for a couple of hours. Fredâs style comes from a long line of barrelhouse blues players like Day Ray or Spider John Koerner, and his songs in that genre are as well-crafted as any. What is most impressive is his spectacular harmonica playing â a difficult instrument to master if you play it well, as Fred Crabtree does. His style has been honed from years of playing with this band and that, until he found his own space. His recent CD, Horse Named Harley, shows off that space very well. If you like that genre of music, you will enjoy this CD. â James Talley, Nashville , September 26, 2007

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Fred Crabtree was born in West Virginia , but the American mountain ways and music have never left him. A self-taught guitarist and song-writer, Fred began playing at age 13 and added harmonica to his style after watching an old clip of Woody Guthrie. His first guitar teacher gave him his only five lessons and made him switch his grip from left to right, even though Fred is left-handed. This further influenced the development of his unique picking style. The eldest of five children in a middle class family, Fred moved 18 times before he graduated high school in Denver. This peripatetic lifestyle forced his instruments to be his best friends and owning a stereo was impossible. Therefore, his style became strictly his own through isolation and creative passion. At a time when most his peers were drowning themselves in Jefferson Airplane, Fred was trying to sell his original songs to local radio stations that played Arlo Guthrie and ignored the roots of American folklore music that began with his father, Woody. As Fredâs guitar technique improved, he earned a living by slipping in and out of bluegrass bands, country western groups, rock and roll bands, all the while continuing to write his own music. By the time he finally settled in the mountains of Idaho in the eighties, Fredâs music had a very distinctive sound which included the elements of all these music styles but refused to be defined by any of the recognized formulas. With his 1950 Gibson and his suitcase of harmonicas, Fred Crabtreeâs latest CD, Horse Named Harley perfects this unique style. You can call it Americana, saloon-swing, vintage hobo, but from beginning to end, itâs pure Crabtree.