Craig Cardiff (born 9 July 1976) is a Canadian folk singer from Waterloo, Ontario who lives in Arnprior, Ontario. He has released sixteen albums, both live and studio-based, since 1997. He has toured North America and Europe. In 2012, Cardiff was nominated for a Juno Award in the category of "Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo" and for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the category of "Contemporary Singer of the Year".
Biography
Early life
Craig Cardiff was born July, 1976 to Judy and Charles Cardiff. He grew up with his younger sisters Catherine, Susan and Elizabeth in Waterloo, Ontario, where both his parents were school teachers.Richard Carson, 'Craig Cardiff - CD Release' as featured in Hugh's Room, January 2011, (accessed, 27 December 2014) Music was important during his upbringing and he was motivated by his parents to play an instrument."Arnprior at the Junos" Arnprior Chronicle-Guide 29 March 2012 His parents bought him his first guitar, a Gibson J-30, when he was 15, while one of his high school teachers, taught him the guitar during his lunch hour.Vrbanac, Bob "Singing it out loud" Waterloo Chronicle 17 December 2013 Cardiff began to perform at coffeehouses and with some bands in high school. While studying at the University of Waterloo, he performed at local pubs, open mic events, and coffeehouses. He also worked as a booking agent, organizing shows at Fed Hall, including The Guess Who. Cardiff moved to the Ottawa area from Waterloo when he was in his twenties. He lived in Wakefield for a few years before buying an old farmhouse in Arnprior, which now also serves as a home recording studio.Saxberg, Lynn "Craig Cardiff: Floods, fires, and a high school choir" Ottawa Citizen 6 March 2012
1997-2010s In September 1997, Cardiff debuted with the album Judy Garland (You're Never Home) which included Deanna Knight, Tom Murray, Danny Michel, Joel Stouffer, Paul Mathew and Catherine Cardiff.Listing of the Judy Gardland (You're Never Home) album on Bandcamp.com, (accessed 27 December 2014). It was re-released in August 2006.Listing of the Judy Garland (You're Never Home) album on allmusic.com, (accessed 27 December 2014). Cardiff released his album Goodnight (Go Home) in 2007. In 2007, View Magazine stated that while Cardiff "...maintains a dedicated fan base", he "...is more a secret than a household name, despite his songs revealing the craft of one of the best in the business". View Magazine stated in 2007 that he was "playing bigger rooms, touring more and receiving more critical acclaim" after his 11th release, Good Night (Go Home)."Shapiro, Shane "Craig Cardiff" View Magazine 18 October 2007 The magazine called Goodnight (Go Home) "arguably Cardiff's most accomplished release to date."
He released Floods & Fires in November 2011. The album earned a Juno Award nomination as Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo, as well as a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination as Contemporary Singer of the Year. The album was in the SoundScan Top 10 for a week, and Exclaim! magazine called it "a major breakthrough."Schneider, Jason "Craig Cardiff Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Parts 1 & 2" Exclaim 18 November 2013 When Cardiff released his latest album, Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2, in November 2013, Exclaim! magazine stated: "With a catalogue now well into double digits and a national fan base that is surely the envy of his singer-songwriter peers, Ottawa's Craig Cardiff has been the model of how to be a successful independent Canadian musician. However, with his new double album, Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Parts 1 & 2, he seems better poised than ever to break into the mainstream, having recorded with a full band for the first time."Schneider, Jason "Craig Cardiff Explains 'Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise)'" Exclaim 22 November 2013 When Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2 was released, it reached as high as No. 8 on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts and for a time was the only independent Canadian album in the Top 20."Singer Craig Cardiff appeals to the lost to hang on" Ottawa Life Magazine 13 January 2014
Recording Cardiff has offered at least one new release almost every year, and his catalogue includes live albums, studio albums, collaborations with other artists and tributes to songwriters he admires. Over the years, he has experimented with various recording styles and distribution platforms for his albums – one release, Mistletoe (Kissing Songs), was recorded entirely on an iPod Touch.
Upstream Fishing All The Words, He Is: Birthday Cards For Bob Dylan On 24 May 2018, Craig Cardiff released his first tribute cover album. The project included five Bob Dylan cover songs, selected for their influence on Cardiff's own music style.
Reflecting on Bob Dylan's influence, Cardiff says "I had the same relationship with Bob Dylan's songs that I think everyone does with a favourite artist – I tried to crack the code about what he was writing about, while sitting in the middle of their tangle and ache and joy. All his words were perfect, and he had all of them. AND it bothered my parents – "He Can't Sing!" they said, dismissively, the same way they did when they saw me spending money on Cokes, the Dickie Dee ice cream trucks, Mad Magazines, or heaven forbid, Cracked. Wasted money!"
Cardiff's goal for the project was to inject his own musical style into some of the songs that influenced him the most, keeping the production and arrangement of each song simple with limited instrumentation. The cover album's single, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", reached over a half million streams on Spotify within the first month of the album's release.
The album was recorded in his home recording studio in Arnprior, ON in collaboration with Jeff Watkins, Jesse Harding, and Thom Rados.
Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2 On 19 November 2013, Cardiff released his first double album, Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2. It includes boisterous group "sing-alongs", and gentle lullabies, and full live band recordings, as well as more subdued, acoustic settings. Cardiff stated that in his first work with producers Ben Leggett and Andre Wahl, they encouraged him to not repeat his previous work and to make use of his producers to push him creatively. While Cardiff was nervous, he worked with the pair to explore full live band settings, "loud or... hard" arrangements, and exploring the "acoustic" of his songs, with cello, clarinet and violin arrangements used for different songs.Roberts, Sierra "The Cadre Chats With: Craig Cardiff" The Cadre 1 November 2013 While making the album, Leggett and Wahl challenged Cardiff to step outside his "comfort zone" and record with a full band for the first time.
Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) has 21 tracks, with some songs getting both loud and gentle treatments to give the song "two faces," explains Cardiff. Cardiff, Leggett and Wahl approached the two sides of the album in two very different ways. For Part 1, they recorded at Chalet Studios, which has previously hosted acts such as Rush and Barenaked Ladies, and Leggett and Wahl coached Cardiff through the process of recording with a backing band, very different from his solo singer-songwriter experience.Cooke, Stephen "Now Hear This: Cardiff gives Maritimes a sneak preview" The Chronicle Herald 30 October 2013 Cardiff called the live band recordings "very uncomfortable" yet very exciting", particularly noting his work with members of Lindi Ortega's band and piano player and singer-songwriter Mike Evin for Part 1.
In Part 2, Cardiff, Leggett and Wahl revisited many of the same songs as Part 1 with strings and wind instrument arrangements. For "There's a song" and "Boy Inside the Boat", Wahl suggested an R&B approach; while Cardiff initially did not like this treatment, in the end Cardiff called these two songs the "...most beautiful standout songs". Cardiff took on new roles for Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2, such as arranging cello parts and, for the first time, helping with the album's production.Cooper, Claire "Craig Cardiff" BeatRoute Alberta 4 November 2013
Floods & Fires
While critics called Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2 different than anything Cardiff has released before, the team behind it is familiar. Ben Leggett (Faraway Neighbours, Ben Hermann) and Andre Wahl (Hawksley Workman, Luke Doucet) also produced Floods & Fires, the album that earned Cardiff a nomination for a 2012 Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination as 2012 Contemporary Singer of the Year. He called the recordings a "phenomenal experience", and says he gave himself "...permission to explore songs" with "anything from beat boxing to full horn sections."Hinks, Aaron "Indie artist Craig Cardiff plays the Nordic Centre" Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune 10 November 2011
For Floods & Fires, Cardiff and Leggett spent 18 months working in Cardiff's home studio in Arnprior. This was the longest period of time Cardiff spent on any of his releases, which are often recorded live or "off the floor" in the studio."Juno-nominated Cardiff visiting Joe's" Comox Valley Record 8 November 2012 For this album, Leggett re-jigged Cardiff's home studio, co-wrote some of the material and even moved into Cardiff's house to get the job done. "I warned him there would be a lot of scope creep with this album because I had an idea how big I wanted it to be, and I wanted to spend a lot of time," says Cardiff. "I didn't want to set parameters ... I wanted to feel confident that the songs are fully realized." Floods & Fires represents a new approach to recording for Cardiff.
"A lot of my albums have been done off the cuff," Cardiff explains. For this album, he took the time and made accepting challenges part of the process and made sure he would not have any regrets after the process. Floods & Fires is considered an ambitious album, as it features a horn section, bowed strings, electronic instrument programming and guest performers, including a high school choir. Cardiff has explained that the title (Floods & Fires) alludes to Biblical plagues which bring both destruction and opportunity. The album's 14 tracks examine "love and love's leaving, celebrate parenthood and... explore the balance between heartbreak and joy." Cardiff says the songs were "...crafted during a difficult period of my life," says Cardiff. "When hard things happened, I kept reminding myself to choose joy instead of choosing to be afraid and closing up. That's what I kept coming back to – fear rents the cheapest room in the house. I didn't want to live like that anymore."
Goodnight (Go Home) When Cardiff released his album Goodnight (Go Home) in 2007, media took notice of the fact that he wasn't selling plastic-wrapped, jewel-cased editions of the album during his tour. Instead, he asked fans to bring along USB keys to buy a digital download of the album, although he did sell "old-fashioned CDs" and jewel cases for an additional fee.Sheffield, Meghan "Cardiff goes green with technology" The Journal 9 October 2007 "The green focus for us is just in reducing the amount of plastic we were using in CDs," says Cardiff, who offered album inserts and art to fans who purchased digital music for their USB so they would still have a physical connection to the album. The Ottawa Citizen stated that the song "When People Go" had, "unwittingly, become Craig Cardiff's Closing Time.""Singing about life's last call" Ottawa Citizen 29 November 2007