Bob Crawford, long-time bassist with the Avett Brothers talks passionately with Mike Christian about his respect for and the significance of the recent inductees into the Folk Americana Hall of Fame. Bob also speaks to the importance of social and cultural activism particularly as it relates to his family’s experiences with significant health-related challenges.
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(00:03):
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian as we continue to showcase
Boston's Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fameat the Wang Theater and its inaugural class
of inductees. Our guest tonight isBob Crawford. Bob is a founding member
(00:25):
of the Avid Brothers, joining intwo thousand and one. He plays the
stand up and electric bass fiddle,and on rare occasions, the trumpet.
Bob is also a board member ofFarhoff. He's an avid reader of history
and received his master's degree in historyin twenty twenty. He's the host of
a new podcast series called Founding SunJohn Quinsey's America. In twenty sixteen,
(00:50):
Bob began a podcast titled The Roadto Now with Ben Sawyer. It features
interviews and stories about what Else history. He's received three Grammy nominations for his
work with the Avids. Prior tojoining the Avid Brothers, he worked as
a production assistant for television and film. He later became a music theory teacher
(01:11):
at Winthrop University in rock Hill,South Carolina, and as a little bit
of trivia, he released a soloalbum under the name New Jersey transient in
two thousand and six. There ain'tno man, yeah save me. There
ain't no man can it save me? No man, man man change shit.
My son is in There ain't nobodyhere who calls me in pain or
(01:38):
raise my fear calls. I gotonly love. We're here with a special
guest, Bob Crawford of the AvidBrothers. Bob, how you doing.
I'm doing great, Mike, It'sgreat to talk with you again. Yeah.
Likewise, so, Bob, youwere a founding member of the Avit
Brothers and you are on the FolkAmericana Roots Hall of Fame. So you,
(02:00):
you know, have gotten involved withthat organization, which is having its
first slate of inductees coming up thisweek, and so I thought, I
thought i'd just ask you a littlebit about, you know, what was
appealing to you about joining that boardand what your thoughts are about the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame, whichwe call FARHOF for short. Well,
(02:22):
the appeal when I was approached aboutit was both the necessity of the mission
of the organization. I think we'reat a time where it's really important to
preserve and to pull together all thisknowledge and experience of these incredible root musicians,
(02:46):
you know, the people whose shouldersthe Aver Brothers stand on, as
well as many other bands, andyou know, generations. We feel we're
in a generational shift. We justgot to say it. Bob Dylan's in
his eighties, MC Jagger's in hiseighties, all these Springsteen's in the seventies,
I mean, all these leading lightsof this uh, this generation of
(03:12):
of you think of it as arock generation, but you know, really
it came out of folk and thenin the blues. And so we we
we go from the the halland Wolfsand the Muddy Waters, from the Robert
Johnson's to the Holland Wolfs to theMuddy Waters, to the to the Woody
Guthries Lead Bellies to the Dylan's,to the Stones to the Springs. You
(03:38):
know, it's like, so we'reat this moment where it's one of these
generational shifts. Every so many decadeswe we encounter one of these, and
we need to seize this moment topreserve it for the next generation. You
know, you can't imagine a worldwhere we don't go see the Rolling Stones
aren't on tour every year, orSpringsteens on tour every year. You can't
(04:00):
imagine that world where Dylan's not outthere on his never ending tour like he's
been for decades. Can't imagine thatworld. But that world in twenty years,
that world will be gone. It'llbe gone, yep. And my
children never experience that, right theyget tastes of it right now, they
get a taste of it, butthey didn't experience the way it was when
(04:21):
I was growing up. When Iwas growing up, music was all encompassing
it. It was everything to meand to my friends. And as someone
who loves history, it's important thatwe now preserve that history. We mark
this moment, We honor these peoplewho deserve so much, on whose shoulders
(04:41):
we all stand upon, and werecord interviews with them, and we celebrate
their contributions, and we preserve themas best we can, so that you
know, in forty years, whenthe next when this comes around again and
the next shift happens, you knowwe're all sure and then we all stand
(05:02):
confident, so we all know wherewe came from. Yeah, no question.
And that foundation is so important.And you mentioned the learning aspect of
it, and that's that's a bigpart of the mission of Farhoff is the
education. Aspect of music is educationand looking at how music reflects our culture
and our history. And it wasn'tthat long ago that the Avitt Brothers were
(05:24):
the next generation of musicians. Twentyyears ago, twenty five years ago.
You're still you're still in that generation, but there's a whole new generation behind
you, there is. And it'slike you wake up one day, you
know, one day you're at thesefolk festivals as like that next generation.
The next day you wake up andyou're the old timer. Gotta be careful,
(05:45):
you know who's catching up to you. Man. I'll tell you what
that that it's I'm not competitive forsure. We're not competitive as a band.
And that gives you the opportunity tokind of revel in all the amazing
young talent you see around around you, the Sierra Ferrells and the Amasis and
you know, all these just greatyoung artists. We get the Lake Street
(06:10):
Dives, all these great great bandsthat we get to see and play with,
where we get to just celebrate thatit does continue on right, no,
no question. I look at aguy like Noah Khan, who you
know, maybe was playing not smallclubs, but not very big venues here
in the Boston Areio's got three nightssold out at Fenway Park this year.
Not amazing, Yeah, it isincredible. Would you have ever in vision
(06:32):
the success that the Avid Brothers haveattained over the last several years when you
first started. Oh no, Imean you can't. You can't. You
can't imagine it before it happens.In Wild's happening, You're just so swept
up in it, Wild's happening thatthat you you just find yourself in situations
(06:54):
where you're surrounded by your heroes,you know, and legends, and and
you're playing everywhere and people, you'retalking to people and they're excited about what
you're doing, and you're just kindof caught up in that in that moment.
And so, yeah, I thinkour success has been well paced.
Yeah, I think that's good.Not an overnight US, but you want
(07:15):
to grow sort of incrementally. Andyeah, we were told by our booking
agent in like two thousand and three, you want it to be a hot
air balloon ride, not a rocketship ride, exactly right, because the
rocket ship ride the rocket ships comeback down fast too, right. Yeah.
Yeah, So it was speaking ofstanding on the shoulders and seeing some
(07:36):
of your heroes when you were comingup as the Avid Brothers. I know
you've played with Willie Nelson, who'san inductee this year, but have you
played with in this and this firstinaugural class of the Varhoff and what were
those experiences like jure and bias.We haven't played with her, but I've
(07:56):
had the pleasure of interviewing her andresearching her prior to I always knew her
and then but researching her before Iinterviewed her, the scope of her life
of activism, the depth and how, you know, we ask ourselves.
I asked myself how there's protest musicand then there's activist artists. And you
(08:22):
know, how far can an artistreally go to evoke change in a society
around them? And I don't thinkyou achieve it just by playing a song.
I think a song can galvanize andit can be a rallying cry,
but a song doesn't make change.And I think an artist is often hamstrung
(08:48):
by preaching to acquire. You havea platform, you want to use it
sometimes depending on what the issue is. If it's a it can be a
polarizing issue, but a just issue, you're often you're doing your best,
but you're just preaching to the choir. Joan Bias is someone who who has
been able to by being kind ofboots on the ground in the muck of
(09:13):
activism. You know, she gother hands dirty and she transcended that.
As much of a beautiful, amazingmusical artist that she is, she is
someone who was able to achieve thatand connect with people like Thomas Martin in
her life. I would just encouragelisteners to do some studying on her,
do some reading up on her onher life as an activist. You mentioned,
(09:39):
of course, Willie Nelson, whowe've we've played with many nights that
one of the great joys of mytime with the AVI Brothers have been being
able to watch him from the sideof the stage on a nightly basis.
Over the past eight years we've we'vedone about ten shows a year with him,
joined him on stage for a fewsongs, songs great Joy, Bob
(10:01):
Dylan. We performed with it theGrammys in twenty ten. That was one
of those moments that you just can'tbelieve that is happening when it's happening,
being on the stage with him.He was so influential to us. His
songs were so influential to David Brothersin the earliest days. But there's someone
else you mentioned or that's being honored. I think of the whole list,
(10:24):
the greatest influence on us as aband in our earliest days was Ramble and
Jack Elliott. His music, hissongs. We played so many of his
songs, his versions of these songs. He was just this tremendous like our
repertoire was in the earliest years,those first years two thousand and one,
(10:46):
two thousand and three, our setlists were filled with his songs. So
we're always a big fan of Rambleand Jack Elliott. And he's quite a
personality too, if you've ever seenlive. I was fortunate to see him
at Newport one time with Pete Seeger, the two of them together, and
it was a memory that I'll alwayshave for sure. We were honored to
(11:09):
be able to meet a few timesand perform with Bonnie Rae, who is
I'm a real big fan of hers. She's amazing, incredible, and yeah,
it's quite it's quite a list.And you talked about Joan Bias and
her and her willingness to get herhands. Diurdy heard she's got a quote.
Action is the antidote to despair.I can't speak for the despair part,
(11:31):
but I certainly can for the actionpart because she was there. She
was there, she stood up.If you look at her, and I
know you have, you look ather, Bio, She's worked on virtually
every issue that's out there, Yeah, and put her heart and soul into
it, not just dabbled. Ifyou look at that list of artists,
more than half of them are maybenot as passionate about Joan and the and
(11:52):
the issues that she's gotten involved in, but they're beyond just the words and
the lyrics of their songs. They'vegotten involved in social change and cultural change
and all the issues that we've facedover the last fifty or sixty years.
And Mike, I think that's thegeneration they come from. I think they
came from and they were brought upin this the fermant of the sixties.
(12:15):
Yeah right, no question, andthat we don't have that's not that's not
going to happen again. Yeah,not in that way. Probably not in
that way, Probably exactly right,Bob. You know, speaking of action,
I just want to I don't wantto put you on the spot,
but I know your daughter, Hollyhas had a brain tumor and has had
some challenges from a health standpoint,spent a lot of time at Saint Jew's
(12:39):
Children's Research Hospital, and you've beena big promote promoter or you know,
person that has stepped up in termsof talking about that. And I had
the courage to talk about that becauseit's a challenging and hard thing to talk
about publicly for sure. But youalso are part of a nonprofit called press
On Fund. Maybe you can tellour listeners just a little bit about that.
(13:01):
Yes, So twenty eleven, mydaughter was first diagnosed with a brain
tumor. They're all high grade,they're all deadly, they're all rare.
So I could tell you what kindof it was and aut with it,
that's not the point. And wewere given no hope at our home hospital
here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and so we went to Saint Jude.
(13:22):
Saint Jude is the patron saint ofthe Hopeless Cause, and that's that's
what we followed, without knowing whatthey could really do for her. And
she has since had three brain tumors, and she she was twenty two months
old when she was first diagnosed andshe's she'll be fifteen in November, and
it has been a long journey witha lot of ups and downs. Every
(13:46):
four months we go back and shegets the scan and we check it and
she's doing great. At this moment, she's just doing amazing. And so
early on in that that journey withher, I will you know, this
started twenty eleven and I pretty muchleft the band for a year to be
with her as she went through chemoand then radiation. I would dip in,
(14:09):
I would come back and play someshows here and there, and one
year we went to Bonnaroo and Iflew in from the hospital to Bonnaroo.
And for an artist, it's notjust about going to play, it's about
going to do all the press.All the press comes to these festivals and
the bands go to the festivals,and it's a way of knocking out a
(14:31):
lot of a lot of media ina short period of time. So here
we are, we're at Bonnaru andI'm just I just arrived from the hospital
in North Carolina. At that time, we were in North Carolina, and
we're doing I'm thrown into being apart of these interviews, and one of
the questions were to us Me,Scott and Seth. It was about home
(14:54):
life and this and that, andthey're talking about life with little kids,
normal home life and this and that, and I didn't really say anything.
And then after it, I waslike, you know, my life is
nothing like this. This isn't mylife. My life is in a hospital
and my daughter may not live.Our family's life does not reflect a typical
(15:16):
family's life, nor does it reflectthe life of a parenting rock star.
You know, we can't deny thatthis is happening. We can't. We
need to be able to talk aboutthis. And so then I began like
just talking about it, and weas a group, you know, talk
because it affects the whole group.So you can't just like act like it's
not happening. You know, peoplehave to live their lives in the midst
(15:39):
of tragedy and suffering. But youknow, there's also something to acknowledging the
tragedy and suffering. And once Istarted to do that, we started to
get a lot of feedback from peoplewho were also, hey, guess what
other people are going through tragedy andsuffering, and that having me being able
to speak about my family and thedaughter. The struggles that we were having
(16:02):
with our daughter and her health allowedother people to reach out and say,
hey, we're going through this orI'm going through this. And now as
far as the activism part, youknow, you realize quick when you have
a daughter or a child with cancerthat the money isn't flowing to the children
with cancer. You know, veryfew drugs have been designed for children with
(16:23):
cancer. Specifically, what they dois they take the adult cancer drug and
they give a smaller dose, andchildren's bodies and brains and development is it's
different than adults. Everything's experimental forthese kids, and so we need to
get it to a place where it'snot experimental, to the place where we
understand the science behind some of thesediseases and we have the tools to treat
(16:47):
them. And so that you knowthat mindset at Saint Jude connected me with
a guy named Turner Simpkins, whoseson Brennan had an adult form of AML,
and so the Simpkins family, theyhad this organization, a fund that
they started with friends of theirs,the Chance family, who lost their son
(17:11):
Patrick Chance to neuroblastoma when he wasnine years old, and they asked us
the Crawfords to join them in somethingcalled the press On Fund, and so
it's not a foundation at this point. We may become a foundation, but
we are the press On Fund.And so what we do is we raise
money and unlike a lot of cancercharities, it's the we, the parents,
(17:37):
decide where the money goes. It'snot like we're raising money for a
big organization, and some of themare just amazing, like Saint Jude.
So for press On Fund, weget the money that's donated and then we
discuss what upcoming state of the artoutside the box thinking protocol deserves the attention
(18:00):
and the money. The fight forthe research dollars is important, is an
important part of the fight to curecancer. And so often parents feel very
powerless and so we have the pressOn Fund and and we have been able
to take back a little bit ofour power and control. And so we
(18:21):
have We've invested a lot of moneyinto neuro blastomaa neorblastoma research, a lot
of money into pediatric brain tumors,a lot of money into leukemia, and
we've seen we've seen a lot ofencouraging results from the studies that we've invested
in. The doctors that we workwith. Now we also we do have
a scientific advisory board, so we'renot completely uh flying blind in that respect.
(18:47):
Probably for a decade we've been partof that. And you talk about
band activism, well, of course, you know, I champion this uh
to our Avic community, and they'vepicked it up. They the Avit fans
put on a press On benefit everyyear before the New Year's Eve concert the
night before. They always do one. They usually do one or two throughout
(19:10):
the summer, and that's something thatthey completely just picked up on their own
and uh. And so rather thanthe artist, you know, being the
activist, the loving fan base hashas they've become the activist. And oftentimes,
you know, we're my wife andI are dealing with just carrying.
(19:33):
You know, our daughter's in awheelchair and she's got a lot of just
a lot of caregiving has to gointo to her. So our life is
really focused on that. And thenwe have a son who's twelve years old,
and so when I'm not on theroad, we're really running a household.
And so there's times when the Avitfans are doing things for press On
(19:56):
and we're not even a part ofit. And that I think is the
most beautiful thing. Bo thank youso much for sharing that story. It's
personal and it's emotional, and Iknow those are hard things to do,
but thank you. And that's athat's the best example I can think of
of you know, musicians and peoplejust stepping up and what you described for
the press on fund really really cantheoretically can create a lot more impact,
(20:19):
especially for those rare childhood diseases andcancers. Right yeah, you would be
uh like my daughter's brain, Tom, where there's hundreds in the world,
not thousands exactly. And the moneyand the money follows the you know,
big money follows big money, andthat's unfortunate. But thank you, thank
you very much for sharing that.Let me ask you, let me change
(20:41):
the topic here, ask you aboutone of your other passions there. It's
pretty well known to your fans now. And that's history. You got to
I know you've told me before fromsitting on the bus and spending all that
time, you know, as inthe formative years of the Avett Brothers,
you read a lot and you wenton and got a master's in history,
and now I have a few podcasts. Is on John Quincy Adams and what
(21:06):
else is coming up? Well,we have our Road to Now series that
we Bet me and doctor Ben Sawyerhave been doing since twenty sixteen, and
we just finished a series, aneight part series on third party campaigns and
also rans throughout history. So thatis great and we're we Are. You
(21:27):
can download the Road to Now theroaddot com. We're on all the all
the podcast platforms, so that continueson we Are. We're NonStop on that.
The research never stops. Well,John Quincy Adams, I think he's
you know, you wouldn't put himin your top ten of presidents of all
time. But it's a fascinating podcastseries and it's not just about John Quincy
(21:51):
Adams. It's about the whole erain our history. It often is overlooked
and forgotten. That's right, it'svery relevant. Time you did a special
on concerts of Change, I thinkis relevant to the topic of musicians getting
involved in social issues and change inthe world. Maybe just a brief comment
on that. Yeah, So that'show I got to speak with Joan Bias,
(22:11):
who was very kind to let mein an interviewer for that. But
that was this idea. It's asix part series like the Founding sun Is
and it's about the history of benefitconcerts or this era of benefit concerts from
(22:32):
the Concert for Bangladesh in nineteen seventyone. And then it ends with the
One Bono and his one campaign.And my argument throughout the six episodes is
that what George Harrison kind of stumblesinto and starts with Bangladesh, Bono fully
realizes with an MgO creating this NGO, this one NGO which works with the
(22:57):
Bush administration to pass PEPFAR, whichhas more money, and it's arguably one
of the most successful. It's oneof the most successful pieces of legislation.
I would argue in the last fiftyyears. What it has done has restructured
(23:19):
the medical world, the medical industryin Africa, and it has saved millions
of lives addressing the AIDS crisis inAfrica. But it's even gone beyond AIDS.
But through Bob Guildolf Bono does LiveAid, which is trying to feed
address the famine in Ethiopia in themid eighties. George Harrison trying to relieve
(23:45):
the suffering of those suffering famine inBangladesh. And you take it all the
way through to what Geldoff tried todo Live aid. Some say, oh,
it didn't really do anything, didn'treally help, but no it did
because it just created this practical activism, like it's one thing to be.
Like we talked about Joe and Biasgetting your hands dirty, Well, Bob
(24:07):
Guildolf Bono, they really truly gottheir hands dirty, and they really What
Bono learned that George Harrison could havenever just even conceived or been disciplined to
do was to go to DC andlearn how to become a lobbyist and learn
how to work the levers of powerand learn how to take the currency of
(24:32):
celebrity to make take that from thestage an MTV in the media world,
and how to really on a practicallevel, use it to unlock doors,
to tend Downing Street into the Ovaloffice. And that's how you make change.
The young generation today, the generationtoday that's you know in college.
(24:55):
They are the most entrepreneurial, themost intelligent, the most technologically advanced generation
we've ever seen in probably the historyof humanity. But they hate government.
It repulses them because why like,look, I don't blame them for feeling
this way, but I want themto understand that they need to get their
(25:17):
hands on the levers of power ifthey want to take their amazing ideas,
their amazing abilities. You know,this multicultural world they were raised in,
this accepting generation. We need themto also get into the government. We
need them in the government to actuallymake change. I mean, you just
(25:40):
described classic example of systems change,which is true change. You know,
it's not just feeding a group ofhungry people at a point in time,
but it's really looking at long termchange. And I think you've just taken
a full circle from the beginning ofthe talking about many of the musicians that
are being inducted into the Farhoff Hallof Fame first first class of inductees,
(26:03):
as you know, social change agentsand using their platform and often their lyrics,
but but it may be often alsotheir platform as well known musicians to
make change in the world. Andthat's part of the spirit of Farhoff and
the education associated with that, sothat the young people that you just referenced
Bob, you know, can actuallylearn about that and hopefully be inspired by
(26:26):
it. We've been talking to BobCrawford, who I was going to say
of the Avid Brothers, and heis of the Avid brothers, but he's
a lot more things than that.And Bob, thank you so much.
Thanks for your candor, and youknow, for your openness and being able
to really teach all of us somegood lessons. I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you, Mike.It's always a pleasure to sit in chat.
(26:47):
Well that's all for this week.I'm Mike Christian inviting you to join
us again next week on What's atRisk. Also check out our podcast at
Wbznewsradio dot iHeart dot com What's onyour mind? Send us your thoughts,
comments and questions to What's at Riskat gmail dot com. That's one word,
(27:10):
What's at Risk at gmail dot com. Thank you. A big thank
you to our producer, Ken Carberryof Chart Productions.
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian as we continue to showcase
Boston's Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fameat the Wang Theater and its inaugural class
of inductees. Our guest tonight isBob Crawford. Bob is a founding member
(00:25):
of the Avid Brothers, joining intwo thousand and one. He plays the
stand up and electric bass fiddle,and on rare occasions, the trumpet.
Bob is also a board member ofFarhoff. He's an avid reader of history
and received his master's degree in historyin twenty twenty. He's the host of
a new podcast series called Founding SunJohn Quinsey's America. In twenty sixteen,
(00:50):
Bob began a podcast titled The Roadto Now with Ben Sawyer. It features
interviews and stories about what Else history. He's received three Grammy nominations for his
work with the Avids. Prior tojoining the Avid Brothers, he worked as
a production assistant for television and film. He later became a music theory teacher
(01:11):
at Winthrop University in rock Hill,South Carolina, and as a little bit
of trivia, he released a soloalbum under the name New Jersey transient in
two thousand and six. There ain'tno man, yeah save me. There
ain't no man can it save me? No man, man man change shit.
My son is in There ain't nobodyhere who calls me in pain or
(01:38):
raise my fear calls. I gotonly love. We're here with a special
guest, Bob Crawford of the AvidBrothers. Bob, how you doing.
I'm doing great, Mike, It'sgreat to talk with you again. Yeah.
Likewise, so, Bob, youwere a founding member of the Avit
Brothers and you are on the FolkAmericana Roots Hall of Fame. So you,
(02:00):
you know, have gotten involved withthat organization, which is having its
first slate of inductees coming up thisweek, and so I thought, I
thought i'd just ask you a littlebit about, you know, what was
appealing to you about joining that boardand what your thoughts are about the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame, whichwe call FARHOF for short. Well,
(02:22):
the appeal when I was approached aboutit was both the necessity of the mission
of the organization. I think we'reat a time where it's really important to
preserve and to pull together all thisknowledge and experience of these incredible root musicians,
(02:46):
you know, the people whose shouldersthe Aver Brothers stand on, as
well as many other bands, andyou know, generations. We feel we're
in a generational shift. We justgot to say it. Bob Dylan's in
his eighties, MC Jagger's in hiseighties, all these Springsteen's in the seventies,
I mean, all these leading lightsof this uh, this generation of
(03:12):
of you think of it as arock generation, but you know, really
it came out of folk and thenin the blues. And so we we
we go from the the halland Wolfsand the Muddy Waters, from the Robert
Johnson's to the Holland Wolfs to theMuddy Waters, to the to the Woody
Guthries Lead Bellies to the Dylan's,to the Stones to the Springs. You
(03:38):
know, it's like, so we'reat this moment where it's one of these
generational shifts. Every so many decadeswe we encounter one of these, and
we need to seize this moment topreserve it for the next generation. You
know, you can't imagine a worldwhere we don't go see the Rolling Stones
aren't on tour every year, orSpringsteens on tour every year. You can't
(04:00):
imagine that world where Dylan's not outthere on his never ending tour like he's
been for decades. Can't imagine thatworld. But that world in twenty years,
that world will be gone. It'llbe gone, yep. And my
children never experience that, right theyget tastes of it right now, they
get a taste of it, butthey didn't experience the way it was when
(04:21):
I was growing up. When Iwas growing up, music was all encompassing
it. It was everything to meand to my friends. And as someone
who loves history, it's important thatwe now preserve that history. We mark
this moment, We honor these peoplewho deserve so much, on whose shoulders
(04:41):
we all stand upon, and werecord interviews with them, and we celebrate
their contributions, and we preserve themas best we can, so that you
know, in forty years, whenthe next when this comes around again and
the next shift happens, you knowwe're all sure and then we all stand
(05:02):
confident, so we all know wherewe came from. Yeah, no question.
And that foundation is so important.And you mentioned the learning aspect of
it, and that's that's a bigpart of the mission of Farhoff is the
education. Aspect of music is educationand looking at how music reflects our culture
and our history. And it wasn'tthat long ago that the Avitt Brothers were
(05:24):
the next generation of musicians. Twentyyears ago, twenty five years ago.
You're still you're still in that generation, but there's a whole new generation behind
you, there is. And it'slike you wake up one day, you
know, one day you're at thesefolk festivals as like that next generation.
The next day you wake up andyou're the old timer. Gotta be careful,
(05:45):
you know who's catching up to you. Man. I'll tell you what
that that it's I'm not competitive forsure. We're not competitive as a band.
And that gives you the opportunity tokind of revel in all the amazing
young talent you see around around you, the Sierra Ferrells and the Amasis and
you know, all these just greatyoung artists. We get the Lake Street
(06:10):
Dives, all these great great bandsthat we get to see and play with,
where we get to just celebrate thatit does continue on right, no,
no question. I look at aguy like Noah Khan, who you
know, maybe was playing not smallclubs, but not very big venues here
in the Boston Areio's got three nightssold out at Fenway Park this year.
Not amazing, Yeah, it isincredible. Would you have ever in vision
(06:32):
the success that the Avid Brothers haveattained over the last several years when you
first started. Oh no, Imean you can't. You can't. You
can't imagine it before it happens.In Wild's happening, You're just so swept
up in it, Wild's happening thatthat you you just find yourself in situations
(06:54):
where you're surrounded by your heroes,you know, and legends, and and
you're playing everywhere and people, you'retalking to people and they're excited about what
you're doing, and you're just kindof caught up in that in that moment.
And so, yeah, I thinkour success has been well paced.
Yeah, I think that's good.Not an overnight US, but you want
(07:15):
to grow sort of incrementally. Andyeah, we were told by our booking
agent in like two thousand and three, you want it to be a hot
air balloon ride, not a rocketship ride, exactly right, because the
rocket ship ride the rocket ships comeback down fast too, right. Yeah.
Yeah, So it was speaking ofstanding on the shoulders and seeing some
(07:36):
of your heroes when you were comingup as the Avid Brothers. I know
you've played with Willie Nelson, who'san inductee this year, but have you
played with in this and this firstinaugural class of the Varhoff and what were
those experiences like jure and bias.We haven't played with her, but I've
(07:56):
had the pleasure of interviewing her andresearching her prior to I always knew her
and then but researching her before Iinterviewed her, the scope of her life
of activism, the depth and how, you know, we ask ourselves.
I asked myself how there's protest musicand then there's activist artists. And you
(08:22):
know, how far can an artistreally go to evoke change in a society
around them? And I don't thinkyou achieve it just by playing a song.
I think a song can galvanize andit can be a rallying cry,
but a song doesn't make change.And I think an artist is often hamstrung
(08:48):
by preaching to acquire. You havea platform, you want to use it
sometimes depending on what the issue is. If it's a it can be a
polarizing issue, but a just issue, you're often you're doing your best,
but you're just preaching to the choir. Joan Bias is someone who who has
been able to by being kind ofboots on the ground in the muck of
(09:13):
activism. You know, she gother hands dirty and she transcended that.
As much of a beautiful, amazingmusical artist that she is, she is
someone who was able to achieve thatand connect with people like Thomas Martin in
her life. I would just encouragelisteners to do some studying on her,
do some reading up on her onher life as an activist. You mentioned,
(09:39):
of course, Willie Nelson, whowe've we've played with many nights that
one of the great joys of mytime with the AVI Brothers have been being
able to watch him from the sideof the stage on a nightly basis.
Over the past eight years we've we'vedone about ten shows a year with him,
joined him on stage for a fewsongs, songs great Joy, Bob
(10:01):
Dylan. We performed with it theGrammys in twenty ten. That was one
of those moments that you just can'tbelieve that is happening when it's happening,
being on the stage with him.He was so influential to us. His
songs were so influential to David Brothersin the earliest days. But there's someone
else you mentioned or that's being honored. I think of the whole list,
(10:24):
the greatest influence on us as aband in our earliest days was Ramble and
Jack Elliott. His music, hissongs. We played so many of his
songs, his versions of these songs. He was just this tremendous like our
repertoire was in the earliest years,those first years two thousand and one,
(10:46):
two thousand and three, our setlists were filled with his songs. So
we're always a big fan of Rambleand Jack Elliott. And he's quite a
personality too, if you've ever seenlive. I was fortunate to see him
at Newport one time with Pete Seeger, the two of them together, and
it was a memory that I'll alwayshave for sure. We were honored to
(11:09):
be able to meet a few timesand perform with Bonnie Rae, who is
I'm a real big fan of hers. She's amazing, incredible, and yeah,
it's quite it's quite a list.And you talked about Joan Bias and
her and her willingness to get herhands. Diurdy heard she's got a quote.
Action is the antidote to despair.I can't speak for the despair part,
(11:31):
but I certainly can for the actionpart because she was there. She
was there, she stood up.If you look at her, and I
know you have, you look ather, Bio, She's worked on virtually
every issue that's out there, Yeah, and put her heart and soul into
it, not just dabbled. Ifyou look at that list of artists,
more than half of them are maybenot as passionate about Joan and the and
(11:52):
the issues that she's gotten involved in, but they're beyond just the words and
the lyrics of their songs. They'vegotten involved in social change and cultural change
and all the issues that we've facedover the last fifty or sixty years.
And Mike, I think that's thegeneration they come from. I think they
came from and they were brought upin this the fermant of the sixties.
(12:15):
Yeah right, no question, andthat we don't have that's not that's not
going to happen again. Yeah,not in that way. Probably not in
that way, Probably exactly right,Bob. You know, speaking of action,
I just want to I don't wantto put you on the spot,
but I know your daughter, Hollyhas had a brain tumor and has had
some challenges from a health standpoint,spent a lot of time at Saint Jew's
(12:39):
Children's Research Hospital, and you've beena big promote promoter or you know,
person that has stepped up in termsof talking about that. And I had
the courage to talk about that becauseit's a challenging and hard thing to talk
about publicly for sure. But youalso are part of a nonprofit called press
On Fund. Maybe you can tellour listeners just a little bit about that.
(13:01):
Yes, So twenty eleven, mydaughter was first diagnosed with a brain
tumor. They're all high grade,they're all deadly, they're all rare.
So I could tell you what kindof it was and aut with it,
that's not the point. And wewere given no hope at our home hospital
here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and so we went to Saint Jude.
(13:22):
Saint Jude is the patron saint ofthe Hopeless Cause, and that's that's
what we followed, without knowing whatthey could really do for her. And
she has since had three brain tumors, and she she was twenty two months
old when she was first diagnosed andshe's she'll be fifteen in November, and
it has been a long journey witha lot of ups and downs. Every
(13:46):
four months we go back and shegets the scan and we check it and
she's doing great. At this moment, she's just doing amazing. And so
early on in that that journey withher, I will you know, this
started twenty eleven and I pretty muchleft the band for a year to be
with her as she went through chemoand then radiation. I would dip in,
(14:09):
I would come back and play someshows here and there, and one
year we went to Bonnaroo and Iflew in from the hospital to Bonnaroo.
And for an artist, it's notjust about going to play, it's about
going to do all the press.All the press comes to these festivals and
the bands go to the festivals,and it's a way of knocking out a
(14:31):
lot of a lot of media ina short period of time. So here
we are, we're at Bonnaru andI'm just I just arrived from the hospital
in North Carolina. At that time, we were in North Carolina, and
we're doing I'm thrown into being apart of these interviews, and one of
the questions were to us Me,Scott and Seth. It was about home
(14:54):
life and this and that, andthey're talking about life with little kids,
normal home life and this and that, and I didn't really say anything.
And then after it, I waslike, you know, my life is
nothing like this. This isn't mylife. My life is in a hospital
and my daughter may not live.Our family's life does not reflect a typical
(15:16):
family's life, nor does it reflectthe life of a parenting rock star.
You know, we can't deny thatthis is happening. We can't. We
need to be able to talk aboutthis. And so then I began like
just talking about it, and weas a group, you know, talk
because it affects the whole group.So you can't just like act like it's
not happening. You know, peoplehave to live their lives in the midst
(15:39):
of tragedy and suffering. But youknow, there's also something to acknowledging the
tragedy and suffering. And once Istarted to do that, we started to
get a lot of feedback from peoplewho were also, hey, guess what
other people are going through tragedy andsuffering, and that having me being able
to speak about my family and thedaughter. The struggles that we were having
(16:02):
with our daughter and her health allowedother people to reach out and say,
hey, we're going through this orI'm going through this. And now as
far as the activism part, youknow, you realize quick when you have
a daughter or a child with cancerthat the money isn't flowing to the children
with cancer. You know, veryfew drugs have been designed for children with
(16:23):
cancer. Specifically, what they dois they take the adult cancer drug and
they give a smaller dose, andchildren's bodies and brains and development is it's
different than adults. Everything's experimental forthese kids, and so we need to
get it to a place where it'snot experimental, to the place where we
understand the science behind some of thesediseases and we have the tools to treat
(16:47):
them. And so that you knowthat mindset at Saint Jude connected me with
a guy named Turner Simpkins, whoseson Brennan had an adult form of AML,
and so the Simpkins family, theyhad this organization, a fund that
they started with friends of theirs,the Chance family, who lost their son
(17:11):
Patrick Chance to neuroblastoma when he wasnine years old, and they asked us
the Crawfords to join them in somethingcalled the press On Fund, and so
it's not a foundation at this point. We may become a foundation, but
we are the press On Fund.And so what we do is we raise
money and unlike a lot of cancercharities, it's the we, the parents,
(17:37):
decide where the money goes. It'snot like we're raising money for a
big organization, and some of themare just amazing, like Saint Jude.
So for press On Fund, weget the money that's donated and then we
discuss what upcoming state of the artoutside the box thinking protocol deserves the attention
(18:00):
and the money. The fight forthe research dollars is important, is an
important part of the fight to curecancer. And so often parents feel very
powerless and so we have the pressOn Fund and and we have been able
to take back a little bit ofour power and control. And so we
(18:21):
have We've invested a lot of moneyinto neuro blastomaa neorblastoma research, a lot
of money into pediatric brain tumors,a lot of money into leukemia, and
we've seen we've seen a lot ofencouraging results from the studies that we've invested
in. The doctors that we workwith. Now we also we do have
a scientific advisory board, so we'renot completely uh flying blind in that respect.
(18:47):
Probably for a decade we've been partof that. And you talk about
band activism, well, of course, you know, I champion this uh
to our Avic community, and they'vepicked it up. They the Avit fans
put on a press On benefit everyyear before the New Year's Eve concert the
night before. They always do one. They usually do one or two throughout
(19:10):
the summer, and that's something thatthey completely just picked up on their own
and uh. And so rather thanthe artist, you know, being the
activist, the loving fan base hashas they've become the activist. And oftentimes,
you know, we're my wife andI are dealing with just carrying.
(19:33):
You know, our daughter's in awheelchair and she's got a lot of just
a lot of caregiving has to gointo to her. So our life is
really focused on that. And thenwe have a son who's twelve years old,
and so when I'm not on theroad, we're really running a household.
And so there's times when the Avitfans are doing things for press On
(19:56):
and we're not even a part ofit. And that I think is the
most beautiful thing. Bo thank youso much for sharing that story. It's
personal and it's emotional, and Iknow those are hard things to do,
but thank you. And that's athat's the best example I can think of
of you know, musicians and peoplejust stepping up and what you described for
the press on fund really really cantheoretically can create a lot more impact,
(20:19):
especially for those rare childhood diseases andcancers. Right yeah, you would be
uh like my daughter's brain, Tom, where there's hundreds in the world,
not thousands exactly. And the moneyand the money follows the you know,
big money follows big money, andthat's unfortunate. But thank you, thank
you very much for sharing that.Let me ask you, let me change
(20:41):
the topic here, ask you aboutone of your other passions there. It's
pretty well known to your fans now. And that's history. You got to
I know you've told me before fromsitting on the bus and spending all that
time, you know, as inthe formative years of the Avett Brothers,
you read a lot and you wenton and got a master's in history,
and now I have a few podcasts. Is on John Quincy Adams and what
(21:06):
else is coming up? Well,we have our Road to Now series that
we Bet me and doctor Ben Sawyerhave been doing since twenty sixteen, and
we just finished a series, aneight part series on third party campaigns and
also rans throughout history. So thatis great and we're we Are. You
(21:27):
can download the Road to Now theroaddot com. We're on all the all
the podcast platforms, so that continueson we Are. We're NonStop on that.
The research never stops. Well,John Quincy Adams, I think he's
you know, you wouldn't put himin your top ten of presidents of all
time. But it's a fascinating podcastseries and it's not just about John Quincy
(21:51):
Adams. It's about the whole erain our history. It often is overlooked
and forgotten. That's right, it'svery relevant. Time you did a special
on concerts of Change, I thinkis relevant to the topic of musicians getting
involved in social issues and change inthe world. Maybe just a brief comment
on that. Yeah, So that'show I got to speak with Joan Bias,
(22:11):
who was very kind to let mein an interviewer for that. But
that was this idea. It's asix part series like the Founding sun Is
and it's about the history of benefitconcerts or this era of benefit concerts from
(22:32):
the Concert for Bangladesh in nineteen seventyone. And then it ends with the
One Bono and his one campaign.And my argument throughout the six episodes is
that what George Harrison kind of stumblesinto and starts with Bangladesh, Bono fully
realizes with an MgO creating this NGO, this one NGO which works with the
(22:57):
Bush administration to pass PEPFAR, whichhas more money, and it's arguably one
of the most successful. It's oneof the most successful pieces of legislation.
I would argue in the last fiftyyears. What it has done has restructured
(23:19):
the medical world, the medical industryin Africa, and it has saved millions
of lives addressing the AIDS crisis inAfrica. But it's even gone beyond AIDS.
But through Bob Guildolf Bono does LiveAid, which is trying to feed
address the famine in Ethiopia in themid eighties. George Harrison trying to relieve
(23:45):
the suffering of those suffering famine inBangladesh. And you take it all the
way through to what Geldoff tried todo Live aid. Some say, oh,
it didn't really do anything, didn'treally help, but no it did
because it just created this practical activism, like it's one thing to be.
Like we talked about Joe and Biasgetting your hands dirty, Well, Bob
(24:07):
Guildolf Bono, they really truly gottheir hands dirty, and they really What
Bono learned that George Harrison could havenever just even conceived or been disciplined to
do was to go to DC andlearn how to become a lobbyist and learn
how to work the levers of powerand learn how to take the currency of
(24:32):
celebrity to make take that from thestage an MTV in the media world,
and how to really on a practicallevel, use it to unlock doors,
to tend Downing Street into the Ovaloffice. And that's how you make change.
The young generation today, the generationtoday that's you know in college.
(24:55):
They are the most entrepreneurial, themost intelligent, the most technologically advanced generation
we've ever seen in probably the historyof humanity. But they hate government.
It repulses them because why like,look, I don't blame them for feeling
this way, but I want themto understand that they need to get their
(25:17):
hands on the levers of power ifthey want to take their amazing ideas,
their amazing abilities. You know,this multicultural world they were raised in,
this accepting generation. We need themto also get into the government. We
need them in the government to actuallymake change. I mean, you just
(25:40):
described classic example of systems change,which is true change. You know,
it's not just feeding a group ofhungry people at a point in time,
but it's really looking at long termchange. And I think you've just taken
a full circle from the beginning ofthe talking about many of the musicians that
are being inducted into the Farhoff Hallof Fame first first class of inductees,
(26:03):
as you know, social change agentsand using their platform and often their lyrics,
but but it may be often alsotheir platform as well known musicians to
make change in the world. Andthat's part of the spirit of Farhoff and
the education associated with that, sothat the young people that you just referenced
Bob, you know, can actuallylearn about that and hopefully be inspired by
(26:26):
it. We've been talking to BobCrawford, who I was going to say
of the Avid Brothers, and heis of the Avid brothers, but he's
a lot more things than that.And Bob, thank you so much.
Thanks for your candor, and youknow, for your openness and being able
to really teach all of us somegood lessons. I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you, Mike.It's always a pleasure to sit in chat.
(26:47):
Well that's all for this week.I'm Mike Christian inviting you to join
us again next week on What's atRisk. Also check out our podcast at
Wbznewsradio dot iHeart dot com What's onyour mind? Send us your thoughts,
comments and questions to What's at Riskat gmail dot com. That's one word,
(27:10):
What's at Risk at gmail dot com. Thank you. A big thank
you to our producer, Ken Carberryof Chart Productions.
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