D.C. Crowe
So . . . who is this guy? Well, he grew up in a family of musicians.
His Father was a musician . . .
His Grandfather was a musician . . .
Seven cousins are musicians, two uncles on his fathers side were musicians.
OK, fine . . . but does that make HIM a musician?
Yeah. It does.
That grandfather saw in him, at an early age, a fondness for music. So for D.C.'s 8th birthday, a guitar was gifted. And thus begins the story. Thru grammar school, you could find him with a guitar in his hands, playing at friends houses and parties. Performing in the cold and snow of New Jersey winters with house-to-house Christmas carolers. Summertime picnics and cookouts with friends and family.
At 10 years old he was watching the Vietnam War on the evening news. He was in his early teens when then-President Nixon pulled the troops out. By his mid-teens, he witnessed the Fall of Saigon. He grew up with the music of Bob Dylan, John Prine, Crosby Stills and Nash, Buffalo Springfield, and the like. His high school years brought artists like John Denver, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and more onto his radar.
Enlisting in 1978 before his 18th birthday (yeah, his parents had to sign for him) he went into the Navy when most others his age were turning their backs on the military because the wounds from Vietnam were still raw . . . but D.C. is a first-born son of immigrant parents who escaped the communism of Yugoslavia, and his family always supported serving what they knew was the greatest country on the planet.
It was during his Navy tenure where he found other musicians aboard ship, his skills and tastes grew, he fell in love with Outlaw Country and Americana music. Music with meaning, music that wasn't popular on FM radio, that shaped his outlook on life.
Unfortunately, performing live music fell off the radar for a very long time . . . life has a way of setting priorities for you, where work, a spouse, and a family needs to be provided for. Playing just by himself, for himself, is how he filled his time when time was available.
But he never lost the love and passion for playing.
Which brings him to a point in his life now where he can re-direct, and get back to his first true passion of performing live music. Bringing people laughter, tears, and everything in-between. There's a steadiness to the way he tells a story, and a dry, unimpressed sense of humor that comes from having genuinely seen worse than a rowdy Friday night crowd. He's lived a life that gave him the Joy of Heaven, the Pain of Hell, and left him with the scars.
D.C. Crowe plays songs that mean something. Funny ones. Poignant ones. The kind that make a bar go quiet when they don't expect it, and loud when they do. He's been around long enough to have something worth saying, and he says it without apologies.
He is not trying to be something he isn't. That's the whole point.