Whitaker returns to roots with album, performance
WILDWOOD — There once was a man with a guitar and a dream. He also had a wife, some kids, a day job and plenty of responsibilities to see to. Still, he’d come into this world singing, and had started writing songs relatively quickly after that, so the urge to make music wouldn’t be stilled.
“I’ve been playing music my whole life,” Craig Whitaker said from his home up in Haddonfield. “My parents love to tell the story that I knew the words to ‘New York, New York’ before I could talk. I’ve always been singing songs, telling stories that everyone could relate to. Coming from South Jersey, where hair metal was king, I was attracted to the largeness, the showmanship, but not so much the lyrics. Then I saw Garth Brooks when he did that Live in Central Park show, and it just… that showmanship, but with such heartfelt music? I was drawn to that combination.”
He started writing and didn’t stop, performing wherever country music was welcome, for years.
Then came that day that everyone hears about: the big break. Whitaker recorded an EP, planned a tour to support it and prepared to change his life. The year was 2019 …
The COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 humbled a lot of people, but it was especially rough for performers, like your average musician. For a musician on the brink of a breakthrough? Heartbreak and irony.
How many people could understand that sort of build-up ending in a crushing let-down? How can one begin to describe grieving lost chances and what might have been? Perhaps quite a few people understood; and perhaps a few venue owners, like the five friends that started a new brewery in 2017 and were just about over the roughest times when suddenly they had to shut down.
That brewery was King’s Road Brewery, at their location right on King’s Highway in formerly dry Haddonfield. As the world opened up again, slowly and with new eyes, one of the owners at King’s Road happened to hear Whitaker playing a gig at his own tasting room, and mentioned it to his friend.
That friend was Jim Riley, drummer for Rascal Flatts and the man voted the Best Drummer in country music — by other drummers. He also produces music, teaches, writes books and in general is a good friend to have in a tough business. He wasted no time. Whitaker and Riley recorded a single in 2022, but Whitaker was conflicted.
“I’m a dad with a real job, so I never got to do it as a full-time thing. But Jim said I should write a new album, give it one more shot.” He sighs. “I had a talk with my wife.”
‘Where We Grew Up’
On April 10, Whitaker released “Where We Grew Up,” an album he describes as “a love letter to South Jersey.” One song in particular is devoted to memories of Wildwood, where he spent his childhood. The second single, “Better than I Remember,” is both a love song to his wife and a thank you to the shore town where he was partly raised.
“My family came to America in 1922. They settled on 26th Street in Wildwood,” he said, noting he spent summers with cousins and the entire extended brood at their grandparents’ home, “in a house about six blocks from the stage I’ll be performing on.”
That stage is the main stage at Barefoot Country Music Festival, and that feeling of whiplash is par for the course in this story of second chances and close-knit communities.
The Barefoot Country Music festival, which Rascal Flatts headlined last year (the lineup also featured Jason Aldean and Boys II Men), is a four-day music fest that will be taking over Wildwood from June 18-21. This is the seventh year of the event, and Whitaker will be sharing the stages with Post Malone, Shamboozey, Miranda Lambert and The Fray (among many others).
Whitaker even has a little surprise in store for those attending, which he’ll announce from the stage June 20.
“You can hint about it, but don’t say anything yet! It’s gotta be a surprise,” he said during a phone interview, laughing.
This is a man who has plenty of surprises up his sleeve, including his own special beer. To celebrate the release of the album they helped make possible, King’s Road Brewery asked Whitaker to help them create the perfect beer to encapsulate that special summer nostalgia he sings about in “Better than I Remember,” the kind that would summon childhood memories of the boards and the beach.
The result is a lemon lager they’re calling Blue Claw Beer — it’s even in the song, so one could buy a pint while singing the song in which the pint is mentioned.
King’s Road decided that South Jersey deserves great original music in the venues people most associate with summertime relaxation, so they threw their backs (and more importantly, their beer) into this summer tour.
With Blue Claw as his calling card, Whitaker will be touring all summer: first in venues well-known all over southern New Jersey, and then maybe further afield, chasing that dream he’s had his eye on for years.
“I’ve been talking to a manager since November last year. Well, she asked for a new album,” said Whitaker, who just released an album. “I sent it out about seven days ago,” he said of his even newer album to-be.
He’s been writing songs since he was a child and seemingly has no idea how impressive that sounds.
“We’ll finish up the summer tour, and then? We’ll start working on the new record.”
It seems like a lot is happening for the man who said his entire music career was over in 2020.
“It’s funny, I was talking to my friends (and bandmates) last year and I said ‘once we turn the faucet on, we can’t control the flow.’ You just gotta accept it; life has other plans. But now, it’s just … I feel very blessed.”
Check out Craig Whitaker at Barefoot Country Music festival on June 20 (that’s if you can still get tickets), at venues all around Wildwood this summer (check craigwhitakermusic.com for dates) and at King’s Road Brewing Co. in its historic Medford location.
By VICTORIA RECTOR/For the Star and Wave
