The Stranger once called John Craigie “the lovechild of John Prine and Mitch Hedberg with a vagabond troubadour edge,” which is the kind of framing that sounds like an act until you actually sit through a Craigie set. The comedy is real, and so is the folk, and the trick is that he uses one to move the other past your defenses. By the time a verse lands somewhere genuinely tender, you are already too far gone to protect yourself from it.
About the Show
Craigie plays Caffe Lena on Tuesday, September 15, touring behind I Swam Here, his 10th studio LP, released February 6 on Zabriskie Point Records. The album came out of two sessions in very different places: New Orleans, where Sam Doores of The Deslondes assembled a band that included drummer Howe Pearson, bassist Max Bien Khan, and pedal steel guitarist Jonny Campos of the Lost Bayou Ramblers; and Astoria, Oregon, where the Rope Room sessions came together under engineer Bart Budwig. Longtime collaborator Anna Moss appears on nearly every track. Glide Magazine described the result as a record that “blends the spirit of New Orleans with the stillness of the Pacific Northwest”—two climates that pull against each other productively. The lead single, “Fire Season,” is available on streaming platforms.
His 2024 collaboration Pagan Church with TK & The Holy Know-Nothings spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Albums chart. Rolling Stone has praised Craigie’s “easygoing banter, observational humor, and quirky songs,” and over more than a decade of touring he has built a reputation for music that holds up in a quiet room without the cover of production. He has played Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon, the Edmonton Folk Festival, and High Sierra. No support act is listed for the Saratoga Springs date.
Venue & Logistics
Caffe Lena, at 47 Phila St. in Saratoga Springs, is a room that has long understood what acoustic music asks of a listening space—which is mostly quiet, attention, and an audience that shows up for the songs. The folk club’s sustained commitment to exactly the singer-songwriter tradition Craigie works in makes this feel less like a booking and more like alignment. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; the show runs from 6 to 8 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $54.22 general admission and $48.80 for Caffe Lena members, fees included. The venue prohibits above-face-value ticket reselling; purchases found in violation may be canceled without refund. Buy tickets