San Francisco-based guitarist and revivalist of early 20th Century jazz, pop, and folk material. Born in 1967, Craig Ventresco grew up in Maine, which he left to live in New York City for a short time before heading to San Francisco in the late 1980s (according to the liner notes of Bo Grumpus – Volume Three). He established himself as a guitarist specializing in older styles of American popular music, playing on the street every day for tips during his early years in San Francisco. While doing so, he caught the ear of filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, who commissioned Ventresco to provide much of the soundtrack to the 1995 documentary film “Crumb” (a film about cartoonist Robert Crumb, with whom Zwigoff performed in Robert Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders).
Ventresco’s 14 solo guitar performances of ragtime songs and blues pieces on the Crumb: Original Soundtrack were effectively his first solo album (though that release also includes a few performances by pianist David Boeddinghaus and 1930s singer Geechie Wiley). In 2000, he released another collection of solo guitar recordings, The Past Is Yet To Come. Both collections feature Ventresco playing solo guitar instrumentals. Also during the 1990s, Ventresco led the Bo Grumpus ragtime trio, with which he recorded five albums. In addition to playing guitar, Ventresco sang lead vocals on several pieces recorded by the group.
Since 2003, Ventresco has self-published his own albums, either under his own name or as half of a duo with his musical and life partner Meredith Axelrod. He has also recorded and performed live with the San Francisco-based acoustic swing group Gaucho, and has appeared as a backing musician on releases by Janet Klein, Barbara Rosene, and others.
Ventresco specializes in playing popular music that was written during the ragtime era (circa 1890-1915) and in ragtime-influenced fingerstyle blues. In addition to guitar, he plays mandolin, ukulele, and other instruments on occasion. He is self–taught and spends much of his time playing and collecting sheet music and recordings from the ragtime era. Of his own recorded work, he says “I don’t save recordings of my own playing because I hear myself enough, but I suppose that I have recorded over 30 of them, both solo and with other musicians.”