Just as the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center has deep roots in Sheridan, many performers who have graced the stage come back time and again to entertain and find community. Community favorites like the Glenn Miller Orchestra, San Diego Ballet, Bar J Wranglers and more welcome the audiences of the Sheridan area, who always support the arts and celebrate talent.
A local family remains among those favorites.
The Craft Brothers – Mitch, Dave and JT - have been performing together for decades, but they really solidified their place in the hearts of local music fans in the summer of 1995. That year, the trio helped fill the WYO’s summer programming by putting together a variety show that they performed five nights a week.
By the end of the summer, their fans had come to know and love the Three Toos and the Carhartt Brothers. The banter and “wild and woolly” fun mixed with cowboy tunes and three-part harmonies became ingrained in the arts scene of Sheridan County.
The Craft Brothers are more than musicians, though, they are performers and entertainers skilled at drawing laughs and tugging on heart strings.
As the original brothers have worked and performed in the community since that summer, they’ve celebrated weddings and babies, their kids chasing each other backstage, dancing in the crowds and practicing their own musical skills.
In honor of that legacy, the Craft Brothers will celebrate 30 years on stage at the WYO on June 7 and 8. While the show won’t mirror the Wild and Woolly Shows of the past, it will celebrate the decades of entertainment provided by the Craft family in Sheridan.
The brothers, a little more bald, have gotten better as they’ve played together as a family and integrated the next generation of musicians.
Twenty-five-year-old Will Craft studied at the University of Alabama and now lives in Birmingham. Henry Craft, who is now 19, studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. James Craft, 14, and Emmett Craft, 13, have continued to grow as musicians, practicing with their dads, uncles and cousins every chance they get.
The mix of styles from each artist blend into something that highlights each individual’s strengths while celebrating the unity and power of combined voices and instruments.
While the Craft family of musicians and performers are now spread across the continent, this reunion and anniversary show reminds us all of the power of family, collaboration, connection and the joy in coming home.
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