From a dangerous house fire, to raising a child with disabilities, to a career-changing nod from a Hollywood movie star, singer/songwriter Craig Bickhardt’s life reads a little bit like a country song.

“My father, Harry, worked at WIP radio in Philadelphia and moonlighted as a big band musician. He gave me my first musical training on the alto sax when I was about 8 years old. He used to bring home LPs by Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton and Tom T. Hall for me to study, and that led to an early fascination with country music and story songs.”

“When I was 14, I found an old guitar in the attic and taught myself to play. As soon as I learned a few chords, I started writing songs. They weren’t very good, but I got hooked. Music has been a spiritual journey for me.. There’s a lot of self-discovery and pushing yourself to grow. You have to be willing to dig for the truth even when everything inside is telling you to just give up.””

By the time Craig graduated high school, he was a fixture in the local music scene, playing often at the prestigious Main Point with his band Wire & Wood. Craig says the Main Point provided a valuable education. “I was anything but an overnight success. I spent years just singing in bars and at frat parties, wherever I could get paid to play."

Craig spent a couple of years with the band performing around Hollywood, California, when suddenly a near disaster struck, “I almost lost my life in the house fire in LA. It made me appreciate the fact that stuff comes and goes, and we can’t get attached to anything. It also made me realize that my happiness didn’t depend on possessions or status, it was just my choice to be content or not. I suddenly felt free and very grateful to be alive.”

In 1982 he moved once again, this time to Nashville, Tennessee. “Nothing really clicked for me until I went to Nashville and got asked to write and sing the songs for Robert Duvall’s Academy Award winning film “Tender Mercies.”

He joined a hit country trio that included Thom Schuyler, Fred Knobloch and Paul Overstreet (SKO for short) when Overstreet left the group. The band, renamed SKB, went on to have three more hits from their critically acclaimed No Easy Horses CD.

“I started playing a lot at the Bluebird Café - we started this format where Thom, Don, Fred and I would sit in a circle in the center of the Bluebird and trade songs all night. We called ourselves ‘The Writers In The Round’. At that point it all just snowballed and suddenly people were recording my songs.”

Craig has also written songs that have been recorded by more than 150 artists worldwide including Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, B. B. King, Art Garfunkel, Martina McBride, Vince Gill, Anne Murray, Allison Krauss, and David Wilcox. He is the recipient of nine ASCAP Awards for his hits, which include the number one songs “In Between Dances, ”recorded by Pam Tillis; “It Must Be Love,” recorded by Ty Herndon; “Turn It Loose” and “I Know Where I’m Going,” recorded by The Judds. His songs have also been featured in the films “Switchback” and “At Close Range”, and in the TV Dramas “Huff”, “Wildfire” and “Hidden Palms.”

The birth of his twin children in 1988 raised some new challenges. “My son has Cerebral Palsy and Autism.” Craig explains, “Craig explains, “A big part of my life has centered around disabilities and the obstacles and prejudices FROM HMOs that accompany them." I don’t feel entitled to success or health or happiness because I see how incredibly fortunate I am to just have a normally functioning body. Before my son was born, I never thought much about disabilities. At first, there was a sense of mourning for the life he’d never have, but then, as he grew, I saw these wonderful ways he’d overcome problems and rise to challenges. It inspired me. For the past 20 years, his disability has changed how I think and feel and create music.”

He has just released a new CD called Brother To The Wind, choosing songs from his 800-tune catalog. Sitting in with him are people whom he believes are some of the best of his generation, Janis Ian, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Maura O'Connell, Rusty Young, Jack Sundrud and a host of others. "I’m very happy with the new CD. I’m humbled that so many talented people agreed to sing and play on it. At first, I thought maybe I’d be imposing on them, but the response was always very positive and enthusiastic. I’ve always enjoyed this kind of collaboration. It keeps music fresh for me.”

“I was told once that it’s hard to be in the right place at the right time, but you can get in the right place and wait. I’ve always tried to focus on being the best writer I could be. I tried to get in the right place. Then I was determined and patient. A lot of the secret to success is just not quitting. It isn’t luck exactly. It’s a combination of practice, determination and positioning yourself for a break. You might be brilliant, but if you can’t communicate and empathize, you won’t reach others.”

“You have to be willing to risk it all. Not necessarily financially or in some physically dangerous way, but you have to be all in for the experience. Whenever I feel some fear about the next step, I know I’m about to grow and be surprised by something.”

“I listen to songs as if they might be wise friends talking to me, telling me stories, little allegories from which I can learn something. If a song is just a gimmick or a way for some artist to get on the charts, I won’t like it. There are songs that have profoundly affected me just by being meaningful attempts at communication.”

“I’m passionate about writing in general, whether it’s songs or stories or poetry. I love language and the way words have texture and metaphorical uses. I love toying with it until it evokes a feeling or a realization, something I didn’t know I knew. It’s almost magic the way a collection of thoughts and a melody can move someone so deeply they keep coming back to the song again and again. A great song is like a well that never runs dry. I’m trying to reach inside the heart, soul and mind of another person and say, ‘look, we’re both the same down in here, isn’t life miraculous?’”