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Craig Benelli Ever since the day he sneaked into his older brother's room to listen to his 8 track tapes of Billy Joel's The Stranger, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life and Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, Craig has been an avid fan of rock and pop music. He picked up the guitar at the age of ten and began studying at an after school program called "Music on the Move." It was there that he learned how to play folk songs and eventually became good enough to play in the children's church band at St. Paul's School, the address, 365 Kings Highway. (Do you see a pattern here?)  Throughout high school, college and the years that followed, Craig continued to study with such guitar players as Russ Defilippis, who worked with George Benson on the Tenderly record, and Rob Mathes, who achieved notoriety with his arrangements for Pavarotti, Elton John and Celine Dion. It was Rob's Christmas music that would later inspire Craig to write his own Christmas songs.
In the late 90's, Craig utilized his talents on the guitar by becoming a sideman for many New York singer/songwriters including Steve Tannen, Kyler and Edie Carey. He even performed with Edie Carey on Ed McMahon's Next Big Star which aired in January 2002 on the PAX network.
When it's not Christmas, Craig continues to perform and record as a guitar player with many artists and in August 2003, completed a European tour with the country/rock band, The Ranchhands. Discography Craig appears on numerous independently released CDs including:
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It was also during this period that Craig returned to his church of St. Paul's to perform at their Christmas Eve Service. With a band composed of some of his closest friends, Craig performed his own compositions, as well as his arrangements of traditional Christmas songs. In February of 2000 Craig contacted a good friend and producer, Frank Di Minno, about producing a Christmas record. Knowing full well that the financial reward from such a project would be minimal, Frank still felt that it was something he could not pass up. The two rewrote some of Craig's older songs and collaborated on some newer ones. All of which made it on to their release, 