Photo by Ed Rode
Craig Havighurst is a writer, multi-media producer and speaker in Nashville who has won awards for his work in print, radio and television. Since early 2017 he’s been staff music news producer at WMOT Roots Radio 89.5, an NPR affiliate dedicated to Americana and the Nashville music scene. There he reports on artists and trends and produces the weekly interview and magazine show The String. He’s co-host and producer of The Old Fashioned, a weekly bluegrass and old-time radio hour.
Craig has been a regular contributor for WPLN in Nashville and National Public Radio. He is the author of Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City, which was published in the fall of 2007 by the University of Illinois Press. He's contributed to the Encyclopedia of Country Music, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. And he completed production of three documentary films for permanent exhibition at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC.
Between 2000 and 2004, Havighurst was a staff writer covering music and the music business for The Tennessean. For his feature writing there, he was the recipient of the 2004 Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. As a freelance writer, Havighurst has contributed to The Oxford American, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Country Music Magazine, and No Depression. He was the lead writer and researcher on Hairdos and Heartache: The Women of Country Music, which aired on the A&E Network in the spring of 2006, and his short documentary on the history of WSM radio for Nashville Public Television won a regional Emmy Award. From 2009 to 2018, Craig was senior producer, co-host and show journalist for Music City Roots, a weekly Americana radio show and a five-season series on American Public Television.
Havighurst’s background as a writer, reporter and editor dates back to 1990, when he began his career writing about politics and culture for Durham, North Carolina’s award-winning weekly The Independent and the Duke University daily, The Chronicle. After receiving a master’s degree from Duke, he wrote and edited several health care trade publications in Washington D.C. Havighurst’s freelance health writing appeared in a variety of publications, including American Medical News and Healthcare Business.
Havighurst has a master’s degree in public policy from the Terry Sanford Institute at Duke University and a B.A. in English from Northwestern University. Havighurst is a graduate of Leadership Music in Nashville and a former board member of the International Bluegrass Music Association. He was a founding board member of Intersection, a contemporary classical music ensemble in Nashville. He lives with wife Taylor Holliday, a culture journalist turned food entrepreneur, and his adopted daughter Fongchong.