This is a copy of a newspaper article published on Drew in 1986, in the French city of Niort where he lived at that time. Below is an English translation of the article.

There were other newspaper articles written about Drew, but since he didn’t keep them or send them home, so far they haven’t been located. Fortunately, this one was kept and sent from a friend after his passing.

The New Republic of Mid-West – Saturday and Sunday, February 1 and 2, 1986 – Deux-Sevres

Niort and Deux-Sevres, France

The Baroque Boy’s Shows

From Los Angeles to Niort via Paris, Madrid and London, pop and folk concerts with the big names, Mr. Croon today retires in Deux-Sevres with his guitars.

    Croon is a name that is predestined in itself: does it not mean “to croon” – to sing with charm? Without transposing the literal translation of this patronymic term, one would be tempted to see a sign of destiny in this professional guitarist – Drew Croon sings what he writes; he is thus and above all a writer and composer.

    Thirty-five years old, a face eaten up by an auburn beard of four days growth. Big blue eyes peer at you from behind a dream-like fog. The pair of tennis shoes, the pants with bell-bottom legs, and the white sweater adorned with a scarf, Drew Croon has the look of the 70s about him, an era from which he appears never to have left. In appearance only, though, for when Drew evokes his memories as guitarist/producer or of giving concerts at the Santa Barbara Bowl, the person he is speaking to must have as much patience as curiosity in order to extract from the conversation its just worth. He visibly does not like or does not seek to flaunt the contents of a calling card punctuated by A, D, G sharp, or F sharp. 

    This feeling that pushes Drew Croon to disdain a verbal display of his service record, his accomplishments, is called modesty. To incite the narration, one needs to have read his curriculum vitae, which he conserves carefully in a folder. A curriculum vitae of four pages, a veritable string of achievements of a public life whereof the reader picks through the events with parsimony.

    “I was born in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. on January 9, 1951. From the age of 13 I studied the guitar seriously with teachers in Los Angeles, then later in Madrid, Spain, and in London, England. I have a degree in Music from the music academy in Los Angeles. Among my published works, a neobaroque concert for solo guitar and string quartet – and D Is For Desire – which is a book illustrated with my songs.” And there you have the part entitled biography. 

With Jerry Lee Lewis

    It was at the age of 19 that Drew Croon discovered Europe and its culture. It was love at first sight. Drew made the British capital his home with one lone suitcase, one guitar and a mountain of projects in his bag. The record companies took interest in him. Drew worked his scores, wrote, arranged and produced his own compositions before recording them with singers like Ray Doyle or Pat Miller. In January 1973 he played on the record “The Sessions” by a certain Jerry Lee Lewis with other artists like Peter Frampton, Garry Wright, the Lee brothers. At the same time he recorded and was interviewed on television and radio, gave concerts at Regent’s Park College and in the famous West End London theatre district.

    Drew Croon would work in film the summer of ’74. He would in effect orchestrate four pieces for the director of music Richard Baskin in the Academy Award-winning Robert Altman film, “Nashville.” He would follow it up the next year with one of his former Los Angeles music professors, Paul Chichara [sic – Chihara] in the film “Deathrace 2000” starring David Carradine. “An excellent memory,” he attests.

    Recordings, concerts, films, TV, radio, Drew Croon has more than one feather in his cap… and in his guitar. Today he teaches the secrets of the instrument in Niort, a town he has called home for several years. “One of my old students came to me in Angers and asked me to take a vacant teaching post here, I said OK.”

    Drew Croon will no longer work outside of teaching; currently he is completing a guitar method book that soon will be distributed to specialized stores. His international past is well behind him. He couldn’t care less. For him, the important part lies ahead, guitar in hand.

    Without fanfare – of course!

Inset:

Baroque… Not rock!

    Shunning the artifice of his native California in order to pursue the cultural patrimony of Spain, such is the paradox that Drew Croon entertains after having published a neobaroque concert for solo guitar with string quartet. Proof that Americans are not only interested in rock… but equally in baroque!

Photo caption:

Drew Croon: A man passionately crazy for pure guitar