In 2007, View Magazine stated that while Cardiff "...maintains a dedicated fan base", he "...is more a secret than a household name, despite his songs revealing the craft of one of the best in the business".

magazine stated: "With a catalogue now well into double digits and a national fan base that is surely the envy of his singer-songwriter peers, Ottawa's Craig Cardiff has been the model of how to be a successful independent Canadian musician.

they said, dismissively, the same way they did when they saw me spending money on Cokes, the Dickie Dee ice cream trucks, Mad Magazines, or heaven forbid, Cracked.

Ben Leggett (Faraway Neighbours, Ben Hermann) and Andre Wahl (Hawksley Workman, Luke Doucet) also produced Floods & Fires, the album that earned Cardiff a nomination for a 2012 Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination as 2012 Contemporary Singer of the Year.

[4] Floods & Fires is considered an ambitious album, as it features a horn section, bowed strings, electronic instrument programming and guest performers, including a high school choir.

Instead, he asked fans to bring along USB keys to buy a digital download of the album, although he did sell "old-fashioned CDs" and jewel cases for an additional fee.

"[18] Cardiff wrote the "jaunty song about death" with a chorus that states "goodnight, go home, there is nothing more to see here," for his daughter, who was 17 months old at the time, to explain to her what happens to people when they die.

Produced by Les Cooper (Jill Barber, Andy Stochansky), the album came together over a longer period than any of Cardiff's previous releases.

[17] "I think what I learned on this album is that it's good to capture everything and eavesdrop a lot and be like a bird building a nest, taking in little parts of everything – and then to walk away from that," he says.

[17] Musically, Goodnight (Go Home) features Paul Mathew (Hidden Cameras), Michael Olsen (K-os, Arcade Fire), Kieran Adams (Sarah Harmer), Rose Cousins, Joel Stouffer (Dragonette, Jason Collette) and Lisa MacIsaac (Madison Violet).

These include Ani Difranco, Cyndi Lauper, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin, Sinéad O'Connor, Björk, Indigo Girls and Suzanne Vega.

Cardiff's album Fistful of Flowers, released in 2005, features his version of songs written by Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Martin Sexton and others.

"And it features musicians I love playing with—Paul Mathew on double bass, Les Cooper on Rhodes piano and guitar, Joel Stouffer on drums.

Recording live off the floor with musicians James Robertson, Paul Mathew, Sly Juhas, Mike Evin and Robbie Grunwald, Cardiff found himself far outside his comfort zone, intimidated and amazed.

Leggett played a much bigger part in the Juno-nominated album Floods & Fires than any previous release, which he and Cardiff recorded over a span of a year and a half.

Besides producing, mixing and arranging on many albums, Cooper has also provided background vocals and played a variety of instruments on Cardiff's releases, including piano, guitar, banjo, organ, and percussion.

[25] Cardiff, who has played in camps, backyards, prisons, churches, basements, festivals, kitchens and hundreds of living rooms, is known as an "advocate of alternate venue touring.

Cardiff includes many house concerts on his tours, frequently preceding a larger public show with an intimate performance in a fan's living room.

Cardiff told Carleton University's Capital Arts Online that he was inspired when, as a teenager in Waterloo, he began volunteering with a woman who organized performances in churches.

[35] Whether he's performing to a smaller house concert crowd or at a large public gathering, Cardiff isn't afraid to mix music with a bit of community activism.

[36] Cardiff played a last-minute concert in the living room of PhD students in Victoria to help them raise funds for their AIDS outreach exchange to Africa.

The goal of Collateral Damage Project is preventing suicide by stopping stigma, creating proactive dialogue and pushing for gatekeeper training.

For the past 12 years, Cardiff has made a point of taking the time to offer workshops at schools, camps, festivals and churches throughout North America.

"[40] Cardiff was nominated for a 2012 Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo for Floods and Fires in a category with eventual winner Bruce Cockburn, David Francey, Dave Gunning and Lindi Ortega.

"[32] The Book of Truths was born when Cardiff gave one of his notebooks to a couple and asked them to write down the story they told him about their connection with his music so that he wouldn't forget it.

The bittersweet themes running throughout his latest album, Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2 largely stem from those stories, written anonymously by fans.

A bunch of other people responded to it, and I feel like that idea carried over – as hard as it is to stay one more day, just don't make any big decisions tonight.

"[36] Cardiff's music blends many songwriter genres, including folk, country, rock and traditional, always with an emphasis on strong lyrics that relate a story.

"[44] "Whatever magic happens when people are opened up a bit and just being with each other is a pretty special thing, and that requires the person performing to invite that from the audience, rather than simply pushing noise to them," he adds.

"A storyteller at heart, Cardiff is renowned for his acoustic guitar-playing and soft voice, as well as the ingenious use of a digital looping pedal he performs with, which he uses to layer guitar and vocal effects over top of each other," Nick Roy noted in the Queen's Journal.