Kray Van Kirk

A fine finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Kray Van Kirk has a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, but he set science aside to write songs, tell stories and summon heroes. Within those songs and stories are echoes he hopes audiences will hear and realize that THEY are the summoned heroes.

"We are driven by myth and the seasons of the heart," he says, "and the stories are all true. There is a dark cave inside each of us, and monsters of all kinds lurk there, all the more lethal for being hidden. The quest is to journey inside, render the monsters powerless, find whatever it is that burns at the core of your soul and bring it back into the light. Nobody is left behind."

When Van Kirk reached Scotland and the prestigious Fringe Festival, the Daily Fringe Review wrote “The evening's act was Kray Van Kirk, whose 12-string guitar and soaring vocals were spellbinding; the Alaskan singer-songwriter, in his Edinburgh debut, was not the reason I arrived early, but was certainly why I stayed late."

Of this charming, Quixotic and eclectic performer, the Borderline Folk Club in New York wrote that Van Kirk was "what every singer-songwriter should aspire to."