Kray Van Kirk

January 2, 2011

Happy New Year to everyone, and what a year it’s been from my end of things! I’ve met so many kind and generous people, played some wonderful places, and had fantastic responses to my music wherever I’ve gone. My deepest thanks to all of you who have helped arrange concerts, given me a place to stay, and offered support, encouragement, and appreciation for my songs. I have a special place for everyone we met overseas, who were finest kind one and all.

With the beginning of the new year, it’s time for another leap of faith, and so I am planning a tour of the east coast, from Main south toward the Carolinas, for October. That’s quite a bit away, but that will give me time to complete the majority of the dissertation and arrange for as many shows as possible. If you’re out that way, as usual, send me an email and we’ll make sure I come see you!

Lastly, thank you so much to not only everyone who has been able to come to the concerts, but also to everyone all over the world who has listened to these songs, given them a home, and passed them on to someone else. I hope to see you all someday.

December 20, 2010

This year finished off with two very fun shows, one in Salem, Oregon, and the last one a few days ago here in Arcata, California where I grew up. The folks in Salem were wonderful, and many thanks go to Kate Andersen for arranging everything, Justin and Christina for offering their home for the concert, and Jeff Andersen for shooting some great photos! We filled the house without any publicity other than personal emails and invitations, and everyone was very generous indeed when the hat was passed. I’m hoping to get back with some new songs before too much time passes.

It’s a bit scary to play for people who have known you most of your life – they can look at you and simply say ‘We knew you when you were a little kid running around in the woods wearing swords!’. (It’s a long story…) But the people who came out to the Westhaven Arts Center last Saturday were all most excellent, especially because Westhaven is a bit out of the way, it was pouring rain, and Sara Bareilles was playing a show that same night. We sold out the hall nonetheless and had to put up some extra chairs! A lot of my friends whom I had not see for twenty years were there, and I am very appreciative that so many of them took the time to come and listen.

August 25,2010

I’m home now, after the marathon of plane flights back from London to Alaska. I’m still a bit disoriented, and I know that various forgotten bits and pieces will jump out for weeks to come. The one thing that stands out above all else, though, is the universal kindness and generosity shown towards us by everyone we met; it was truly remarkable.

The last place I played was at Annie Windley’s singer-songwriter showcase in London. The geek in me was absolutely delighted at Jonny Berliner’s brilliant and hilarious scientific tunes. “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle” is definitely going into my song roster!

After balancing my bank account and organizing the fall schedule, it looks like it will be Christmas before any more out of town shows. I have a new manuscript due in early November, and my comprehensive exams in late November. I do have a concert in Arcata, CA on December 18th, and I’ll be in the Vancouver, BC area the weekend of February 18th,
2011. Beyond that, everything is fluid chaos.

My deep thanks to everyone across the pond for their help and generosity; I would love to go back as soon as possible. Fall is here in Alaska, and the bears are chasing salmon getting ready for the snows, which are only a month or two away. I love the winter here, but I’m sure I will wake up many mornings with my heart in Ireland, or Inverness and Drumnadrochit, or Wales and southern England, running through the woods to avoid the fact that all three of us were trespassing, running home forever under the hill.

August 12, 2010

One of the things that struck me when I moved to Alaska was the remarkable number of talented musicians up there, something that I have found in Ireland and the UK as well. (I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me in the least.) At the Zodiac Sessions at Bruxelles in Dublin last night, I ended up sitting at a table next to the extremely talented Sue Callaghan. A music teacher and owner of a music school, she was celebrating her birthday and her new CD release, which I’ve been listening to ever since. At the Glor Sessions a few days prior, I heard Eoin Glackin whose song “Hello Caroline” grabbed my attention enough to get a CD from him as well. At this rate, my backpack will be full of CDs on my return home!

Yesterday morning found me wandering the streets of Dublin. It was early, and a beautiful morning. I was lost, which wasn’t so beautiful, but I didn’t really mind. On a set of brick steps, two old men watched the world go by over coffee and pipes. I went up to them, apologized for the disturbance, and asked for directions. Both of them laughed, and one removed his pipe long enough to tell me I wasn’t really lost, because I was in Dublin, and what more did I need?

What more indeed?

August 9, 2010
Ireland has a long history of fantastic writers and wild poets. James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, and Bram Stoker all arose from the green fields. Joyce himself, although he spent much of his adult life outside of Ireland, wrote almost exclusively of events in Dublin, saying that the center of Dublin was the center of every city, and therefore a microcosm of the world as a whole.

Ray Bradbury spent a number of months in Dublin and Galway, working on the screenplay for Moby Dick. He later wrote that while he was there, he disliked it intensely and could not wait to leave. Upon his return home, however, he found that the characters and geography of Ireland had worked their way inside, and over the years came proudly marching out in his stories. “The Beggar on O’Connell Bridge” is one, and I suddenly realized today that I was standing on that selfsame bridge.

The Irish word “Glor” means simply “sound”, “voice”, or “noise”. I had an enormous amount of fun tonight at The Glor Sessions, an evening of poetry and music held in the basement of the International Bar in Dublin. The number of really talented musicians here is remarkable and, at times, rather intimidating. The sessions are run by the wonderful and tireless poet, Stephen James Smith. I gathered CDs from a number of the other songwriters, and all of us loved the passionate poems spoken by a young woman from Portugal, even if we couldn’t understand what she was saying. The current love affair with instant fame and fortune, especially in the US, completely misses the intimacy and community of gatherings like these, which is a shame. Videos of the evening can be found on his Ustream page, and my set is a little ways into this video.

August 8, 2010
One of the hallmarks of this tour has been the friendliness of everyone I have met, from London to Inverness. Without fail, people have been open and receptive to my questions as a fumbling American overseas. This morning, however, several folks went above and beyond the call of social duty. My daughter and I stayed last night in a Bed & Breakfast in Inverness called the Crown Hotel Guesthouse. The proprietor, Catriona, had been kind enough to give us a room at the last minute when my previous hotel had to cancel. She herself was camping out at Belladrum with her daughter that weekend, but the housekeeper Sue showed us in, allowed us to check in early, and shooed us out the door to the Belladrum.

We got up this morning to discover that we had lost the small pack containing our passports, tickets, and all other accoutrements of modern, documented existence. Catriona and Sue phoned the police, who indeed had the pack. Not only had the taxi driver in whose cab we had left the pack turned it into the police, but the police themselves had looked at the itinerary inside, determined that I was playing the Belladrum, and had made the effort to call the Belladrum organizers, 20 miles away at the festival, and have them make a general call over the loudspeakers to find me (obviously, I wasn’t paying attention).

With fifteen minutes until train departure, Catriona’s sister drove us to the police station, the officer behind the desk smiled when I rushed in and signed the papers she gave me, and we made it to the platform just as the conductor was pushing the button to secure the train.

The crown of Catriona’s generosity was that she did not charge me for our stay. She had seen on my website that I give away my music, and she was kind enough to return the gesture. I cannot recommend the Crown Hotel Guesthouse highly enough. Not only was it easily the most comfortable and welcoming place we have stayed so far, but everyone there is charming, friendly, and, as Hawkeye Pierce describes on the final page of the novella M*A*S*H, “finest kind”.

August 7, 2010
Wednesday evening I was sitting on the sidewalk outside The Village in Leith, which is part of Edinburgh, tuning the 12-string and warming up. Two rather dour and quite capable-looking young gentlemen approached me, and after inquiring about my use of fingerpicks instead of a flatpick and complimenting my playing, identified me from the poster over my head, and asked if I would be traveling “uptown to play in the big Festival”. They identified themselves as Louis, who was 13, and Dylan, who allowed that he was only 10, but as he was having a birthday very soon, might as well be 11. We talked for a bit longer, and with a sudden burst of truly genuine warmth and sincerity, both wished me well in my shows. Their inquiries and well-wishes done, they strolled away into the evening, quiet Kings of Edinburgh.

The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh has a well-deserved reputation as a madness, and indeed it is. For the entire month of August, hundreds, if not thousands, of musicians, artists, actors, dancers and everyone else descend upon the city for non-stop performances. As there are so many, the average attendance for any given performance is six people, and I was therefore extremely flattered and rather touched that the room in the Royal Oak in which I played on Friday evening was crowded with over 30 people. It was quite warm, but all remained through the entire concert and were absolutely delightful. My deep thanks go to Paddy of the Edinburgh Folk Society who arranged the concert, and Heather of the Royal Oak for offering such a wonderful place to play.

The country from Stirling north on the train has been absolutely my favorite in Scotland so far – many hills and forests, deer and rabbits, and the deep lochs and ruins. Inverness itself is wonderful! The Belladrum Festival was estimated to have between 12,000 – 14,000 people in attendance today. Several stages with different musicians, combined with endless stalls and dancers and festival-goers, not to mention acres of tents and yurts for those camping out over the weekend, made for a rather frenetic atmosphere. The Potting Stage, run by the tireless Rob Ellen, was a great and fun place to play, even during the duet I had with a chainsaw that was singing immediately behind me. Being from southeast Alaska, I was delighted to find international connection with so many people there, who, like so many of us up North, find Wellingtons (X-tra Tuffs) to be universally applicable footwear for any occasion.

Tomorrow is the flight to Dublin. I’m sorry to leave Scotland so soon, but Ireland beckons just beyond the sunset.

August 5, 2010

First tour update from the train, traveling from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. The first five days have been rather a whirlwind! The show with the Borderline Folk Club in New York was a lot of fun, and the people there wonderfully warm and supportive. Steve Shapiro was kind enough to open his house for the concert – house concerts are definitely catching on more and more, which is really great for singer-songwriters looking for places to play and share their work. Sol Zeller, the President of the Borderline, wrote a very kind review which I have posted on the Press page.

Last night was the Aberdeen Folk Club in a fantastic old pub, The Blue Lamp, that used to be a soap factory. Grame the bartender introduced me to a wonderful whisky whose name I have already forgotten, perhaps due to the amount he placed in my glass! The room had great acoustics, and the people who came out to listen and play were wonderful. A special nod to Alan and Dawn for playing Nanci Griffith!

No trip is without adventure, however. Never have so many miles been driven in so many hours trying to reach a hotel visible from the airport in New Jersey but embodying the saying “You can’t get there from here”. When I get the chance, a new song is going out to the delightful tollbooth ladies on the New Jersey turnpike, those goddesses of the night, who alternately scolded me and encouraged me that I’d eventually get there, which I did, at 2:00 a.m.

In the same spirit of endurance, six miles walked through as much of Aberdeen as I could find in search of a coin-operated laundry eventually resulted in a sweet and kind lady at a dry-cleaners sympathetically informing me that such really don’t exist in Scotland. Let’s hope that an alternative can be found upon arrival in Edinburgh in a few hours!
I am loving the voices and accents of Scotland, not to mention the wonderful old graveyards, the ruins on the coast, and the strong coffee that has so far been my lifesaver. This is the sort of country that should have packs of wild basset hounds roaming the hills, baying over the sea at sunset. If only!

July 12, 2010
It’s been a good summer so far. I’ve upgraded the website, cleaned out some old stuff, added an improved download manager for the music page, and in a few weeks am headed off on tour in Ireland and the UK. Most excellent!
Some folks might notice that in the launch of the revised website, the translations have disappeared. (I had the site translated into French, German, Spanish, Gaelge and Cymraeg for several years.) While I’d love to continue that at some point, it simply became too expensive to maintain, with the result that I seldom posted updates on this page because of the cost of translating. So we’ll try this for a bit and I’ll work on making this page and the website in general much more active!
A guestbook and email list have also been added to the site- please feel free to use both! The guestbook is simply for people to post messages and feedback on shows, songs, and anything else they might think of. I’ll use the email list to keep folks updated on the release of new songs or video, along with any concerts that might be in their area.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported this work! I’ll be getting out to play concerts a bit more this year and the next, and I’ll hopefully be able to meet all you at some point!