UK folk radical Sharron Kraus releasing 4th solo album
Sharron has just finished recording material for her new album “The Woody
Nightshade.” This body of work is her finest and most ambitious to date.
The songs undulate through delicate rhythmic heartbeats, understated folk
sculptures and a shattering lyrical intensity. Claustrophobia permeates
the tracks, brought on by Sharron’s wraithlike vocals and the glistening,
taut acoustics, but there are also shining moments of serenity to ease the
foreboding tension. The songs are mercury for the soul; the modern, yet
timeless, wind-whipped myths will mark Sharron Kraus out as one of the
most original and innovative artists in the UK today. This will be
released by Stranger Attractors November 2.
Sharron Kraus is a singer, musician and songwriter who both defiantly
recasts and tenderly cherishes the folk traditions of England and
Appalachia. Her songs tell intricate tales of rootless souls, dark secrets
and earthy joys, the lyrics plucked as sonorously as her acoustic guitar.
In 2002, Sharron released her debut Beautiful Twisted on the independent
Camera Obscura label. The gnarled branches on the album’s cover reflected
the music; Kraus’ disturbing songs were a shadowy wood to ensnare the
listener. Beautiful Twisted was a concentration of her influences at that
point,
representing her traditional folk interest and her co-existing love of
cerebral gothic music like Nick Cave and the Violent Femmes. Sounding both
phenomenally original and effortlessly contemporary, the album instantly
attracted attention, and was named by Rolling Stone in their Critics’ Top
Albums of 2002.
Following 2003′s winter concept album Yuletide with American psych-folk
pioneers The Iditarod, Sharron released her second solo album Songs Of
Love And Loss in 2004. The third album, The Fox’s Wedding,was even denser
in its imagery, drawing from the natural world, literature and Sharron’s
personal experience; it soared between swooping panoramas and pared down,
waspish delicacy. The album was released on Durtro in 2008, the imprint
founded by Current 93′s David Tibet.
Collaborations have always been important to Sharron. She has performed
with Irish free-folk collective United Bible Studies and alongside
Trembling Bells’ Alex Neilson. Sharron has also embarked on recorded
partnerships with Californian troubadour Christian Kiefer on 2006′s The
Black Dove; Espers’ Meg Baird and Helena Espvall on the traditional album
Leaves From Off The Tree that same year; and gathered an ensemble cast of
folk singers on Right Wantonly A-Mumming in 2007 for a collection of
seasonal songs. Sharron is a member of Tau Emerald, a duo with Tara Burke
(better known as Fursaxa) and Rusalnaia, a partnership with Ex-Reverie’s
Gillian Chadwick.
Sharron has appeared in The Wire, The Sound Projector, Dirty Linen, New
Folk Sounds, Arthur Magazine, Ptolemaic Terrascope, Broken Face, Staple
Magazine and is featured in the forthcoming book Seasons They Change: The
Story of Acid, Psych and Experimental Folk. She has been interviewed on
BBC Radio 3 for ‘A Place Called England’ discussing the future of English
folk music and recorded sessions for BBC Radio Scotland, Freakzone on
Radio 6, and independent radio stations across the US
http://www.sharronkraus.com
http://www.myspace.com/sharronkraus
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