http://www.maclurg.com/saragrey/index.htm
Sara Grey and Kieron Means: April 11th 2008
and
About Sara (from Sara Grey’s Website)
Once you have heard Sara Grey you will never forget her. She has a certain quality of voice that compels you to give her your undivided attention. Her voice is both powerful and sweet with a distinctive and lovely tremolo. It is a voice well suited to native American ballads and ballads of Ireland and Scotland.
Sara grew up in New Hampshire but has lived in North Carolina, Ohio, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wales, Scotland and England. As a youngster in North Carolina she first heard a lot of mountain music and her love for the old time banjo music and songs developed from this experience. She has carried this interest into her adult life studying folklore and collecting and performing music from the various areas in which she has lived.
Sara has been living in Scotland and briefly in England for the last 32 years. She has always been interested in the migration of songs across the Atlantic and it was as a result of a collecting trip to Scotland in 1970 that she moved to the UK. She has been working closely with other traditional singers from Scotland and Ireland to look at the movement of Celtic songs and how they change. Some of the projects she has been involved in include a seminar in Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland looking at the culture of Travellers in Sutherland and the movement of their songs and stories to North America.
About Kieron Means (from Sara Grey’s Website)
Kieron Means is a singer primarily of traditional songs but also of contemporary songs and guitar player of great merit. He has a great rapport with an audience and has an exceptional professionalism for a young performer. His voice is as smooth as silk, rich and mellow and he sings to his audience not in spite of them.
Kieron is the son of the traditional singer Sara Grey and music journalist Andrew Means, one time writer for Melody Maker. He was born in the United States and grew up in Britain gaining a great love of the music of both traditions as well as the contemporary scene. He has become a performer of traditional songs from the US and from the UK and many of the contemporary songs he sings he has written himself.
He has toured in the States and often performed with Sara Grey. In 2000 he has performed at Whitby and Wadebridge festivals where he was received with much acclaim. His first CD has received much praise with air play on Travelling Folk and Mr Anderson’s Fine Tunes both on radio Scotland. An article on him will shortly be appearing in Folk Roots magazine.
In 2001 Kieron had a major UK tour which includes Sidmouth, Dartmoor , Whitby , Wadebridge , Edinburgh and, Fylde Festivals as well as a wide range of Folk Clubs in England and Scotland. He has been included in the Evolving Traditions III CD being put out by Mrs Casey’s Music. He is preparing a new CD to be released on The Living Traditions Tradition Bearers series in 2002.
Sara Grey and Kieran Means’s website can be found at http://www.maclurg.com/saragrey/index.htm