|
Kris
Drever is the son of singer-songwriter Ivan Drever, formerly
lead vocalist with Celtic rock supremos Wolfstone. Having
self-confessedly spent his adolescence listening to Metallica
and Pantera, meanwhile learning the guitar and ruining other
people's sessions at the Orkney Folk Festival by playing
all the wrong chords, he left home for the mainland at seventeen,
eventually gravitating towards Edinburgh's burgeoning session
scene. The Tron Ceilidh House was then, in the latter 1990s,
the place to be, a haven for musicians from across all manner
of genres, and Kris was soon playing there several nights
a week.
Having
temporarily switched instruments to the double bass, he
subsequently returned to the guitar and began honing the
style - a highly individual blend of rhythm and harmony,
folk, jazz, rock and country inflections - that now finds
him in near-constant demand as a session player. In late
2000, Kris? began sitting in at the weekly session at Sandy
Bell's, Edinburgh's most famous folk pub alongside the regular
co-hosts Nuala Kennedy, from Dundalk, on flute and whistles,
and Edinburgh-born fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson.? As Kris
said, " A guitar's like a portable piano, in terms
of its range. I like to try always to use interesting colours
in the chords and harmonies I play, rather than just doing
the obvious. We do a lot of mid-tempo stuff, nothing totally
hell-for-leather, so we can really make the arrangements
count." From this collaboration grew the highly acclaimed
trio "Fine Friday" which went on to tour in the
UK, Europe and Australia. The band recorded two CDs on the
Foot Stompin' label before the three went their separate
ways to concentrate on individual projects.
Kris's
earlier live and recorded work includes collaborations with
Cathy Ryan of Irish-American supergroup Cherish the Ladies,
Scottish fiddlers John McCusker and Bruce MacGregor, Irish
accordionist Leo McCann and Gaelic band Tannas, well as
tours of the US and South America with the Irish dance show
Celtic Fusion.
More
recently, Kris has increasingly been attracting plaudits
for his singing as well as his playing, with his warm, soulfully
resonant vocals featuring in five of the thirteen tracks
on Fine Friday's debut album. His choice of songs ranges
from the traditional Cold Blow and the Rainy Night to Steve
Tilston's Slip-Jigs and Reels; from Boo Hewerdine's Hummingbird
to the classic Scots ballad The Selkie. I like either to
do songs that haven't been covered much before, he says,
or folky standards that are open to a different interpretation.
I try to steer clear of that kind of typical folk-singer
sound, and put my own mark on things. Kris also plays with
The Kate Rusby Band and Session A9.
In 2005
joined forces with Aidan O'Rourke and Martin Green to form
the trio LAU.
You can also hear Kris's excellent playing and singing on
the Fine Friday CDs "Gone Dancing" and "Mowing
the Machair". Please also click through to the site
for the band Lau and many other friends on the links page.
Which
brings you up to date and Kris ' debut solo album: "
BLACK WATER" .
The
album which was produced by John McCusker and features Kris
with friends Ewen Vernal, Kate Rusby, Donald Shaw, Andy
Seward, Andy Cutting, Roddy Woomble, Eddi Reader, Andy Cutting
and Andy Seward. You can buy one from the site ( orders
will be processed securely and sent from kris' label Reveal.
|
|