Kris Drever
Kris Drever & Heidi Talbot ~ 2nd-18th April 2009
After a successful tour and their amazing individual albums, award winning Orcandian Guitarist,
Kris Drever (Lau) and stunning vocalist Heidi Talbot (ex Cherish the Ladies) will be teaming up again next April.
"Watching Kris and Heidi was a bit like a ‘Best of …’ evening. Tracks from each of their recent albums,
both of them taking turns to lead and support...It was a privilege to be in close quarters with such amazing musicians"
Folk and Roots Review Online
“Ms Talbot is one of the most generous musicians I know.
I love the way she sings and she loves what she does. She is CLASS!” (Eddi Reader)
Kris Drever, John McCusker & Roddy Woomble Trio ~ 5-12th February 2009
Multi-award winning 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. 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.
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.
