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Kieron Means Both of the mother/son duo are back in the USA. Vic Smith catches up on the plan…
ures whose careers have stretched from the 1960s up to the present have been Americans who have been based over here throughout these years. The names that come to mind immediately are Tom Paley and Sara Grey.
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The biggest change in Sara’s life lately has been a move back to the USA, to Maine, after more than 40 years living mainly in a number of diverse British locations. It has been a good move for Sara and husband Dave; they are enjoying both the exquisite location and the culture. “Lots of art gal- leries and music and liberal-minded people.” says Sara. Obviously this means a change of emphasis on the type of performing loca- tion for Sara and her son Kieron. Their per- forming habitat in the UK has been solidly based within the folk scene, festivals and clubs, particularly the latter.
They are undertaking another Britain- wide tour this autumn and it is not difficult to understand their huge popularity on this circuit. Three obvious factors stand out. Each has the friendly, engaging, inclusive approach both in their accessible perfor- mances and in their introductions, club audiences lap up the strong Anglo-Ameri- can links that they find in Sara’s huge reper- toire and they also seem to go for the family connections; just think how many duos and bands on the British folk scene are made up of related performers. There is always some- thing special in the close empathy that is
t is something of a paradox that in the peculiarly British form of present- ing music that is the folk club, some of the most enduringly popular fig-
displayed in the music of blood relations. The instinctive understanding that mother and son display in this partnership could be quoted as a type example.
Sara’s re-location Stateside also has implications for Kieron. “I’m extremely happy to have my mother and Dave living back here in the States now! My long-time hope has been for our family to settle near enough that our time together wasn’t always spent in an airport, or on the way to a gig. Not to mention our rehearsals! Ben Paley can attest to that.” Ben’s superb fiddle playing has frequently accompanied them on British and Irish tours in recent years.
from a New York apartment to a 45-acre rural property. “Heather and I are in the middle of moving there at the moment. We hope to be largely self-sufficient here. I’ve played music for a living since I was seven- teen apart from a couple of stints garden- ing or selling guitars, and it’s time I had a supplemental way of providing for us. There’s a lot of work ahead, but I’m excited to do it and learn some new skills.”
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All of this is likely to mean that their presence this side of the Atlantic is reduced but both are determined that this will not cease altogether. In fact they have already been booked for festivals here in the sum- mer of 2017.
Asked about the current scene in the States, both felt there were reasons to be positive about the way things are going and
f Sara’s life was subject to the turbu- lence of a major move last year, Kieron was in the middle of a similar change at the time of our talk with the move
their place in it. “Of course, it is still domi- nated by the singer-songwriters, but there have been lots of positive signs lately,” says Sara. In particular, she mentions the Fox Hollow Festival just outside Chicago where they are booked in September. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, it is now large enough to be running eight stages all day as well as workshops on a wide range of tradi- tional music skills.
Not all their musical appearances will
be together. Sara has been very pleased to be involved in a new partnership with Brian Miller. They have developed a pre- sentation on “Tracing Irish Songs in the Logging Camps” and a separate concert performance of these songs. Kieron is par- ticularly pleased to have been asked to teach blues at the John Campbell folk school in North Carolina next year. Anyone who has shivered with delight at his way with Killing Floor Blues will know how commanding he is in this area. “I feel I’ve begun to understand how to make a worthwhile contribution to traditional music. This has including really going back to the drawing board to learn traditional styles of accompaniment on the guitar. I had, to that point, mainly emulated the banjo I hear my mother play.”
“Obviously, now that my mother is back, we will travel more this side of the Atlantic and sadly less in the UK, but we will be over plenty, and I always look forward to seeing all our friends and playing for the clubs and festivals that have been so sup- portive of our music over the years.”
www.saragrey.net F Sara Grey &
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