Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter who creates music rooted in the folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her work is characterized by soil-rich vocals, haunting banjo, fine acoustic guitar and visionary wordcraft. Her songs are populated by a carnival array of fatally charismatic characters, telling tales of enslavement, perversion, incest, obsession, love and death. Sharron’s live performances are stark, compelling, and delicate. As with her music, her performance continues the tradition of the balladeer. She is like the roving storyteller, bringing tales of terror, sadness and joy to a stranger’s hearth on a dark and stormy night.

Sharron’s debut album Beautiful Twisted was released by Australian psych label Camera Obscura in 2002 and received rave reviews around the world. It was listed in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Critics’ Top Albums of 2002. After touring with US psychedelic folk band The Iditarod, she collaborated with them on an album of wintry songs and soundscapes entitled Yuletide and released by avant/experimental label Elsie and Jack in 2003.

Sharron’s second solo album, Songs of Love and Loss, was recorded at home in Oxford and at Dungeon Studios in the Cotswolds. The album features Jane Griffiths on fiddle and viola, Jon Fletcher on harmonica and occasional guitar, banjo and vocals, Colin Fletcher on bass, as well as BBC Folk Award-winning fiddler Jon Boden and Grammy-nominated early music violinist Giles Lewin. The album was finished in Providence and mixed with Jeffrey Alexander (The Iditarod, Black Forest/Black Sea). Songs of Love and Loss is a natural follow-up to Beautiful Twisted, in places darker and more discordant, in others gentler and sweeter.

Other recent and ongoing collaborations include The Black Dove, an album written and recorded with Californian folk songsmith Christian Kiefer; Tau Emerald, a duo with Tara Burke (Fursaxa); Leaves From Off the Tree, an album of traditional songs recorded with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall released on Bo’ Weavil Recordings and Right Wantonly A-Mumming, a collection of seasonal songs recorded with an 8-strong host of traditional folk singers and musicians including Jon Boden, John Spiers, Ian Woods and Fay Hield.

Sharron has three releases out early in 2008: her third solo album The Fox’s Wedding on Durtro, Rusalnaia’s s/t debut on Camera Obscura, and Tau Emerald’s Travellers Two on Important. She will be touring extensively in Europe and the US, with Gillian Chadwick, Meg Baird, United Bible Studies, and as a trio with Alex Neilson and Dave Colohan.

Sharron has been featured in The Wire, Dirty Linen, New Folk Sounds, Arthur Magazine, Ptolemaic Terrascope and Broken Face. 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. Her fanbase includes veteran folkies Shirley Collins and Archie Fisher as well as indie figureheads Michael Gira, David Tibet and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

For additional reviews, photos, MP3s and information online:
Sharron Kraus Website: http://www.sharronkraus.com

Online press kit: http://www.sharronkraus.com/press

Sharron Kraus on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sharronkraus