Sooke Coffee House is back at it again, this time with Kray Van Kirk, an Alaskan singer-songwriter.
His warm and intimate concerts on six and twelve-string guitar have received critical praise and enthusiastic receptions from the house concert circuit to festivals and larger stages.
At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where many shows receive only a handful of audience members due to the sheer volume of available performances, his room was sold out, leaving some folks sitting on the stairs and a Fringe reviewer to write “the Alaskan singer-songwriter, in his Edinburgh debut, was not the reason I arrived early, but certainly why I stayed late.”
Kray walked away from his first stint in graduate school in Berkeley to tour and live in his Ford Econoline van, playing shows in the days before cell phones (he still doesn’t own one) and the interwebs, booking shows from pay phones on the side of the road.
Living without road access in Alaska might not seem the best way to be a touring musician, but that’s where he makes his home with his daughter, one cat, and far too many books to fit into one room (along with the occasional bear sitting in the front seat of his car).
Van Kirk will appear at the Sooke Folk Coffee House on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1962 Murray Rd.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with open stage at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is $7 at the door ($5 for open mic performers).
For more info, go to sookefolkmusicsociety.com.