The Hero's Quest comes to Dallas
Kray Van Kirk, who will be performing at Opening Bell Coffee on Saturday, May 11th, left a career in the sciences to write songs in which everyone can know that they are on the Hero’s Journey. A finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Van Kirk obtained his doctorate in quantitative modeling from the University of Alaska, but he realized that healing the world was primarily a matter of the heart, not the head, and he picked up his guitar again.
“The evening’s act was Kray Van Kirk, whose 12-string guitar and soaring vocals were spellbinding. The singer-songwriter, in his Edinburgh debut, was not the reason I arrived early, but was certainly why I stayed late.”
Daily Fringe Review, Edinburgh, Scotland
"We need delight and hope," says Van Kirk, “and we need new stories to make it clear that humanity and heroes are all of us. Every single person, of any history or identity, is on the Hero’s Journey.”
Thus his songs: Thunderbird resurrects the Phoenix in an empty desert diner in the American Southwest, The Library Song has Superman moonlighting among the stacks, and The Midnight Commander celebrates an insane old man leading the city of New York to take up arms (and underwear) against hatred.
“An enviable body of songs.. an intelligent and gifted writer.”
Bob Leslie, Transatlantic Conversations, CelticMusicRadio.net
Of this charming, Quixotic, and decidedly eclectic performer, the Borderline Folk Club in New York wrote “it is what every singer-songwriter should aspire to.”