Kris Drever

Hailing from Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, Kris Drever has been a leading light on the UK roots scene for well over a decade, renowned for a guitar style that blends traditional folk and flat picking with fingerstyle and more contemporary influences. Drever is also the vocalist and guitarist of the folk trio Lau, who played VFMF in 2008, the same year they won the Best Group at the BBC Folk Award, going on to receive that same award for the next two years running.

In 2016, Drever was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and the title track to his 2016 album If Wishes Were Horses landed him an award for Best Original Track. That song contains a fitting couplet for our times: “I wish that politicians ties/Would tighten up when they tell lies.”

Drever’s style had been described as “a highly individual blend of rhythm and harmony, folk, jazz, rock, and country inflections.” He has played and recorded with an impressive range of artists including Mark Knopfler, Bela Fleck, Tim O’Brien, Kate Rusby, Sarah Jarosz, Tinariwen, and Julie Fowlis. A gifted interpreter of others’ songs, his own compositions are gems of lyrical observation, earworm melodies, and great guitar work. This is music that will fill your heart. –

– LP