WOMAD

Kris Drever

From United Kingdom

As our festival programme feature on the relationship between music and family demonstrates, there’s a strong chance that the offspring of musical parents will go into the same business. So, despite being a huge Metallica fan in his teens, it was perhaps inevitable that Orkney-ite Kris Drever – son of former Wolfstone frontman Ivan Drever – would take up the cause of folk music. But, with the release of last year’s debut album Black Water, in an instant young Kris very much made his own mark. Produced by John McCusker and featuring turns from Kate Rusby, Eddi Reader and Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble, the album introduced a considered and mature singer and guitarist with a bagful of great songs about heartbreak, betrayal and criminality. And not only did it bag him the Horizon Award at this year’s BBC Folk Awards, it also tugged the sleeve of the rock monthlies – Mojo labelled him “a serious talent” while Q declared that “the folk revival has a new standard bearer”. But they both neglected to mention that he’s also got the best pair of sideburns in the whole folkie world.