Sharron Kraus

Sharron Kraus, a British singer and songwriter, aligns with the understated yet evocative, sometimes ominous strain of progressive British folk that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s through artists such as Shirley Collins and Bert Jansch. Credits for her first album list Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and the Violent Femmes as sources of inspiration. Even so, Kraus pursues a more thoroughly British direction than those musicians in both her songcraft and instrumentation, while still embracing the brooding darkness characteristic of Cohen and Waits. Every track on her 2002 debut album, Beautiful Twisted, is self-penned and remains rooted in folk tradition by centering ballads of somber romance, abandonment, and isolation. Acoustic guitar forms the core, yet the arrangements deliberately weave in fiddle, bass, banjo, and further instruments. Kraus earned a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University and has pursued additional work beyond her solo output, serving as percussionist in the world folk band Captain Swing, handling vocals and keyboards in Obsidian, exploring electronic music with the Waiting Room, performing acoustic material with the Irish American country-folk group Belshaw, and composing for a documentary on environmental activist Julia Butterfly.