Sara Grey (Special Event)

FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC--SARA GREY was born in New England, lives in Scotland, and is as happy singing an Appalachian or New England song as one from Ulster or the Highlands. Her driving banjo and enthusiastic singing will make it difficult to resist joining in on the choruses.HER VOICE is both powerful and sweet with a distinctive and lovely tremolo. It is a voice well suited to native American ballads and ballads of Ireland and Scotland. She has been concentrating for the last several years on tracing the migration for songs from the British Isles to North America. One of the best things about her singing is that it reflects her great knowledge of and feeling for traditional music. She just seems to know what is right in the interpretation of a traditional song. On many of her songs Sara accompanies herself by frailing a five string banjo and, when playing tunes, it is obvious why she is regarded as one of the foremost exponents of the old-time style. Sara is also a fine story teller specializing in stories from New England where she grew up and learned many of her stories from her father. SARA GREW UP in New Hampshire but has lived in North Carolina, Ohio, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wales, Scotland and England. As a youngster in North Carolina she first heard a lot of mountain music and her love for the old time banjo music and songs developed from this experience. She has carried this interest into her adult life studying folklore and collecting and performing music from the various areas in which she has lived. ...singing by turns restrained, triumphant, gentle, strong, fun and deeply emotional, but always with that beautiful rhythmic vitality that is Sara's voice.

 - Molly Nudds, Prittle Prattle