Kray Van Kirk

A fine finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Kray Van Kirk has a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, but he set science aside to write songs, tell stories and summon heroes. Within those songs and stories are echoes he hopes audiences will hear and realize that THEY are the summoned heroes. With the release of his 6th CD, Empire (March 1, 2026), he addresses justice, fury, and renewal in the face of 500 years of Empire in the US.

"The evening’s act was Kray Van Kirk, whose 12-string guitar and soaring vocals were spellbinding. The Alaskan 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 are driven by myth and the seasons of the heart," he says. “There is a reason for hero stories, hidden in plain sight and cloaked in the everyday.…