With a back catalog that includes two darkly rollicking roots records produced by Morphine's Billy Conway (2001's "Five Stories" and 2003's "Song for a Hurricane"), and the 2006 release "Strange Conversation", a vibrant collection of Americana songs inspired by the work of famous poets ("a remarkable album, as seamless and brave as it is brilliantly creative" - Irish Times). Kris has built a thriving career and a devoted following from the ground up, and without major label hype. The same independence of spirit that had her working on subsistence farms, cooking on a schooner off the coast of Maine or hitch hiking the back roads of Ireland with a fiddle on her back, is evident in the arc of her musical evolution: a willingness to work on her own terms and her own time. Along the way she's parlayed a decade of successful cross country and trans- Atlantic touring into one of the most distictive voices in American music. Her new CD is called "Shotgun Singer" and it's an elegant and sparse testament to her songwriting skills and her reverence for the traditional.