As a multi-instrumentalist, folk artist Kristin Rebecca is a curiosity collector.
Though she started simply enough, prompted to learn guitar after falling for the dreamboat in her church band, she found herself needing more to quench her creativity.
First, it was the dulcimer, then her parents’ collection of Irish whistles—she comes from a family of Celtic musicians—but still she found herself reaching for something more. Finally, at 15, she discovered it was the Celtic harp that struck the right chord. With the support of her family, who found the right teacher to develop her curiosity into skill, Kristin Rebecca recognized that she had landed on something special.
She writes, “My teacher said I was very natural with the harp... over the years, as I started incorporating its sound, I realized that it was as extraordinarily versatile as guitar and piano in the patterns and sounds you can play. It provided the perfect complement to my guitar as a means of providing rhythm lines and harmonized with my lyrics.”
Her song “Reach for the Sky,” performed at The Rye Room, harkens back to her experience as a developing musician and looks forward to the struggle to achieve within her craft, always reaching for something new and striving to learn more.
The tune comes from her folk pop-inspired album Tales, Trials, Truths. Of the song’s inspiration she writes, “[It] came on the 4th of July several years ago. I saw a little boy sitting on his father’s shoulders and every time a firework went off, he would stretch out his arms and try to grab it out of the sky. It made me think about how many times people try to achieve things that seem slightly out of their reach, including myself... Some days it feels like the dream in insurmountable, but ultimately, it is achievable.”
Kristin Rebecca’s next big dream is to find a home at a record label. But, until then, she’ll continue to tour across the country, harp in hand.
