Kenny Klein
Encyclopedia
Kenny Klein is a Celtic, Folk
and Country music
ian, a published author, playwright, actor and poet, and an elder and a High Priest in the Blue Star tradition
of Wicca
. Klein is a noted fiddler, and plays styles ranging from Irish and British to jazz
and swing.
and other stringed instruments. He studied music in New York through his college years, taking lessons from noted jazz and bluegrass
violinist Matt Glaser
, and learning Country and Appalachia
n music on the streets of Greenwich Village
and the mountains of New York
, West Virginia
and Pennsylvania
. In the early 1980s he spent time in Europe studying Gypsy violin, returning to New York City in 1981 and settling in the Punk rock
infested East Village
. Shortly after he married flutist Tzipora Katz.
In the mid-1980s Kenny and Tzipora, as they were known, recorded several projects on Kicking Mule Records
, including the album Wineskins, Tinkers, & Tears in 1985. Together with their children they traveled around the US, performing at Pagan festivals, Renaissance fair
s, and folk music venues.
In 1992 Kenny and Tzipora divorced, and Kenny began his solo music career, subsequently releasing several projects on Blackthorn Records, and returned to performing music at Renaissance festivals throughout the U.S. In 1998 he released the CD Muses, an album of all original music produced by Brewers' Witch Productions.
Klein currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana
relocating there after many years of living in Los Angeles, California
. In Los Angeles he worked with Enrichment Works, a non-profit organization that brings performance art to public schools in the Los Angeles area. He originated the role of Ike in Gold Rush Honeymoon for Enrichment Works, and also created the original one-man show, PIRATES!, for the organization. Also in Los Angeles Klein worked with Celtic band Odd's Bodkin. Odd's Bodkin has toured extensively, and has played at such venues as the Southern California Renaissance Faire, Northern California Renaissance Faire, Bristol Renaissance Faire, the http://www.rosencomet.com/class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("45477",this,"noimage.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("45477")' href="/topics/Starwood_Festival">Starwood Festival
], and the Wisteria Cornstalk Festival.
Currently Kenny plays both as a solo musician and with various bands: "The Long Goners" (who currently records for CMH Records
), and "The Slick Skillet Serenaders". As a solo act Kenny plays at Renaissance fairs, Neopagan festivals, clubs and bars. Always trying to expand his repertoire of styles, his latest project, Ghosts Of The Delta, is arguably the world's first CD of Pagan Jugband music.
A noted fiddler, Kenny has done a good deal of studio recording on various musical projects. He has also developed his career as an author, currently writing books on the subject of Faerie Lore and Grimms Fairy Tales for Llewellyn Worldwide
http://www.llewellyn.com/. Klein's newest title is Fairy Tale Rituals.
coven and tradition of Wicca, becoming a High Priest within that tradition in 1983. He helped steer the Tradition towards a more traditional British form, discarding Alexandrian and ceremonial rituals and replacing them with British folkloric Craft practices, including the 8 Paths of Power, the 7 Tenets of Faith, and the Drawing Down of the Moon and Sun. Between 1983 and 1992 he and his wife, High Priestess Tzipora Klein (née Katz) were largely responsible for transforming Blue Star from a local coven to a Wiccan tradition of its own. Touring the country during that period performing music, Kenny and Tzipora continued to teach Blue Star Wicca, initiating many people and founding many covens, at the same time recording and distributing lessons on cassette tapes, and Klein has continued to teach Traditional Wicca since then. In 1992, after separating from Tzipora, he established the Rose and Antler coven of Blue Star, through which he continues to practice and teach. He is the author of The Flowering Rod: Men, Sex and Spirituality, a book on Wicca and Men's Mysteries.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and Country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
ian, a published author, playwright, actor and poet, and an elder and a High Priest in the Blue Star tradition
Blue Star Wicca
Blue Star Wicca is one of a number of Wiccan traditions, and was created in the United States in the 1970s based loosely on the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions...
of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
. Klein is a noted fiddler, and plays styles ranging from Irish and British to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and swing.
Career
He developed an interest in British Folk music at an early age, and pursued the fiddleFiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and other stringed instruments. He studied music in New York through his college years, taking lessons from noted jazz and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
violinist Matt Glaser
Matt Glaser
Matt Glaser is an American jazz and bluegrass violinist. He served as the chair of the string department at the Berklee College of Music for more than twenty-five years. He is now the founder and artistic director of Berklee's American Roots Music Program....
, and learning Country and Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
n music on the streets of Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
and the mountains of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. In the early 1980s he spent time in Europe studying Gypsy violin, returning to New York City in 1981 and settling in the Punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
infested East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
. Shortly after he married flutist Tzipora Katz.
In the mid-1980s Kenny and Tzipora, as they were known, recorded several projects on Kicking Mule Records
Kicking Mule Records
Kicking Mule Records was an independent American record label founded in 1972 by Stefan Grossman and Eugene "ED" Denson. Denson was previously a co-owner of Takoma Records. The company's title comes from the country blues sexual two-timing allegory "there's another mule kicking in your stall"....
, including the album Wineskins, Tinkers, & Tears in 1985. Together with their children they traveled around the US, performing at Pagan festivals, Renaissance fair
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
s, and folk music venues.
In 1992 Kenny and Tzipora divorced, and Kenny began his solo music career, subsequently releasing several projects on Blackthorn Records, and returned to performing music at Renaissance festivals throughout the U.S. In 1998 he released the CD Muses, an album of all original music produced by Brewers' Witch Productions.
Klein currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
relocating there after many years of living in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. In Los Angeles he worked with Enrichment Works, a non-profit organization that brings performance art to public schools in the Los Angeles area. He originated the role of Ike in Gold Rush Honeymoon for Enrichment Works, and also created the original one-man show, PIRATES!, for the organization. Also in Los Angeles Klein worked with Celtic band Odd's Bodkin. Odd's Bodkin has toured extensively, and has played at such venues as the Southern California Renaissance Faire, Northern California Renaissance Faire, Bristol Renaissance Faire, the http://www.rosencomet.com/
Starwood Festival
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in mid- to late July. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects...
], and the Wisteria Cornstalk Festival.
Currently Kenny plays both as a solo musician and with various bands: "The Long Goners" (who currently records for CMH Records
CMH Records
Founded in 1975, CMH Records is a Los Angeles based independent country and bluegrass label with several subsidiary labels, including Vitamin Records, Crosscheck, Dwell, and Rockabye Baby!, which release diverse styles of music including string quartet tributes, punk, metal, and lullabies,...
), and "The Slick Skillet Serenaders". As a solo act Kenny plays at Renaissance fairs, Neopagan festivals, clubs and bars. Always trying to expand his repertoire of styles, his latest project, Ghosts Of The Delta, is arguably the world's first CD of Pagan Jugband music.
A noted fiddler, Kenny has done a good deal of studio recording on various musical projects. He has also developed his career as an author, currently writing books on the subject of Faerie Lore and Grimms Fairy Tales for Llewellyn Worldwide
Llewellyn Worldwide
Llewellyn Worldwide is a New Age publisher, currently based in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul. Llewellyn's mission is to "serve the trade and consumers worldwide with options and tools for exploring new worlds of mind & spirit, thereby aiding in the quests of expanded human potential,...
http://www.llewellyn.com/. Klein's newest title is Fairy Tale Rituals.
Neopagan activities
Through his interest in British music, Klein discovered the Wiccan and Neopagan communities. He learned a great deal about traditional Scottish Witchcraft from New York merchant Eileen Campbell Gordon, and then joined the Blue StarBlue Star Wicca
Blue Star Wicca is one of a number of Wiccan traditions, and was created in the United States in the 1970s based loosely on the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions...
coven and tradition of Wicca, becoming a High Priest within that tradition in 1983. He helped steer the Tradition towards a more traditional British form, discarding Alexandrian and ceremonial rituals and replacing them with British folkloric Craft practices, including the 8 Paths of Power, the 7 Tenets of Faith, and the Drawing Down of the Moon and Sun. Between 1983 and 1992 he and his wife, High Priestess Tzipora Klein (née Katz) were largely responsible for transforming Blue Star from a local coven to a Wiccan tradition of its own. Touring the country during that period performing music, Kenny and Tzipora continued to teach Blue Star Wicca, initiating many people and founding many covens, at the same time recording and distributing lessons on cassette tapes, and Klein has continued to teach Traditional Wicca since then. In 1992, after separating from Tzipora, he established the Rose and Antler coven of Blue Star, through which he continues to practice and teach. He is the author of The Flowering Rod: Men, Sex and Spirituality, a book on Wicca and Men's Mysteries.
Solo
- 1994 - Gold of the Autumn - Blackthorn Records
- 1995 - High Grows the Barley - Blackthorn Records
- 1998 - Muses - Brewers' Witch Productions
- 2004 - The Fairy Queen (Kenny Klein & Lori Watley) - Blackthorn Records
- 2005 - Little Birds Of Desire - Blackthorn Records
- 2005 - Barley Moon - Blackthorn Records
- 2007 - Meet Me In The Shade Of The Maple Tree - Blackthorn Records
- 2008 - Oak & Ash - Blackthorn Records
- 2011 - Ghosts Of The Delta - Independent
With Tzipora Katz
- ???? - Both Sides of the Water
- 1983 - Worn Out Threads and Tire Treads (Live Album) - Kicking Mule Records
- 1983 - Moon Hooves in the Sand - Blue Star Records (Cassette)
- 1985 - Wineskins, Tinkers, & Tears - Kicking Mule Records (LP)
- 1989 - Kenny & Tzipora: Live & Kickin' at A.C.E. - A.C.E.Association for Consciousness ExplorationThe Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC is an American organization based in Northeastern Ohio which produces events, books, and recorded media in the fields of "magic, mind-sciences, alternative lifestyles, comparative religion/spirituality, entertainment, holistic healing, and related...
(Cassette) - 1990 - Enchantress - Gypsy (Kenny & Tzipora guest artists) - White Light Pentacles (Cassette) (CD release 2001)
- 2004 - Best of Pagan Song (compilation CD) - Serpentine Music Productions
External links
- Kenny Klein's homepage
- Llewellyn Worldwide
- http://www.amazon.com/Kenny-Klein/e/B004CHVFRO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
- http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/kp02.htm#Kenntzip