About Karen

Welcome to my website - I do hope you enjoy your visit.

I grew up loving stories and music.  When I was eight, we moved from the U.K. to South Africa.  Perhaps the lack of television intensified my love of the radio, records and books.  I listened to everything from Louis Armstrong to Danny Kaye to The Goon Show.  I hoovered up music and devoured words like a crazy girl.

As a musician, writer, singer and performer I used to feel like I never quite belonged anywhere.  When I played a genre, it felt like I was visiting a fabulous neighbouring tribe for a while. 

Over the years I followed the breadcrumb trails left by people like Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Ella Fitzgerald, C.S. Lewis, Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Nina Simone, B.B. King, Iva Bittová, Ada Milea (and many more...).  'This way', they'd whisper in my ears, 'this way'.  

Slowly, something resembling a style of music and performing emerged.

These days,  I'm often found somewhere between following a breadcrumb trail, with one hand and chipping away (at something or other) with the other.