Biography of Jane Kramer

Lauded by UK music reviewer Three Chords and the Truth as sounding like she was “…born to irreverent, bohemian poets and raised in the mountains by Emmylou Harris,” Asheville, North Carolina songstress Jane Kramer has garnered international recognition for the sultry, heartrending originality of her vocals and for the heavy-hitting lyrical eloquence of her songwriting.

With deep roots in the musical traditions, culture and lore of her beloved Appalachia, Kramer’s songs are introspective, gracefully gritty and fiercely memorable. They elegantly sweep listeners down the gravel roads and southern coastal highways, midnight truck stops and lonely motel rooms of hard learning and lead home to the wooded Blue Ridge Mountains with moving acceptance of our flawed human experience. Kramer’s live performances are equally as poignant and engaging; rich with accessible, warm, often hilarious storytelling and gracefully lifting the veil between audience and performer.

After a seven year stint as founding member, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter in the nationally-touring, Asheville-based all female Appalachian Folk outfit, The Barrel House Mamas from 2003-2010, Kramer released her first solo studio album, Break & Bloom, recorded in Portland, Oregon, in 2013. The 2016 release of her sophomore studio album, Carnival of Hopes, put her on the map as a “…a voice that can only be described as one of the purest in modern Americana” (Dave Stallard, Blue Ridge Outdoors,) receiving critical international acclaim and airplay and charting on the Americana and Folk DJ charts. Kramer’s 2019 LP, Valley of The Bones, showed the artist “…refining her natural ability with words to the level of songwriting mastery. She has composed a new collection of songs that beautifully serve the bold, confident intensity of her voice and I could not be more excited about it. Bravo!” (Mary Gauthier) and served to further solidify Kramer’s place in the canon of contemporary southern folk artists from Mary Gauthier to Malcolm Holcombe and Sarah Siskind. Kramer has been touring nationally and internationally for the last ten years, playing for sold-out audiences in listening rooms, theaters, festivals, living rooms, prisons and arts councils alike. This has gained her a loyal following from the southeastern, U.S. where she calls home, to Portland, Oregon to Scotland, U.K to Florence, Italy.

A former social worker, domestic violence crisis counselor and avid humanitarian, Kramer continues to perform and teach about the songwriting process in prisons, shelters for the unhoused, programs for at-risk youth, classrooms and hospitals, sharing her message of music as a powerful tool for healing, connection and compassion.

Whether Kramer is solo, wielding only her EJ Henderson guitar and her most important instrument: her emotive, ethereal voice, or backed by her full band featuring the virtuostic instrumentalists that comprise Asheville’s Free Planet Radio and internationally renowned multi-instrumentalist Billy Cardine (Biscuit Burners, Acoustic Syndicate, Lover’s Leap,) the power and poignance of this truly gifted songstress is deeply felt and long-remembered.

Quoted as “…an artist on the rise” by acclaimed American songwriter Mary Gauthier, Kramer has performed with such well-known artists as Joan Osborne, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Sarah Siskind, Gretchen Peters, Malcolm Holcombe, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Mullins and Maria Muldaur.

Valley of the Bones

In April 2018, Kramer returned to the studio to record her third full-length album.

Valley of the Bones is a triumphant collection of original songs that illustrate and explore the expression human of love in all its various, imperfect forms.

Tracked mostly live (including the vocal performances,) at Sound Temple Studios in Asheville, N.C., Kramer teamed up with her frequent collaborators: Free Planet Radio musicians River Guerguerian, Chris Rosser and two-time Grammy Award winner Eliot Wadopian; as well as Billy Cardine. The album also includes performances by Nicky Sanders of The Steep Canyon Rangers on violin and Asheville Symphony Orchestra musician Franklin Keel on cello.

The collection of 10 original songs was engineered, mixed and produced by Adam Johnson of Sound Lab Studios and co-produced by Kramer and Chris Rosser.

While most of the afore-mentioned musicians accompanied Kramer on her acclaimed 2016 release Carnival of Hopes, listeners will hear a distinct difference in the band's chemistry, cohesion and almost electric intuition with one another on Valley of the Bones.

"Simply put, it's because we've been playing together a lot over the past three years since I've moved back home to Asheville," she says.

"We've gotten to know each other personally, had a little time on the road together, sold out some shows in theaters together and have built an incredible mutual respect. We had genuine fun in the studio. I think all of that translates and comes through on the record."

Valley of the Bones' 10 strong tracks tackle a breadth of subject matter, ranging from marriage to miscarriage. Spirituality and self-acceptance are expressed with poetic grace, vulnerability and unapologetically honest grit. Kramer's endearing, self-effacing humor is also on full display. This warm, easy storytelling is paired with rich, nuanced arrangements that aren't afraid to be simple when called for, and are punctuated with the unmistakably bittersweet southern wail of Billy Cardine's dobro.

Standout tracks include the gutsy and reflective “Hymn” (which was a "homework assignment" from Mary Gauthier, Kramer's musical mentor)

“Hymn” national premiere on The Bluegrass Situation Here, the undeniably smart and sassy “Waffle House Song”, (“Waffle House Song” national premiere on The Daily Country Here,) and the profoundly poetic and transcendent title track “Valley of the Bones.” (“Valley of the Bones” national premier and mini-documentary premier on Ditty TV / Campfire Here.) This song was dubbed a "masterpiece" by Lydia Hutchinson of Performing Songwriter Magazine.

Also noteworthy are the quirky and hilarious country zinger, “I'll See Your Crazy and Raise You Mine” and the sweet, earnest “Singin's Enough: which speaks candidly of the struggles of a touring musician.

All of the songs show Kramer arriving confidently and comfortably at home inside as both a woman and a masterful songwriter after over twenty years of honing her craft.

Gauthier, Kramer's longtime mentor and a 2018 grammy-nominated songwriter, says of Valley of the Bones:

“ I have watched Jane Kramer work diligently, patiently and persistently on her songwriting over many years, refining her natural ability with words to the level of songwriting mastery. She has composed a new collection of songs that beautifully serve the bold, confident intensity of her voice, and I could not be more excited about it. Bravo!”

Valley of the Bones was released internationally on March 1st of 2019 to critical acclaim and has has received significant radio airplay across the country from Folk and Americana djs alike. The album spent 3 months in the top 50 on the monthly Folk DJ chart, peaking at #15 folk album and #18 top artist and has also been a mainstay on the Roots Music Report's Contemporary Folk and North Carolina Roots album charts for over 4 months.