The Black Dove

The Black Dove is a collaborative project between two like-minded artists, Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus. Kiefer is a Sacramento-based singer/songwriter with several acclaimed concept records exploring the history of the American West, who has collaborated with members of Low, Wilco and The Band. Kraus is an English folksinger in the tradition of Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson and Anne Briggs, a dark folk troubadour whose debut album Beautiful Twisted made Rolling Stone's Top Critics' Albums for 2002. In creating The Black Dove, the two worked on songs and instrumentals based on the idea of love letters between two people, one the pursuer and one the pursued, one flesh and blood, the other a ghost. Kiefer's forest-bound Northern California studio was awash with mandolins, guitars, pump organ, tongue drums, and banjos. Blue jays squawked through the trees, the flies swarmed and buzzed, the wind whistled through the pine needles. The album is meant to be experienced as a sonic novel with each song or chapter referencing the text.