"For deep in this earth,
I have touched
The spring where music dwells
And it placed on my lips,
The kiss of endless song"
From: "Life Must Go On"
By: Kris Ann Russell
Poet, Singer, Songwriter, Storyteller, Performer, Teacher, these are all hats that Kris Russell wears easily. Her gypsy blood has driven her to travel extensively, and with each new sight, sound, meeting, or even just an opportune gust of wind, she finds music, legends, and poetry.
Born and raised mostly on a small farm in Oklahoma, Kris learned, early on, the value of family, commitment and living in harmony with the earth. And from those strong roots she found the strength to branch out, to become the wondering mistral she'd dreamed of being as a child.
"There's a certain kind of security that comes from knowin' who you are and where you came from. It gives you the courage to face the world and know, if you hold your family in your heart, you're never far from home"
(from "The Oklahoma Outback")That gypsy blood has offered Kris the chance to live many successful lifetimes in just this one. She has worked as a film and Off Broadway actress in New York City, a songwriter and voiceover actress and singer, in Nashville, a Radio talk show personality for a National Radio Syndication in Los Angeles, a DJ for a National Radio Satellite Network, in Denver, an instructor in Acting, Performance, and Voice and Voiceover at Denver's famed Academy of the Arts. Kris's voice and songs have been heard world wide on Radio For Peace International, Jones Satellite and many other radio and television stations. She was a featured singer at the United Nation's World Peace Conference, and her Poem "The Circle" is published in the UN Library in NYC. And her song "The Least Of These" has been playing across the nation for the past eight Christmases.
Just about the time Kris gets to settling in somewhere, life and adventure calls, so armed with pen, notebook and guitar, she's off again to live the Gypsy Life.
"Cradled in a wheat field under Oklahoma skies,
I bid my long lost home adieux
For now the prairie winds have blown their kiss goodbye
Just passin' through, Pacific Blue
(From, "Pacific Blue" on the Cimarron CD)