Sarah Elizabeth Burkey
Roots recording artist and cultural heritage musicologist Sarah Elizabeth Burkey has performed in 18 countries, but she has called Kentucky home all her life. Sarah plays 11 instruments, and her work appears on 15 albums. Sarah Elizabeth is to Kentucky what Fats Domino was to New Orleans. Fats epitomized the sound of the Crescent City in his time, giving an honorable nod to his musical ancestry while carrying the torch on to his generation. Sarah does this, in our context and in our time. Her sound is deeply rooted in the Kentucky hills, with a voice sweeter than a honeysuckle vine in spring and old as the current of the Ohio River.
Sarah recorded her latest album, "Don’t Die Yet," immediately upon returning from the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota where she spent a great deal of time with the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. Accompanying Sarah with Native American flute, drum and other instruments from indigenous cultures of the world is Grammy-nominated musician Tony Redhouse. Sarah Elizabeth's songwriting drips with passion and a sacred appreciation of life.
Sarah has collaborated with Jean Ritchie, Jim James and Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Barrie Barlow (Jethro Tull), Pete Brown (Cream), David Amram (Jack Kerouac's musical collaborator), Ron Whitehead, Tyrone Cotton, Joe Manning, Larry Beasley (Bill Monroe), Frank Messina (Mets Poet Laureate), Tony Redhouse (Navajo healing artist) and many other great musicians from every genre, as well as poets, artists and dancers all over the world.