Kris Gruen writes songs about grownup life infused with a mystic wonder, softening the world’s sharp edges like a glass of exceptionally fine bourbon. Kris grew up steeped in classic records. His Americana influenced new folk is grounded in the tradition of great narrative songwriters like Cat Stevens and Paul Simon and yet Kris’s voice is strikingly current. A New York City native who’s put down roots in Vermont, Kris effortlessly blends sagacious wit and emotional depth.

It was in Vermont's rural backcountry — the woods, mountains, and fields that surround his family's organic farm — that Kris Gruen began writing his fifth studio album, Welcome Farewell.  

"I felt like a naturalist," says the alt-folk songwriter, who had spent much of the previous decade on the road, strumming his songs to crowds on both sides of the Atlantic. "For a traveling musician, it can be rare to choose a place in the world where you can put down your roots in the most concrete of ways. I now have a genuine, physical commitment to home — to the farm that my family built from scratch, where my wife grows Brussels sprouts and my grandmother is buried. It was while hiking in the nearby woods — not away from home, but just on the outskirts of it — that I found the reflection needed to write about the place I was in. When you remove yourself from your daily life, you can write about that daily life more genuinely."

Welcome Farewell finds Kris Gruen spinning autobiographical stories of family, community, and the great outdoors. It's a memoir of sorts, filled with names, places, and other details sourced from his own experience. Gruen has always been a storyteller, but he's rarely been this personal before. The central characters who occupy Welcome Farewell's songs are real people — including his late grandmother, whose influence is honored with tracks like "Apple Tree" and the cinematically-arranged "Skyline Drive," to his wife, who invites her husband to join her in the fields during "When She Says" — and they lend an earnestness to an album laced with acoustic guitar, swooning pedal steel, and other organic touches.