Kenny Klein

Kenny Klein (born 1955 in New York City) is a Celtic, Folk and Country musician, a published author, playwright, actor and poet, and an elder and a High Priest in the Blue Star tradition of Wicca. Klein is a noted fiddler, and plays styles ranging from Irish and British to jazz and swing.

Career

He developed an interest in British Folk music at an early age, and pursued the fiddle and other stringed instruments. He studied music in New York through his college years, taking lessons from noted jazz and bluegrass violinist Matt Glaser, and learning Country and Appalachian music on the streets of Greenwich Village and the mountains of New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. In the early 1980s he spent time in Europe studying Gypsy violin, returning to New York City in 1981 and settling in the Punk rock infested East Village. Shortly after he married flutist Tzipora Katz.

In the mid-1980s Kenny and Tzipora, as they were known, recorded several projects on Kicking Mule Records, including the album Wineskins, Tinkers, & Tears in 1985. Together with their children they traveled around the US, performing at Pagan festivals, Renaissance fairs, and folk music venues.

In 1992 Kenny and Tzipora divorced, and Kenny began his solo music career, subsequently releasing several projects on Blackthorn Records, and returned to performing music at Renaissance festivals throughout the U.S. In 1998 he released the CD Muses, an album of all original music produced by Brewers' Witch Productions.

Klein currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana relocating there after many years of living in Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles he worked with Enrichment Works, a non-profit organization that brings performance art to public schools in the Los Angeles area. He originated the role of Ike in Gold Rush Honeymoon for Enrichment Works, and also created the original one-man show, PIRATES!, for the organization. Also in Los Angeles Klein worked with Celtic band Odd's Bodkin. Odd's Bodkin has toured extensively, and has played at such venues as the Southern California Renaissance Faire, Northern California Renaissance Faire, Bristol Renaissance Faire, the Starwood Festival, and the Wisteria Cornstalk Festival.

Currently Kenny plays both as a solo musician and with various bands: "The Long Goners" (who currently records for CMH Records), and "The Slick Skillet Serenaders". As a solo act Kenny plays at Renaissance fairs, Neopagan festivals, clubs and bars. Always trying to expand his repertoire of styles, his latest project, Ghosts Of The Delta, is arguably the world's first CD of Pagan Jugband music.

A noted fiddler, Kenny has done a good deal of studio recording on various musical projects. He has also developed his career as an author, currently writing books on the subject of Faerie Lore and Grimms Fairy Tales for Llewellyn Worldwide [1]. Klein's newest title is Fairy Tale Rituals.

Neopagan activities

Through his interest in British music, Klein discovered the Wiccan and Neopagan communities. He learned a great deal about traditional Scottish Witchcraft from New York merchant Eileen Campbell Gordon, and then joined the Blue Star coven and tradition of Wicca, becoming a High Priest within that tradition in 1983. He helped steer the Tradition towards a more traditional British form, discarding Alexandrian and ceremonial rituals and replacing them with British folkloric Craft practices, including the 8 Paths of Power, the 7 Tenets of Faith, and the Drawing Down of the Moon and Sun. Between 1983 and 1992 he and his wife, High Priestess Tzipora Klein (née Katz) were largely responsible for transforming Blue Star from a local coven to a Wiccan tradition of its own. Touring the country during that period performing music, Kenny and Tzipora continued to teach Blue Star Wicca, initiating many people and founding many covens, at the same time recording and distributing lessons on cassette tapes, and Klein has continued to teach Traditional Wicca since then. In 1992, after separating from Tzipora, he established the Rose and Antler coven of Blue Star, through which he continues to practice and teach. He is the author of The Flowering Rod: Men, Sex and Spirituality, a book on Wicca and Men's Mysteries.

Bibliography

• Fairy Tale Rituals, (May 2011) Llewellyn Worldwide ISBN 9780738723051
• Through The Faerie Glass, (February 2010) Llewellyn Worldwide ISBN 9780738718835
• The Flowering Rod: Men, Sex and Spirituality (March 1993) Delphi Press ISBN 1878980076, ISBN 978-1878980076
• Lilith, Queen Of The Desert July 2010) includes poem Lilith by Kenny Klein, Knickerbocker Circus Publishing ISBN 9781450722360
• Girls I Knew When I Was Twenty (August 2004) Poetic Diversity
• Legba in the French Market Strange Road Website
• Touring Italy Through New York City (January 2002) The Long Trip Home Website
• Pirates! Study Guide for the play Pirates!, written & performed by Kenny Klein

Discography

Solo

• 1994 - Gold of the Autumn - Blackthorn Records
• 1995 - High Grows the Barley - Blackthorn Records
• 1998 - Muses - Brewers' Witch Productions
• 2004 - The Fairy Queen (Kenny Klein & Lori Watley) - Blackthorn Records
• 2005 - Little Birds Of Desire - Blackthorn Records
• 2005 - Barley Moon - Blackthorn Records
• 2007 - Meet Me In The Shade Of The Maple Tree - Blackthorn Records
• 2008 - Oak & Ash - Blackthorn Records
• 2011 - Ghosts Of The Delta - Independent

With Tzipora Katz

•  ???? - Both Sides of the Water
• 1983 - Worn Out Threads and Tire Treads (Live Album) - Kicking Mule Records
• 1983 - Moon Hooves in the Sand - Blue Star Records (Cassette)
• 1985 - Wineskins, Tinkers, & Tears - Kicking Mule Records (LP)
• 1989 - Kenny & Tzipora: Live & Kickin' at A.C.E. - A.C.E. (Cassette)
• 1990 - Enchantress - Gypsy (Kenny & Tzipora guest artists) - White Light Pentacles (Cassette) (CD release 2001)
• 2004 - Best of Pagan Song (compilation CD) - Serpentine Music Productions

External links

• Kenny Klein's homepage
• Llewellyn Worldwide
• http://www.amazon.com/Kenny-Klein/e/B004CHVFRO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
• http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/kp02.htm#Kenntzip