Celtic harp and electric cello?
Covers of the Police classic "Every Breath You Take" and Graham Nash's "Wind on the Water" ?
Native American flute and electric guitar?
Ms. Grean's music would be heresy to harp lovers everywhere were it not so good!

But following the well-worn path on her musical adventures has never been Lorin's way.

From her first solo recording, "Embrace" to her Silver Wave Records debut, "Hand Woven," Lorin has incorporated non-traditional instrumentation and lyrical themes into her harp compositions. Maybe that's why the Santa Barbara News Press called her music "...achingly honest" or why the Folk Harp Journal was compelled to declare that her songs are "...entirely new and creative composing and arranging for the folk harp."

Her early musical influences included artists like Peter, Paul, and Mary— the Beatles—Joni Mitchell—Crosby, Stills, and Nash—and Simon & Garfunkle—all of whom inspired her to sing and learn to play the guitar. Slowly but surely the shyness peeled away over the years.

She branched out, playing other instruments including recorders (in baroque ensembles), penny whistle and bodhran (in an Irish band), mountain dulcimer and piano.When Lorin discovered the folk harp, her own talents as a songwriter began to emerge. Within two years of playing the harp, she was encouraged to record her own material because of its originality. The world of professional music received her with open arms. Credits include a guest appearance on Kenny Loggin's children's album, "Return to Pooh Corner," and an on-camera appearance playing her harp on the soap opera, "The Guiding Light."

Taking the Folk Harp Where It's Never Gone Before

by Russ Spencer
Reprinted with permission from the Spring 2000 Issue of the Folk Harp Journal (cover story)

My conversation with Lorin Grean took place nearly 11 years after she rented her first folk harp. That was Martin Luther King's birthday in 1989, and now it was the same holiday, at the turn of the millennium. And here, Grean was celebrating a turn of her own just released album titled Spinning Gold.

In her 11 years on the folk harp, Grean has always been a pioneer. Although she came to the harp well versed in Irish music, she immediately eschewed that obvious choice in favor of her own inventive style. In the four albums she has produced since, she has innovatively melded the nutty, soulful flavor of her harp with the angelic quality of her voice and a rich array of supporting instruments, including jazz bass, ethnic percussion, and such surprises as soaring flugel horn solos, Tibetan bowls, Native American flutes, and strings.

On her last album, "Hand Woven," she even backed away from singing lyrics in favor of long melodic, wordless vocal passages. As eclectic as it was, the album found an audience. It was picked up and distributed by Silver Wave records and featured on the playlists of numerous new age and adult contemporary radio stations. With Spinning Gold, Grean again surprises.

On her previous albums, she has chosen to write most of her own material, but always included a few choice songs by other artists.

This time out, she performs only other people's music: 11 pop songs, most of them instantly recognizable classics, from John Lennon's "Imagine" to Sting's "Every Breath You Take." But to each song, she brings her own inimitable approach, changing the meter and point of view to uncover new meanings and fresh perspectives. In doing so, she also brings a fresh perspective to the folk harp, using it to paint unusual sonic colors like no one else on the national recording scene.

Tell me about your decision to do an album of cover songs.

The first song I arranged on the harp was by Paul Brady, and it was a pop song. I would always hear songs on the radio and think, "oh that would work out on the harp." Or I'll rediscover an old song that I used to like growing up, like "She's Not There" by the Zombies. I've always thrown a couple of those songs in whenever I play live amidst my own material and I get a lot of good response to it. People will say to me, "I never really listened to the lyrics of 'Every Breath You Take,' but now that you have sung it, I have a whole different take on that song." I thought it would be good to compile these cover songs in one album.

What first attracted you to the folk harp?

I had been playing Irish music for about ten years on the penny whistle, the recorder and the bodhran. Despite that, I never had a yen to play the harp. But we have this great music store in town, Folk Mote, that has a great array of ethnic instruments. It's a tactile store; you touch things a lot. For me, there was a calling one year to try something new, and the harp stood out. I was burning out on Irish Music, so I started arranging rock 'n' roll songs and writing my own. It was being in the right place at the right time, deciding that I had time in my life to start something new, and there was the harp right in front of me.

So what did you do?

Well, I rented at first because no one wants to plunk down many thousands of dollars on an instrument you may not play. I rented one and got it home with a beginning book and I opened it up and there was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." And it just sounded so beautiful. This stupid little song, which we all think of as very trite became this very majestic and inspirational song of the heavens simply because there was something in the harp strings that went to my heart.

Are you self-taught?

For the most part, yes. But I did take six or seven lessons on perfecting my hand positions. I wanted to be sure I learned correctly. So there was a little technique to work on at first. But because I played so many other instruments earlier, I picked it up quickly.

Maybe music is in your genes. Isn't your father, Charlie, an arranger?

Yes. I never took any theory classes or studied arranging. But I have it in me somehow, apparently through that gene pool. And the harp is the vehicle for it to come out of me right now.

And this album is dedicated to him, right?

Yeah. He was enthused about my putting together all these commercial pop songs into one recording, and supportive from the get-go. He even wrote the string arrangement for "Fields of Gold," which is really a nice thing in itself. He was a bassist, composer, and even worked as the music copyist with the Glenn Miller Band. He went on to be one of the heads of RCA Records in the late 40s and 50s. And he arranged a lot of music. One particular piece I'm very proud of is Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song." My dad was hired to write the string arrangement and record the session.

You recorded the new album in Washington state again, at the Sage Arts studio, is that right?

Yes, it's where I have done my last three albums. I chose to go up to work with Daniel Protheroe, who has been really influential in helping to create my sound. I can't think of working anywhere else with anyone else. It's hard for me to schlep all the way up there, but it's worth it because it's such a beautiful place, an 80-acre farm in the wilds of the North West.