Among this year\u2019s Alaska Folk Festival lineup of artists is Hope Griffin, a singer\/songwriter based out of Asheville, North Carolina, whose music has been inspired by Alaska regardless of her physical distance from the state.<\/p>\n
Griffin was born in Anchorage and has deep family ties to Alaska, but only spent five years of her life here before moving to California. Still, the awe-inspiring land she left remained forever close to her heart.<\/p>\n
The stories she was told by her father about his experiences in Alaska affected her and influenced the way she approaches her creative process. Many of the songs she\u2019s written aim to capture the essence of the Last Frontier such as her song \u201cA Fisherman\u2019s Life\u201d that won \u201cBest Song\u201d in Western North Carolina in 2016. With Alaska on the brain since the day she left it, this trip to Juneau is what she\u2019s referring to as her \u201creturn home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin was raised in a household where classical music thrived and singing was encouraged. Her father was a cellist and her mother a pianist. She grew up performing and exhibiting her vocal prowess at church, in choir, and at school in band. She remembers belting out songs on car rides and during other unplanned moments of her childhood too.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause singing\u2019s always been such a huge part of my life it\u2019s a running joke that I was singing since I came out of my momma,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cEven now it\u2019s how (my family acts) around the holidays\u2026randomly singing and harmonizing. Music has always been so important to me, and it\u2019s always been something that I\u2019ve been good at, so it was easy for me to know that\u2019s what I wanted to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n
After her father completed his music degree, the family continued to hop around the country. Griffin landed in Tennessee after high school and decided to attend Carson-Newman University, following in her father\u2019s footsteps in pursuit of a music degree. She graduated with a bachelors degree in Classical Voice.<\/p>\n
However, what would transform her life and ultimately sent her flying in a successful direction occurred outside of the classroom. Inside her dorm, after a full day of musical instruction, Griffin devoted her free time to learning guitar and writing songs inspired by her journal. It was after one of the songs she\u2019d written won a talent contest at her school that she realized she had a knack for songwriting.<\/p>\n
From that experience, a seed was planted that had the opportunity to blossom once Griffin moved to Asheville where she originally moved for a recreation job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea when I moved there but it turned out to have a really strong music scene,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n
Griffin developed her sound and love for ballads while in Asheville. She\u2019s also played with other musicians. In 2014, Griffin became interested in expanding her acoustic sound and went in search of a cellist. Jamie Leigh Bennett more than fit the bill and has been a part of Griffin\u2019s team ever since.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s won the \u201cBest Singer\/Songwriter\u201d and \u2018\u2019Best Acoustic\/Folk Band\u201d awards in Western North Carolina. She\u2019s released a new album every year since 2015. Her first album \u201cSay What You Will\u201d was a four-year project. In 2016 \u201cWhere the Soil and the Stars Meet\u201d took on the form of a full length album containing a total of 10 songs. In 2017, Griffin came out with a six-song Christmas album \u201cAnd the Lights Will Shine\u201d with holiday favorites such as \u201cMr. Grinch\u201d but also one original song.<\/p>\n
Although plenty of her music has been cultivated and performed within the North Carolina area, Griffin\u2019s tunes have been displayed on stages throughout the United States. Griffin\u2019s free-spirited nature comes from traveling as a youth and her connection to Alaska. Once the opportunity was presented, it didn\u2019t take much convincing to get her to come and perform in Juneau.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mountains and the sea have always been calling me,\u201d Griffin said. \u201c\u2019I\u2019ve always wanted to come back to Alaska \u2026 to play music where I was from.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was her brother Dan\u2019el Griffin, who, having made Juneau his home after completing school at the University of Alaska Southeast, ultimately persuaded Hope to return.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Alaska) is where I feel like my heart has always been,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cAs much as it can be without living there anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brother swears she\u2019ll end up living here one day to which Griffin responded \u2014 \u201cYeah, probably!\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin\u2019s cellist will be joining her on this trip. She promises her song, \u201cA Fisherman\u2019s Life\u201d describes Alaska \u201cthrough and through,\u201d and will make it into her set for the Folk Festival along with other songs she says blends genres while \u201creflecting on the emotions that unite us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin will not only be playing at the Folk Festival Tuesday evening at 9:45 p.m., but will be taking the time to perform at UAS on the same evening at 5:30, the Downtown Heritage Coffee shop location on April 12 at 4 p.m., and the Viking on April 13 at 10:30 p.m. during her weeklong visit.<\/p>\n
To learn more about her upcoming performances or to sample her music, go to hopegriffin.com. She expects to release more music this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mackenzie Fisher is a freelance writer living in Juneau.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Among this year\u2019s Alaska Folk Festival lineup of artists is Hope Griffin, a singer\/songwriter based out of Asheville, North Carolina, whose music has been inspired by Alaska regardless of her physical distance from the state. Griffin was born in Anchorage and has deep family ties to Alaska, but only spent five years of her life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[73],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-ccw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14389"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}