Kyle Alden

Kyle Alden is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, fiddle and mandolin) with deep roots in the San Francisco Irish music community. Since the mid 1990's he has played guitar accompaniment for top Irish musicians -- including performances with Tommy Peoples, Randal Bays, Andrew McNamara, and Paddy Kennan -- all the while working on his songs and songcraft.

Kyle's songs and voice have been compared with Canadian songsters Ron Sexsmith and Neil Young. With regular monthly shows at local venues in Fairfax and San Gregorio, Kyle performs solo and with a crack four piece band to an ever-widening group of appreciative listeners. Kyle Alden and Friends just played the annual Fairfax Festival (for the third year in a row). He appeared with fiddler Bobbi Nikles at the recent Fiddlin' Mamas benefit at the Freight and Salvage, and in June was a featured performer at the Celebrating Songwriters series in Berkeley, hosted by Caren Armstrong. Kyle recently shared the stage as a featured performer with folksinger Lauren Sheehan at the Folk Music Showcase, Reed College, Portland, Oregon.

Over the years he has played a variety of Bay Area venues, including the Sleeping Lady, Cafe Amsterdam and Brookbeat (Fairfax), Plough and Stars, Slim's, The Bazaar Cafe, The Independent (San Franscisco), Freight & Salvage, Albatross Cafe, Bacheeso's, Left Coast Folk (Berkeley), and Julie's Coffee and Tea and the Crosstown (Alameda). He has appeared on stages from Grass Valley to Honolulu, from Palm Springs to Redding.

Continuing to play Irish music in concerts, dances and sessions, Kyle is a member of several acoustic-based bands: Curlew (with Wake the Dead members Paul Kotapish, Maureen Brennan and Bobbi Nickles); and the Mild Colonial Boys, an entertaining trio that balances songs in the Irish, English and American traditions with originals and lively instrumentals.