Museum After Dark: Village Sounds, featuring Kalyn Fay

On Friday, August 12, we are pleased to bring you Kalyn Fay for Village Sounds. The museum will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with music starting in the Village Church at 7:00 p.m.

As a museum, it is our role to be honest, authentic interpreters of the past, using pieces of historic evidence as our guide. We use that evidence to tell the story of our past.

Musicians are also storytellers. The good ones also tell honest, authentic stories about the world around us. Village Sounds, a “Museum After Dark” experience at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, is a chance to explore our story in Oklahoma from the perspective of different songwriters from our state.

The Village Church on the grounds of the Humphrey Heritage Village will be transformed for the evening into an intimate listening room for different musicians to share their songs and their stories.

The Heritage Center will remain open for the duration, so visitors can also explore our shared history at their leisure.

Oklahoma-bred songwriter Kalyn Fay has a voice that commands rapt attention, whether filling a theater or piercing the din of a dive bar. It’s a tenor timbre a first-time listener once aptly described as “butterscotch,” all rich and velveteen, bold, singular.

Fay’s been writing and recording her own music for as long as she’s had a story to tell. She’s lived more than her share of life: She’s loved and lost, voraciously pursued higher education, questioned her faith, walked the line between her upbringing and her Cherokee roots, and figured out how to process and express all that through her art. She’s traveled. She’s come back home. She’s left again.

All of this is evident when she sings. Fay seems at her most comfortable when her own voice carries her story and moves it forward. Her candid lyrics reflect with a measured sorrow; they know when to say thank you, goodbye, or nothing at all. Her melodies make space for others, including an extensive collective of trusted musical collaborators from her hometown, but she will hold onto a word here and suddenly cut one off there, whenever the time is right.

When Kalyn Fay sings, you’ll hear her confessions and acceptance, vulnerability, hard-fought lessons, and measured determination. The narrative, the life lived, is hers; the warmth of her voice entrusts her story to those who will listen.

The concert is of no extra cost, outside of admission to the Heritage Center. Members of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center or the Oklahoma Historical Society always visit the Heritage Center for free.

This event is made possible through the financial support of our community partner, Park Avenue Thrift.