Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Kris GruenIt was in Vermont's rural backcountry woods, mountains, and fields that surround his family's organic farm, that Kris Gruen began writing his fifth studio album, Welcome Farewell.

"I felt like a naturalist," says the alt-folk songwriter, who had spent much of the previous decade on the road, strumming his songs to crowds on both sides of the Atlantic. "For a traveling musician, it can be rare to choose a place in the world where you can put down your roots in this most concrete of ways. I now have a big physical commitment to home — to the farm that my family built from scratch, where my wife grows Brussels sprouts and my grandmother is buried. It was while hiking in the nearby woods that I found the reflection and context needed to write about the people and relationships that make up my family and community life. When I removed myself physically from my home to write, I could write about home more genuinely."