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| Knight says, "I just try to sing the songs like I mean it." |
Knight
“remains boldly empowered to make music that always delivers the unflinching
truth,” says the bio on his website. “That brutally honest, no-frills
philosophy fits his Americana-fueled, backwoods-grown merger of folk, country,
and rock.”
The musician
grew up in Webster County, earned an agriculture degree from Western Kentucky
University, and was a state strip-mine reclamation inspector and consultant for
10 years before embarking full-time on his entertainment career. He began writing
songs when he was 26 after being inspired by hearing Steve Earle on the radio, and
started performing at 30. After a couple of years he got a spot on songwriters’
night at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, and attracted the interest of music
producer Frank Liddell, who signed him to a contract when he
was 37.
When Liddell
became an artist-and-repertoire representative for Decca Records, Knight got a
contract with Decca, which released his self-titled debut album in 1998. At the
time, Knight still lived in a 10'-x-15' trailer on 90 acres in
Slaughters, Kentucky. Decca went out of business just two years later, but
after two years without a label, Knight signed with Dualtone Music Group. He licensed
his music to Dualtone for two records, then began released his music
independently with the help of his manager.
His
own songs have been the backbone of nine studio albums, from 2001’s A
Pretty Good Guy and 2003’s The Jealous Kind, to two demo-styled
discs (2007’s The Trailer Tapes and 2009’s Trailer II,
recorded in his trailer at Slaughters), to the electric-guitar-heavy Almost
Daylight in 2019. He collaborated with former Decca labelmate Lee Ann Womack
on "You Lie When You Call My Name" on the Little Victories album
in 2012. He was joined on the title track by his longtime musical hero, John
Prine.
“Chris Knight is one of the most starkly honest lyricists
working today, much like his late friend John Prine,” wrote Massachusetts music
columnist Jay N. Miller. “His songs tell the stories or set the mood of
working-class folk and their struggles in candid, often dark shadings. . . .
There are songs about these people prevailing against tough odds, and also songs
where it is clear they just won’t.”
Opening for Chris Knight will be Emi Sunshine and Larry Cordle, a country-and-bluegrass singer-songwriter best known for writing “Murder on Music Row,” recorded by George Strait and Alan Jackson, which received the Country Music Association award for Vocal Event of the Year, and was nominated for CMA Song of the Year in 2000. He plans to reunite his band, Lonesome Standard Time, at the Spirit of 76 Celebration.
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