Show Preview: Chris Knight

 

Chris Knight

at the White Mule

Sunday January 24th

 

By Todd Mathis

I stumbled across Chris Knight’s debut album in 1998 while browsing the new releases at Manifest ages ago.  That’s how I used to find out about new music.  Well, that and listening to Uncle Gram, DJing at WUSC, reading MOJO and NO Depression, and going to live shows.  These days it’s a bit different.  I still listen to Uncle Gram, but most of my new music comes from trolling the internet blogs or reccomendations from friends.  I would like to think that if Chris Knight put out his debut today I’d know about it, but you really never know.  There are so many good artists that get lost in the Americana (and other genres) shuffle.

Knight’s story goes something like this.  He grew up in a small mining town in Kentucky and got a degree from Western Kentucky in agriculture.  He went on to record some songs and what he had was The Trailer Tapes recorded in his trailer in Kentucky, which earned him a spot at the Bluebird Café that led to a publishing deal and later a record deal.   I remember seeing a video of the song “It Ain’t Easy Being Me” on CMT around the time the debut came out.  The guitarist had horrible teeth…  Anyway, the record deal didn’t work out that great, but Knight’s had some of his songs recorded by some bigwigs in Nashville and has gone on to release a few more albums of his own, including re-releasing The Trailer Tapes, and a new acoustic disc The Trailer Tapes II.

If I had to describe Knight’s music, in short I’d probably say something like “Blue Collar Blues.”  The chord progressions are your standard country, with a rock lead thrown in and lyrics that bring heartache and loss, but they can also have a sense of hope.  He may drop an ironic or funny line here and there, but most deal with the land, the law, and love.

RIYL:  Steve Earle, Todd Snider, rusty barbed wire