Chris Knight stays on target with edgy, straightforward songs
by Ron Wynn
Kentucky singer-songwriter Chris Knight's earnest manner and hardscrabble delivery are ideal vehicles for the stark, evocative songs he crafts about the realities of life on the edge. Those tunes also reflect his background: A native of a small town — Slaughters, population roughly 240 — Knight holds a degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky and spent 10 years as a mine reclamation engineer and consultant.
He's had his share of Nashville success, but Knight is as straightforward and honest as the characters in his stories, and remains unconcerned with anything beyond telling the truth as he sees it. "I came to Nashville back in 1992 and was hoping to meet some of the stars I'd heard about playing down on Lower Broadway like Willie Nelson and people like that," he says. "I didn't meet any of them, but I did meet some good people and make some buddies I still maintain contact with. It was fun and I enjoyed my time there, but I never saw those stars I'd heard about."
He also won a spot on a songwriters' night at the Bluebird Cafe shortly after his arrival, and his songs were distinctive enough to catch the ear of Frank Liddell, who subsequently signed him to a writing deal with Bluewater Music. Knight has since earned a measure of fame with songs like the Montgomery Gentry hit "She Couldn't Change Me" and others for Randy Travis, John Anderson, Confederate Railroad, Ty Herndon, Blake Shelton and Stacy Dean Campbell, among others.
But Knight didn't become so beloved in Americana and traditional circles for making the kind of light, slick material that currently rules much of country radio. Rather, he's made his name with the unadorned tales of struggle and woe that feature prominently on 2007's The Trailer Tapes and its follow-up, Trailer II, which was released last September. Collectively, these two discs represent the best from 30 tunes Knight cut in the summer of 1996. They were recorded straight to digital tape and feature nothing beyond Knight's gritty vocals and an acoustic guitar.
Trailer II contains early versions of tunes that are now well-known Knight numbers. These include "It Ain't Easy Being Me," a searing confessional piece that deftly blends vulnerability with a defiant sensibility, as well as "The River's Own," a story about how love for a river bonds an otherwise estranged father and son, and the fabulous "Love And a .45," about the bittersweet, doomed love affair between a hooker and a cop. None of these are feel-good, upbeat pieces, and the lack of backing instrumentation and vocals only makes them more powerful, with Knight accenting the storylines and themes with fire and authority.
Despite the lyric flamboyance in these pieces, Knight disdains the importance of writing on a regular basis. "I'm the type of guy who only writes when I get the idea," he says. "If I try to sit there and force it, all it's going to do is make me hate whatever I'm trying to do or say. I can kind of tell right away whether something's happening there, and if it is, I'll sit there and get it down no matter how long it takes. But you really can't rush or force anything, and I've found that if you let it come and the time is right you can really get it right."
And Knight certainly knows a thing or two about getting it right: His writing is nothing short of inspired on "Framed," a biting tune about dashed hopes and injustice that also boasts one of his most passionate vocals, as it is on the biographical "Oil Patch Town" and the poignant "Becky's Bible." Though his style and unflinching lyrical approach don't make him a candidate for either pop or country stations, several Americana and college stations have given air time to Knight's songs, drawing from a host of releases from 2006's Enough Rope to 2008's Heart of Stone.
On the road for roughly 80-100 dates a year — "just enough to keep it from becoming a drag, and enough for me to also be able to enjoy being at home for a few weeks at a time" — Knight remains perched on that imaginary fence that runs between lauded obscurity and mainstream stardom, though a discussion of how that might change interests him very little. Asked whether he'd consider a possible relocation to Nashville as a good career move, Knight responds, "Well, I've been coming to Nashville since 1992 and I've enjoyed it when I've been there. But If I haven't moved there in 18 years, why would I do it now?"
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
Comments (0)