Andrew McKnight receives a career from giving

Award-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist and storyteller Andrew McKnight comes to Wildscape Acres (near Ravenna, TX) from his northern Virginia Blue Ridge home to perform at Harmony House Concerts on Saturday, February 28, '15, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

McKnight's powerful and entertaining solo performances are like one-man theatre; the songs are woven together with humorous stories and poetic drama, and the musical soundscape traverses influences from Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, rustic folk, and even a little fancy flatpicking on a Carter Family tune.

 For reservations and more information, call 903/583-2661 to talk with hosts, Faye and Scott.  Leave a message on the Voice Mail, if unavailable, stating the number of seats requested and your contact information (preferably, your e-mail address for confirmation).  The suggested donation is $15 per person and all checks are to be made out to Andrew McKnight.  To prepay, please send your check to be received no later than February 25th to Faye Wedell; P.O. Box 812; Bonham, TX 75418. 

Refunds will be made for cancellations made by that same date.  If you make a reservation, please respect the performing artist and the hosts by showing up.  Without a cancellation, you will still be expected to pay. 

There will be no Potluck Dinner before this show, but guests are requested to bring a finger food snack to share on the tables provided for such treats.  The hosts will provide bottomless cups of coffee, hot tea, and punches.  Guests are also invited to stay after the show for a Song Circle.  Bring your instrument, if care to "pick and grin" for a while.  You can play/sing your own favorite/original songs or you can ask others who stay for the Song Circle to join in a Sing-Along, as you play.

This skillful songwriter's interest in history is revealed in songs such as the Civil War ballad "The Road to Appomattox" and the soldier's elegy "Wind Whispers Your Name." ... He also works in true folkie tradition, updating lyrics to classic material such as "Worried Man Blues" or reworking Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" to place himself mano-a-devil." (The Washington Post). While McKnight shares that folk lineage with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, fans of contemporary singer/songwriters like Darrell Scott, John McCutcheon and Richard Shindell will find much to like in his songs and stylings.

Since leaving his corporate environmental engineering career in 1996, McKnight has logged well over half a million miles touring across America. In addition to his solo career, he fronts Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders along with founding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Les Thompson. Their 2012 live CD/DVD One Virginia Night and Andrew's five solo CDs have earned much critical acclaim and airplay around the world as well as a wealth of NPR stations and several XM/Sirius satellite shows. The band is part of the prestigious Virginia Commission for the Arts Touring Assistance Program. The popular jam band Great American Taxi frequently perform his anti-mountaintop removal ballad "Made by Hand", co-written with Thompson and Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), including on NPR’s Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour.

 While no stranger to elite stages like the Kennedy Center, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival or the Katharine Hepburn Theater, McKnight's music seems to spread most rapidly through the diverse causes that have embraced his music. “I suppose if you designed the ‘anti-traditional’ approach to the music business, I’ve taken it,” he chuckles. Whether helping people living on the margins with food drives at concerts, singing for and about workers and communities displaced by mountaintop removal coal mining, or introducing children to music and creativity, he has seen the power of music to help others up close. And in turn his musical journey, now spanning two decades and “several hundred guest rooms”, is completely dependent on those personal grassroots.

For more about McKnight including concert videos, music downloads and more, visit www.andrewmcknight.net.