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Publicity Resources (Andrew solo)


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Solo Concert Videos to Embed/Download
"Dancing in the Rain"  youtube.com/watch?v=dzYyTA7Ake8
"Good Things Matter"  youtube.com/watch?v=qNJoP21AFWg
"How High the Mountain"  youtube.com/watch?v=I6XtaWiwRUY
“These Shoes” (from house concert, with intro) http://youtu.be/Qh65EJGhJ30
Videos from 5-camera public television/radio broadcast with excellent sound unless otherwise noted.

If Using Social Media please link/share/follow/etc. these sites
FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/AndrewMcKnight.Musician
TWITTER http://www.twitter.com/andrewmcknight
REVERBNATION http://www.reverbnation.com/andrewmcknight

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HEAD: Andrew McKnight Receives a Career From Giving
SUBHEAD: Award-Winning Songwriter and Entertainer to Perform

DATE/TIME:
PROGRAM: Concert featuring award-winning singer/songwriter, guitarist and storyteller Andrew McKnight
VENUE AND ADDRESS:
EVENT INFO:

ARTIST INFO: www.andrewmcknight.net
PRESSKIT: andrewmcknight.net/presskit
Please email info at andrewmcknight.net or call 540/338-3233 for an interview or for additional information, and thank you for your time.

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THE STORY
It’s not uncommon in the modern music business to find self-managed artists with carefully crafted business plans. And given his engineering background, you might expect singer and songwriter Andrew McKnight to be one of them. Surprisingly though, the first phrase he chooses to describe his career is “a giant leap of faith”.

“I suppose if you designed the ‘anti-traditional’ approach to the music business, I’ve taken it,” he chuckles. In his solo musical journey of “nearly three quarters of a million miles and several hundred guest rooms” from his home at the foot of northern Virginia’s Blue Ridge, he is convinced of the power of good in people (as well as the reliability of Honda minivans).

McKnight knows it personally, citing the one to one connections with fans and friends as the main engine propelling his career since he left the corporate environmental consulting world in 1996. He attributes his modest successes and career longevity to three things; 1 – stay true to his muse and the craft, 2 – make it drop-dead easy for anyone who wants to help, and 3 – be open to the possibilities.

Ironically, much of it happens through giving. 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 up close in many ways.  And through those efforts many people discover his music and become part of the vital grassroots that sustain his life and livelihood, many even going so far as to host his concerts in their home for a few dozen friends and neighbors.

Many of his stories and messages can provoke deep empathy without being preachy, particularly when broaching subjects like the journey of an illegal immigrant woman in “These Shoes”. “Music is this crazy mingling of the visceral with the mysterious,” he says. “You can describe the process and the product with laws of physics and math, but the science kind of falls apart when you try to describe how and why it affects people.”

“I look at my role as a musical cinematographer; to bring you the listener into the story through the character and let you see and feel their surroundings.” He draws on many sounds and styles to set those stories. The songs on his 5 solo CDs stretch from Americana country-tinged rock to ancient Appalachian sounds, crossing the Mississippi Delta and the fertile soils and stories of the deep South along the way.

His efforts have been more than just a success with listeners and fans. His song “Good Things Matter” won the Great American Song Contest, and his latest solo CD Something Worth Standing For was an Overall Album of the Year finalist in the Washington Area Music Awards. Of the album, Performing Songwriter magazine wrote “Stretching across the landscape of American folk music is a highway paved by Guthrie and Dylan... now Virginia native Andrew McKnight takes his turn smoothing down the blacktop”.

McKnight sees that comparison as more philosophical than musical. “I see both of them as witnesses to times of great change. And I am privileged to travel our country during this evolution as a society – replacing neighborhood ties in favor of chosen connections to people who share our values wherever they may live; that is profound and fundamental,” he muses. “And by definition, fundamental change means some win, and some lose. Those are the stories that move me to act as well as write.”

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