Knight family returns to Renaissance Center for Sept. 18 concert

Release Date: 9/1/2005. Expired: 9/18/2005

John Christopher Knight’s plan to move to a rural Kentucky farm and quietly raise his family away from the trappings of suburban life took an unexpected turn somewhere and they became a folk and Americana music phenomenon.

The Knight family’s debut CD, Way Down Inside, climbed the national record charts right alongside popular artists such as the Dixie Chicks and music legends like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. For more than a year now they have been touring all over the country in a converted school bus, playing sold-out concerts in a variety of venues with the tour schedule showing a break for “spring plowing and planting” followed by “farming time” on the family’s web site (www.johnchristopherknight.com).

The Knights return to The Renaissance Center Sunday, Sept. 18, for a 2 p.m. concert in the 450-seat Performance Hall that they sold out with a June 2004 appearance. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $6 for children under 13.

Their Coool Bus tour has taken them all over the southeast and every stop generates media buzz with numerous newspaper and magazine articles and television and radio appearances. They’ve been featured on NBC’s Today Show, CNN and PBS.

Just 20 years ago, the Knights were a typical suburban family, living in a five-bedroom home with two cars in the driveway and Knight a successful businessman, soccer coach and player. But Knight decided to make a drastic change in lifestyle while he was recuperating from a soccer injury that laid him up for four months.

Knight put the family’s belongings in a barn, sold the cars and rented a farm where he, his wife and their five children lived in a camper and a handmade shack. After quitting his job, Knight bought his own farm and, using only hand tools, built a barn and the main part of their new house. They hauled water by buckets for two years before installing a ram pump and gravity flow water system. The family, now grown to nine children, still lives without electricity, farms with horses and organically, and raises and trains border collies. The family spent evenings singing and making music on the front porch with the children learning to play multiple instruments and Knight writing original songs.

It was while camping at a Border collie event that the unexpected turn in their “simple” lifestyle happened.

“While camping out at a Border collie event in Georgia, a man heard us playing my songs and offered to have my music recorded,” Knight said in an interview. “I turned him down.”

But when one of Knight’s dogs was purchased by a farmer from Scotland, Knight changed his mind after realizing his oldest son would be gone to Great Britain for six months to work on farms with the dog.

“I decided before he left to record my songs,” Knight said. “I called the man back who had offered to record me a year earlier. Then, a videographer said he thought our music was special and wanted to see it promoted, so he made us a mini-documentary/music video.”

That launched a new life for the Knight family when the CD debuted at number 44 on the AMA Radio Airplay Charts.

So now, the family that doesn’t own a television or radio and had to borrow a battery-powered CD player to hear their own CD is traveling around the country and playing in front of sold-out audiences. Knight’s original songs invoke family themes and are intertwined with stories about his family and lifestyle. He is joined on stage by several of his children, most of whom play multiple instruments and join in on tight harmonies.

For more information on the John Christopher Knight and Family concert at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

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