The title track might be the most unexpected Knight song of all, an unapologetic paean to the power of love. The plainspoken positivity of “Go On” is one of Knight’s most life-affirming songs, while “The Damn Truth” is a ferociously clear-eyed look at our current cultural divide. Chris’ cover of Johnny Cash’s “Flesh And Blood” – which originally appeared on the Dualtone 2002 tribute album Dressed In Black – is a poignant interpretation of Cash’s ode to devotion. There are tales of small-town despair (“I Won’t Look Back”), ominous rural menace (“Trouble Up Ahead”) and melancholic break-ups (“Everybody’s Lonely Now”). “Crooked Mile” is classic Knight, a piercing take on outsiders bound by love, while the poignant “Send It On Down” is a plaintive plea for salvation. The album opens with “I’m William Callahan”, a defiant roar fueled by equal parts pride, memories and searing guitar. And I think it all fits together pretty good.” I’ve never put a cover song on any of my records before, but there are two covers on this one. The thing is, some of my songs might take a year of writing before I even think they’re ready for recording and I fretted about every one of these. We kept trying different approaches until I felt we landed on what worked. “I wanted it all to sound edgy and raw, but to feel big at the same time. “I was determined not to do any acoustic songs on this album,” Chris explains. Everything evolved from the performance of each song and I let the songs dictate what they needed in order to evolve into an album.” The background vocals really brought the fire, and this lead to ideas for piano, Hammond B-3, accordion and Wurlitzer electric piano. It was significant that Dan was involved, as he’s the man who can play guitar with the right feeling for Chris. “He and I talked about keeping the Appalachian factor with banjo, fiddle, harmonica and mandolin where it felt right. “Chris had been playing some of these songs on the road and started developing ideas before we got to the studio,” Kennedy says. Produced, mixed and mastered by Grammy-winner Ray Kennedy – best-known for his 30+ year creative partnership with Steve Earle as well as producing Chris’ Enough Rope (2006), Trailer II (2009) and Little Victories (2012) albums – Almost Daylight also sounds like no other Knight record, with scorching guitars by Georgia Satellites founder and two-time Knight album producer Dan Baird, rich background vocals by Chris Clark, Siobhan Kennedy and Lee Ann Womack, and deeper instrumentation than ever before. Through all these songs, you could find a theme about seeking shelter.” “I do think there’s a cohesiveness to this album,” Knight explains in his thick Kentucky rasp. It’s an album both tough and tender, as bare-knuckled as it is open-hearted. At the same time it’s unlike anything Knight has done before, with formidable testaments to compassion, redemption and even straight-up love. And now with Almost Daylight, Knight delivers the most powerful – and unexpected – music of his career.Īlmost Daylight is very much a Chris Knight album, familiarly featuring vivid pictures of rural characters, desperate men and hardscrabble survivors. Bottom line, he’s hard-earned his reputation as one of America’s most uncompromising and respected singer/songwriters. He’s been hailed as “the last of a dying breed…a taciturn loner with an acoustic guitar and a college degree” (The New York Times) and “a storyteller in the best traditions of Mellencamp and Springsteen” (USA Today). He’s released eight acclaimed albums, played thousands of electrifying live shows and built generations of fervent fans from Texas honky-tonks to Manhattan rock clubs. But I wasn’t gonna do it any other way.”įor the past 20 years, Chris Knight has only made music his own way. Maybe that’s why I was bound and determined to get these particular songs on this album. “I’ve written songs about a lot of different things going all the way back to my first record, and some folks still think ‘somebody kills somebody’ is all I write about. “It’s hard to know how people are gonna react,” Chris Knight says of Almost Daylight, his ninth album and first new recording in over seven years.
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