From Andrew's 2001 CD Turning Pages; "In the hayfields and creek bottoms near home, one can still find bullets in the grass. Many local families carefully preserve old parchment handwritten diaries. Nowhere else is the bloodiest conflict in American history more ever-present than here among the details."
Words &amp; music A. McKnight, ©1999 Catalooch Music, BMI


The Road To Appomattox

Culled from an unplugged live performance at the Shenandoah Coffeehouse Series, October 2003, in the historic country chapel of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun near Leesburg VA. Written by Jeff Arey and featuring him on mandolin, Andrew McKnight on lead acoustic guitar, and John Rickard on rhythm guitar. With thanks to Chris Cantwell for making the trip up from Chattanooga, recording the show, and the fair amount of post production required to make it listenable.

The Rocks Reel - Dang Varmints! (live, 2003)

Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders with an assist from Seth Kibel on clarinet and Rick Reaves on trombone. A swingy little jingle for their friends at Catoctin Creek, who make the finest traditional Virginia rye whisky and more. Learn more about their award-winning distillery at http://catoctincreekdistilling.com

Catoctin Creek Distilling Company Jingle

The soundtrack song from the short documentary film "Sound of Home", written and recorded by Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders. The movie tells the story of Andrew's quest for a guitar built of native local wood, built by renowned luthier Martin Fair. For more about the movie, http://andrewmcknight.net. For more about Fairbuilt Guitars, http://fairbuilt.com

By A Craftsman's Hand

From 2006 - I did a songwriting residency at Loudoun Country Day School (Leesburg VA)with two 3rd-grade classes. Thanks to my friend/bandmate Les Thompson, we recorded their songs at the studio with Wayne Estes (bass), Jesse Shultzaberger (drums) and me on guitars, and the kids singing the chorus. My friend Chris King was the Program Director at WAGE, a local AM radio station, and invited the kids in for an interview and to play their songs on the radio. Pretty cool residency! Note - the two songs are totally different :) 

3rd Grade - Be My Friend, Too

LCDS 3rd Grade - Different

The opening track from the 2008 CD "Something Worth Standing For" remains one of my favorite productions, thanks to my pal Les Thompson. Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter) on accordion, Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show) on fiddle quartet, Jesse Shultzaberger (Woodshedders) on drums, Jim Baird (Oxymora) on bass, John Mark Power on the low whistles, and yours truly on vocals and guitars.

Times We're Living In

Born of the realization that every one of those spaces on your family tree are essential to you being here, whether or not you know the name or anything else about the occupants of each space. That the gift of your life passed through all of them, and that they deserve to be remembered in some way, and hopefully someday, each of us will be too. From the 2020 album and book Treasures in My Chest (https://andrewmcknight.bandcamp.com/album/treasures-in-my-chest)

Web Of Mystery

I felt that the first song I wrote on the gift guitar should have something to do with those shared ancestors to whom we all owe our existence. It was right before a show I was doing that Christmas, and I started to wonder about the hard lives they would have led in mid-1800s County Down. Around the winter solstice the sun sinks dreadfully early in the afternoon, and the hard work of manual laborers probably didn't slow much in post-famine Ireland either. Despite the title, it really has little to do with another skill attributed to "my people"; the distillation of spirits other than of the holiday variety. From the 2020 album and book Treasures in My Chest (andrewmcknight.bandcamp.com/album/treas…in-my-chest).

A Dram To The Holidays

Since permanently leaving his corporate environmental engineering career in 1996, award-winning folk and Americana artist Andrew McKnight's musical journey has traced nearly a million miles of blue highways, and earned him a wealth of critical acclaim and enthusiastic fans for his captivating performances and seven recordings. He usually tours solo, but also performs frequently with founding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Les Thompson fronting their genre-bending quartet Beyond Borders.

McKnight writes, sings and speaks eloquently of the struggles and successes of rural America, weaving his masterfully crafted songs, humorous stories and poetic drama into a musical soundscape sketched with shades of Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, and rustic folk.

AndrewMcKnight

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