Author: ITP News Desk | Published: 08/25/2010 URL: http://www.inthepanhandle.com/local/n/7519

Bandmate’s Health Scare Gives Group New Appreciation

Since he walked away from his corporate environmental engineering career thirteen years ago to embark on the half million mile journey that is his life in music, western Loudoun-based singer and songwriter Andrew McKnight has built an enthusiastic fanbase and a wealth of critical acclaim.

But despite the success of his solo performing career, McKnight long yearned for something more artistically – a creative performing and recording collaboration; one that he has finally found with his three bandmates in Beyond Borders. Together with Lisa Taylor, Stephanie Thompson and Les Thompson, one of the founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the quartet have developed fresh interpretations of McKnight’s songs and introduced audiences to their collaborative talents as writers and arrangers.

While each member has appeared on different McKnight recordings since 1998, they didn’t perform together as a unit until the March 2008 release concert at the Kennedy Center for his latest solo CD Something Worth Standing For. They’ve already enjoyed successes together and built an enthusiastic audience. While McKnight fronts the quartet on acoustic and electric guitars, he shuns the notion of “his band”, preferring instead the analogy of a table that needs all four legs to stand. 

For him, the personal bonds matter as much as the individual talents; “Playing music is such a raw and emotional experience for me – those connections between musicians transcend spoken language.”  Although the two Thompsons have been married for over 10 years, the foursome have become much like a musical family. Taylor’s husband Jim is the band’s sound engineer; Stephanie Thompson’s son produces the band’s videos, and Les son’s company does the band’s graphic design. Those bonds clearly matter to each of them; Les had not been a member of a performing entity since leaving the Dirt Band nearly 40 years ago.

It was right after their annual concert at Beans in the Belfry last Labor Day that Les was diagnosed with throat cancer and endured two months of radiation and chemotherapy, and a long recovery over the winter and spring. With a clean bill of health and his strength finally returning, the group has a profound appreciation for life’s fragility as well as their own deep bonds – “like chosen family”, McKnight puts it.

As the lyrics to McKnight’s award-winning song “Good Things Matter” suggest, McKnight frequently can be found sharing his talents at benefit performances across the US to help “neighbors in need, wherever they may be”. But while he is accustomed to helping others, he and his bandmates weren’t prepared for the helplessness they experienced together over the past year.

One of the band’s signature tunes is “Count Your Blessings”. The bandmates hold it as a mantra, grateful for second chances at life and the joy of making music together.  McKnight makes himself a daily “date with gratitude”, appreciating the gift of life in music and the presence of his musical family in it: all made possible by the many people who have supported his musical journey over the years. “Independent music is a misnomer,” he muses; “I am completely dependent – without people to listen to the music, what is there?”.

DATE/TIME: SUN. SEPT. 5th, 7pm
PROGRAM: Concert featuring Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders
VENUE AND ADDRESS: Beans in the Belfry, 122 W. Potomac St., BRUNSWICK [ZIP 21716]
EVENT INFO & TICKETS: $18 at the door;

301/834-7178 OR http://www.beansinthebelfry.com  
ARTIST INFO: http://www.andrewmcknight.net