One More Night: Five Minutes with Musician Lonnie Knight

A couple weeks back Lonnie Knight helped make A Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan a memorable event for everyone present. This Friday Lonnie will be at Amazing Grace in Canal Park for an intimate evening of original tunes and select covers from 8 to 10 p.m. He always brings something special to his solo acoustic guitar work and vocals and the $5 cover will be worth every penny.

EN: Do you make your living as a musician? If not, what do you do primarily to support your family/yourself?

LK: I do make a good portion of my living as a musician. I am also a graphic artist and web designer.

EN: Are you also a songwriter or do you primarily play covers?

LK: It depends on the gig. In my shows, it's usually a 60% original 40% cover blend. Some venues don't pay the BMI-ASCAP licensing fees, then it's all original. I've always loved arranging and interpreting other people's music, and I think it gives the audience a frame of reference. Throwing in a few covers gives the listener a comfort zone, particularly if they've never heard you before.

EN: Who’s songs do you primarily like to cover? How do you choose?

LK: I don't have a set method... the song has to speak to me, and it has to challenge me. Sometimes it's the lyric, sometimes it's the melody. I tend to choose songs that fit well with the original stuff that I do, so I gravitate to the writers who have inspired and influenced me.

Besides just being great songs, I do "Still Crazy After All These Years" by Paul Simon because it's one of the most intelligently crafted chord progressions I've ever heard, "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn because I wanted to see if I could interpret that piano part on guitar. Townes Van Zandt taught me "Pancho and Lefty" in Dallas decades ago, I recorded it on my first album, it's still in my repertoire and it's one of the most requested songs I do.

EN: What is it that turns you on about performing?

LK: When I'm working in an ensemble, and the band is clicking, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. We establish a groove, the groove becomes an entity, and then we're just along for the ride... thought gives way to feel, it's a transcendent experience.

Working solo is similar, on a more subtle level. On a good night, if the audience engages, they become as important to the music as my guitar, my voice and the song. It's difficult to explain the feeling, but there's a synergy that ties everything together.

EN: Do you have a website where people can follow what you’re doing?

LK: All of my music, photography, etc. is at lonnieknight.com, some of my design stuff is at www.lonnieknight.net (the site really needs to be updated, I work for other folks and tend to forget about my own site)... I just set up a site for my quartet, Mosquito Shoals, www.mosquitoshoals.com (it's still under development, but there are a couple of audio and video things there)... then there's Facebook, and a YouTube channel.

EN: Looks like you're not too hard to find. What has been your personal career highlight?

LK: I've been lucky, there are a lot of them... working for a week with Townes Van Zandt, touring in Japan last year (we're negotiating for a second tour this October), recording in Nashville with Pig Robbins and some of the top Nashville session players, working in Don Nix's band with some pretty heavyweight Memphis guys... I was staff guitarist at Sound 80 Recording Studio for a number of years, I've been fortunate to play with a lot of the best musicians to come out of Minnesota... the Dylan show we did at Sacred Heart the other night ranks right up there, the audience gave back so much. I'm still spinning from that one.

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Local Art Seen: Amazing Grace Hosts An Opening and PRØVE Proves Itself Once Again

Esther Piszczek at Amazing Grace

A funny thing happened here. I just now discovered that Friday morning's blog post didn't "post" for some reason. As I tinkered with the code it suddenly went online as if it had been written this morning, which throws you a little when you get to the end and I encourage people to enjoy their Friday eve arts activities. If you didn't get out, here's some of what you might have seen.

The weather Friday evening was as good as it gets for a Friday night art walk. There's been a new addition to the mix. Amazing Grace provided a wonderful space for Esther Piszczek's opening reception. Like the artists featured in Friday's PRØVE show, Piszczek is herself a transplant to Duluth, having grown up in Lehigh Valley, Eastern Pennsylvania, and then practiced law in New England for 17 years. A dancer, writer, artist and wife, she maintains a blog called Eternal Possibility... and is a welcome addition to our Northland community.

Piszczek's work in this show was primarily comprised of detailed pen and ink drawingz which took zome of their inspiration from Zentangle. There is a playful quality in much of the work which is especially noteworthy for its detail. Piszczek takes the Zentangle concept to whole new dimensions, however, with a complexity that draws you in to each design. 

My only advice to Esther: keep it going! Thanks for sharing...

Co-Founder Nick Monson

The PRØVE once again offered up an excellent show, putting on display works by a number of artists who were unfamiliar to us before this show: Rob Adams, Ray Allard, Rodrigo Bello, Zach Gorr, Marcus Meldahl, and Aphtin Rapp. There were sculptured works, paintings, prints and some clever wordplay pieces in the mix. And some most unusual pizza toppings on the Pirate Pizzas delivered that evening, including apples and beets. Yumm?

The turnout was good, as usual, music by the Crunchy Bunch providing ambience. They also had a masseuse doing massages in the window. With a bit of a drive home I was reluctant to get too relaxed.

John Peyton's work has now been removed from the upper room at the Minnesota Wine Exchange. We'll be looking forward to seeing whose work will occupy this well lighted space next.

Don't forget this Thursday's opening at the Duluth Art Institute, 5-7 p.m.  And for those who have been following our poetry scene, on Wednesday PRØOF Magazine is presenting a poetry reading of Twin Ports Poets at the Red Star Lounge. What I like about these poetry events is that after the featured readers perform, the stage becomes an open mic for other local poets to present. This event will begin at 7.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

Rodrigo Bello is newly arrived in Duluth from Chile.