Chris Knight

Because Knight’s music has always sat outside of the mainstream, onstage is where he makes his fans one show at a time. It is exactly where his searing tales of rural characters, fringe survivors, and tumultuous small-town existence find a captivated audience. A few edgy, raw gems that immediately come to mind are “It Ain’t Easy Being Me,” “Carla Came Home,” “I’m William Callahan,” and “Everybody’s Lonely Now,” the latter two from Almost Daylight.

“I’ve written songs about a lot of different things going all the way back to my first record,” he says, “and some folks still think ‘somebody kills somebody’ is all I write about.”

What Knight writes about is what he knows. He was raised in mining country, so it’s no surprise that he would earn a degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University and then work as a mine reclamation inspector and then miner’s consultant. But eventually his passion for writing songs and playing guitar, both inspired by his musical hero, the late John Prine, led him to chronicle his surroundings in words and music.

“I came from a big family and grew up in the woods six miles from two small towns, so there were a lot of stories,” he says. “There were always a lot of ideas to write about.”

Those ideas have earned Knight praise from publications such as The New York Times (“the last of a dying breed…a taciturn loner with an acoustic guitar and a college degree”) and USA Today (“a storyteller in the best traditions of Mellencamp and Springsteen”), to name a few. Like his beloved Prine, whom Knight duets with on Prine’s chestnut “Mexican Home,” the cut that closes Almost Daylight, Knight fits comfortably in Texas honky-tonks, downtown Nashville venues, and cool Manhattan rock clubs.

It’s no wonder that Knight has single-handedly scraped a reputation as one of America’s most uncompromising and respected singer-songwriters through 23 years and nine studio albums. He’s done this minus fanfare and artifice. The native son of Slaughters, Kentucky (population: 238) only sings songs he believes. He also speaks only when he has a potent message.

“If I don’t have something worth saying, I’m not opening my mouth. I haven’t suited everybody, but every time I get a new fan it tells me I’m doing something right. I think all my records have set a precedent, if only for me at the very least. I just want people to think the latest one stands up to everything else I’ve done.”

About the opener: Daniel Miller is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for centering his music on locales that inspire him. “I tend to focus on an area or region that strikes me and write songs about that place. My focus isn’t on limiting a record to fit into a specific bin on a store shelf; it’s to tell a story. So while I’ve been labeled a Country, Americana, or Roots Music artist, I try not to let that influence or limit whatever project I’m working on at the moment.”

Born and raised in Knoxville, TN and currently living near Boston, MA, Daniel has been writing songs based off of his experiences on the road for the past twenty years. Daniel’s newest album, his first to be billed under the full band name Daniel Miller & The High Life, is based on his time spent in West Texas. Scheduled for release in April 2025, it will prominently feature his touring band along with some very special artists.

Daniel’s songs can be heard on numerous Country and Americana radio stations across the United States and internationally. He has opened for various national acts including: Jamey Johnson, Chris Knight, American Aquarium, The Old 97’s, The Mavericks, The Black Lillies, Scott Miller, Lukas Nelson & POTR, Sunny Sweeney, Mic Harrison, and Dick Dale; in some of America’s most beloved performance venues.