Monday, May 17, 2004

An Allen County family will be sharing their simple music with a wider audience on a national television show. John Christopher Knight, his wife, Laura, and some of their nine children will appear Tuesday on NBCs Today show. Its presently scheduled somewhere between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., regardless of time zones, Knight said. Of course, if a really big time-sensitive story comes up it could be bumped to another day. It wasnt the familys first experience on television. CNN aired their story in January. Knight, Laura, and their nine children, who range in age from 32 to 7 John Jr., Joshua, Justin, Prentice, Joel, Madison, Malachi, Gabriel and Kate began living the simple life about 15 years ago after Knight was in an accident that left him seeking more spiritual fulfillment. After praying with his wife, Knight moved his family from their stylish home in Macon, Ga., to a self-built farm with no electricity, indoor plumbing, television or radio in the Mount Arial community in rural Allen County. Most of the children have grown up and live on their own, but the four youngest are still at home. The Today show crew filmed the family at their home and on their way to and during the first official show of the Knight Family National Coool Bus Tour last month at Four Rivers Center in Paducah. It was a lot of fun for the children and all, Knight said. They would film in the bus, then get out and into one of the vehicles following and zoom ahead. The Knights were promoting music from their first CD Way Down Inside, which is made up of songs that John Christopher Knight wrote and recorded a few years ago with friends and his sons Prentice and Justin, plus three new songs. Their music is not quite folk and not quite country. It has been called sincere, authentic and unique, he said. In February 2003, the CD hit No. 55 on the Americana Music Association chart, then rose to 44 two spots behind the Dixie Chicks. Knight was in the company of other well-known acts, including Nickle Creek, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman. He has also been told by someone with the Roots Music Report that the CD had hit No. 7 in the folk genre. Knight said he and his family were amazed by the lengths the camera crew would go to for the perfect shot. A few minutes later we would drive up on these camera men lying out in the highway with the camera on the ground to shoot the bus passing by, he said. Next, the van would zoom up from behind with the camera man hanging out the side door of the van holding the door jamb with one arm while filming the bus from rear to front, and over again. Knight said it was interesting to see how people from a larger city who constantly travel the world would react on a laid-back, rural Kentucky farm. The entire Today show crew was wonderful and quite down to earth, he said. The Knight familys next performance will be at 7 p.m. June 3 at the Renaissance Center in Dickson, Tenn. For more information, call the center at (615) 740-5600 or (888) 700-2300. For more information about Way Down Inside, visit Knights Web site at www.johnchristopherknight.com or call (800) 289-4598.  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700