Clayton Knight discovered bluegrass music pretty much by accident. In 1973, a Baltimore friend bummed a ride to Virginia. The destination, in Culpeper, turned out to be one of Jim Clark’s Bluegrass Folk Music festivals, and hearing bluegrass played, first-hand, changed the way he listened to and played music.

Fast forward a few decades to his purchase, on a whim, of a mandolin, while traveling through Denver, and a lifetime of affinity for all the branches of traditional music began to sprout. In 2006, he began writing songs and in 2012, his first album, Runs Real Good was released.

A few more years of study, performing, and songwriting yielded 2017’s Big As Life, his first all-original collection of songs.

He performs in a variety of regional settings solo, with a duo, Shinbone Alley, and with his band Ash Creek. 

It’s a collection of 13 original songs that inhabit and explore a wide landscape. They came to me over a long period, almost five years, since I finished Runs Real Good, and they reflect a lot of different places and moods that I passed through in that time. Love, grief, acceptance, and hope are here, mixed with a wink and a touch of irony. I threw in some instrumentals, too, to keep it lively.

Musicians from the previous album return—Annie Staninec’s stellar fiddle and banjo, John Kael’s solid banjo and upright bass, and Ivan Rosenberg’s transcendent dobro—and are joined by Jonathan Trawick’s guitar and a superb performance by Amy Hakanson’s nyckelharpa.

Pam Beaty joins in on guitar and tenor vocals, and we feature Katharine Knight’s flawless ‘cello as well.

Masterfully engineered and mixed by Dean Baskerville, the ensemble sounds warm, authentic, and intimate.

And finally, Pharis Romero returned to contribute an extraordinary jacket design, with cover art aagin by Sunny Rickards and Martha Mitchell’s photos.

Here’s what some listeners have said:

“Really enjoying the songs because they speak to a great deal of my youth growing up in the country.”
“If you made no more CDs, this would be enough.”
“I think the songs in which you get down to the deep feelings are powerful and moving. You get to have it both ways.”

I hope you’ll listen, and that Big As Life provokes your imagination to visit this landscape with me.

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