TRAVELER by Andrew McKnight is like a journey around the rim of a wheel: a touch of traditional, a touch of country, a touch of Celtic, a touch of contemporary. Spokes run down from each to a sweet spot at the hub. In that sweet spot, McKnight combines them all to spin his magic into a new art form -- a kind of "Blues-grass". TRAVELER is an album of uncommonly fine love songs. In addition to all varieties of romantic love, there is McKnight's incredible joy and love for his music. You will find an overflowing love for life (in all its forms), as well as a great love for the land and people of the American countryside. There is even a love song sung by two rivers. McKnight describes himself as "a New England folkie who got sidetracked in Appalachia". He slides easily into whatever style or combination of styles will best suit the tone of each song. I wouldn't try to pin too narrow a label on his work. If you like anything from James Taylor to Taj Mahal, you will find something here for you. "Dancing in the Rain" combines a feeling for the farmlands with a real knowledge of the musical styles traditional to them. The verses speak matter-of-factly of the hardships this kind of life can bring, but the chorus celebrates the here-and-now joy of not having lost yet. The simple pleasure of dancing in the rain is also the great delight of being given a chance to continue. It is a song so joyful I want to sing along with it, but frequently can't, because the tears of joy close up my throat. Is it true that only farming is as hard and unpredictable as love, so much so that you're likely to ignore all the hard work you've put into it and sweep it away with a whim like a summer storm? In "Demon Named Loneliness" McKnight makes me believe it. Fortunately, sometimes the unpredictable answer, the one you really don't expect to hear, is Yes! Playing a game recently, I was asked my favorite word. I chose "Shenandoah" (what a sound!). My friends said names weren't allowed, so I chose "confluence." Both its sound and its images touch me deeply. To me, it means a mingling that is complete, beyond sharing. Like life. Like Love. So imagine how my brain exploded when I heard "Atchafalaya" a love song sung to the Atchafalaya River by the Mighty Mississippi. Andrew portrays the rivers as a riparian Romeo and Juliet. They are separated by the concrete and steel of modern attempts to control the waters, but secretly they are waiting for a chance to slip over the wall and be together again. "Atchafalaya" is truly, a flood of passion. Some songs, although great favorites for a short time, soon migrate to a shelf and we hardly ever think of them again. Some music moves into your heart forever. I think of that every time I play the music I loved in the '60's, and still love enough to have on a CD. TRAVELER is like that. In twenty years, when they are installing the portable music chip into the bone behind my ear, TRAVELER will be one of the albums in my hand, a favorite ready to travel with me to a new technology. The sixteen songs on this album are so fine they will become old favorites quicker than a CD can spin. TRAVELER is available on the Falling Mountain label.

"McKnight's album is as refreshing as a cool breeze in the Shenandoah Valley he calls home. Summoning up dead-on images of small town and rural America, and both the sense of loss and the sense of survival, McKnight's gentle-country-tinged voice and evocative guitar make for a musical equivalent of a leisurely drive down the back roads. Highlights include "Still Home to Me", where, he notes, "You ain't missin' nothin but you still miss it all." Whether on the Irish-tinged "Patrick McGuire" or the lovely "Weekend In The Country", McKnight conveys a gentle and humane spirit."

McKnight’s music, like (John) Denver’s, reflects a deep love and respect for nature...finding his strongest musical inspiration in the ”almost heaven country” immortalized by Denver - the Blue Ridge foothills and Shenandoah Valley of northwest Virginia. His debut CD Traveler ...showcases McKnight’s knack for sensitive, insightful lyrics and his wide-ranging “mountain gumbo” brand of music - a surprisingly smooth blend of folk, blues, country and bluegrass.

Combining the traditional sounds of his native Appalachian mountains with more contemporary folk and pop elements, Andrew McKnight is a distinct and refreshing voice of life-affirming optimism and pointed social criticism. There is a certain tangible honesty, almost vulnerability, in the country-folk nostalgia of "Still Home to Me," "Demon Named Loneliness," and "You Used to Know," though McKnight doesn't allow himself to fall into self-important reflections like so many contemporary folk songwriters. Employing drums and bass with the occasional mandolin, banjo, and fiddle, in addition to his own excellent guitar playing and expressive tenor, McKnight creates pleasantly energetic music and pensive quiet ballads. Possibly most impressive is McKnight's criticism of the corporate world in "Magnolia Tree," dishonesty in politics in the infectious folk-rock of "Election Day," and the displacement of Native Americans and mountaineers in "Gatlinburg." All in all, his sound is lively, his tunes hummable, his lyrics thoughtful, and his debut, very enjoyable.