Chris Knox
A few years back I was introduced to Chris Knox’s genius via the kiwitapes blog. I immediately connected to the sound of his voice, his lyrics, and for sure the production of his many records. Upon learning that I was gonna be lucky enough to travel on tour to New Zealand earlier this year I knew I just had to meet the man behind it all. A few emails were sent and with a bit of luck I was invited over to his house for tea and some snacks! I only a had a few of his various bands records at home and none with me… So I dropped a ton of dough at a local record shop picking up the entire Toy Love catalog along with a few other records…
As the door to his house opened I was overcome with a nervous fan boy feeling I hadn’t felt since I was 16 or so. Our meeting was brief, only 3-4 hours, but in that time we made plans to tour together this upcoming year and made plans to record a single together as well. I found Chris to be so unjaded and so full of ideas and life. A few days back before our LA show I received a text from our NZ promoter letting me know Chris had suffered a stroke. I was pretty shook up but put everything I had into the show that I could muster up. I have had quite a few days to think to myself how lucky I was to meet Chris and how much hope he gave me for my own future as an artist. Here’s hoping for a speedy and successful recovery for Chris and his family! And if you haven’t heard Toy Love, Tall Dwarfs, The Enemy or his countless solo records please do yourself a favor and hunt them down. It might change your life… It did mine.
Thanks for posting that, Jay. Glad you got to meet him, and sorry we won’t get to hear that single any time soon. I got to see him open for Yo la Tengo in New Orleans several years back — not many people in the crowd knew who he was, including me. But one song in, he had everybody hooked. A great performer — even the headliners were in the audience.
Get better, Chris.
I remember about 6 or 7 (?) years ago, seeing Grant McLennan at the Mercury Lounge in NYC. Robert Vicker’s band, The Mad Scene, opened for Grant, and I looked over to my side to see a guy in surfer shorts and sandals whooping it up and snapping off lots of photos. I knew I recognized him from somewhere, and of course, then it struck me — “That’s Chris Knox!!” I quietly obsessed over standing in a crowd next to one of my favorite artists and tried not to stare.
Ah come to think of it, one of the Kilgour brothers was in The Mad Scene — Hamish, I believe. So most likely Chris was taking home souvenir pics of his old friend and fellow kiwi on stage in NYC.