"New Music Venue Debuts in Abingdon"

By Tom Netherland, The Herald Courier (Bristol VA/TN)

ABINGDON, Va. -- A new venue for live music opens on Dec. 4.

Located in Abingdon’s Senior Center, the 500-seat-or-so Virginia Ballroom debuts its monthly concert series with a performance by folk singer Andrew McKnight. The Shenandoah Valley-based balladeer will headline a show that includes openers Richard Houser and Greg Smith.

“It’s not like going to see (Eric) Clapton at a hockey rink or Britney (Spears) and her belly button,” McKnight said of his shows last week by phone from his home in Aldie, Va. “It’s real important that you go home thinking you got a bargain.”

Sandra Parker was instrumental in making the series happen. She also books shows for the Virginia Ballroom.

“I always thought the area needed a music venue other than just the bars,” she said. “It’s family friendly and it’s non smoking.”

And yes, befitting a venue with ballroom in its name, patrons are invited to dance if they so desire.

“Oh, heavens yes, they will be able to get up and dance,” Parker said. “It’s set up, constructed with that in mind, with a dance floor. It’s very dance friendly.”

Also yes, McKnight’s music is danceable, mostly. But booking McKnight makes sense on other several fronts. He’s somewhat local, sings indelibly American songs, and offers clues of future bookings at the Virginia Ballroom.

“I’ve booked four concerts, one each month starting in December,” Parker said. “They’re local people.”

Subsequent shows at the Ballroom include Susan Brown and Friends on Jan. 16 and Bristol’s Annie Robinette on Feb. 20.

Regarding McKnight, he’s classified as a folk singer. That fits – sometimes.

“Some things sound bluesy, some sound old-timey, some sound singer-songwriter,” McKnight said. “It just depends on what I want to sing. I think the audience deserves me telling the story the best way I can tell them.”

McKnight’s latest album, “Something Worth Standing For,” does exactly that. Spanning 16 songs, from picturesque originals such as “Ansel Adams” to covers of the Carter Family’s “Worried Man Blues” and Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” the album wears an unvarnished look at America today.

“For me it’s supposed to sequence like a book or a movie,” McKnight said of the album. “I totally re-wrote “Crossroads.” That crossroads metaphor seemed so perfect. It seems like the perfect metaphor to where we are now.”

McKnight knows of crossroads and life-changing decisions made. Twelve years ago he gave up his cushy job as an environmental engineer for a career in music.

No major label backing, no multi-million dollar booking deal, and no net.

“I did my first record in 1995 while I was still working as an engineer,” McKnight said. “By ’96, I had played the Kennedy Center (in Washington, D.C.), and it was getting crazy. I was getting more chances to live my dream.”

So music overtook engineering. McKnight hit the road full-time, commenced traveling the highways and byways of the America he sang of so eloquently.
Dream realized.

“I could always go back to engineering,” he said. “But I haven’t looked back.”

Meanwhile, with the dawning of the Virginia Ballroom, Parker’s dream appears at hand. What the future holds, no one knows. But opportunity is on deck.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve talked to over the past 15 years, but I never gave up on it,” Parker said. “It’s been an itch that wouldn’t go away.”