Andrew McKnight

In conjunction with my Ancestories Consulting service helping people unlock the maximum power of their DNA tests, I've started a blog to offer helpful advice and explanation of many sometimes confusing aspects. I'm working on a starter series of posts to help introduce in simple terms the basics of being a productive and accurate family historian, combining traditional records searches with the power of genetic genealogy. Over time I'll also share some of my own stories and methods that led to fascinating family stories from the past as well as the amazing experiences of connecting and bonding with living relatives.

Come and follow me at amckancestories.blogspot.com!

We are disappointed to learn this week that our webhosts are discontinuing their Listbaby email service at the end of September. The hunt is on for an affordable email newsletter service so we can continue staying connected to over 3,000 subscribers. Thanks for your patience as we work through whatever other unanticipated wrinkles might come along as we transition email services.

Friends and fans around the mid-Atlantic region may have noticed that Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders have essentially been on hiatus for the last year or so. Their bandmate, founding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Les Thompson has essentially been touring full time with his old friend and bandmate John McEuen, bringing their multimedia retrospective Circle Revisited Tour all across North America...

NEXT UP: Spending an evening virtually with you in my Commemorating Memorial Day Vidcast, Tuesday May 29th at 9pm Eastern. I'll share a few songs honoring the fallen in addition to the usual conversation, requests and musical mischief. These vidcasts are fun, but they also are a great and vital way to connect with a lot of new listeners who hopefully become fans. 

For more details and some viewing tips, come visit my vidcast page before heading to my Concert Window portal to get your tickets!

In February Andrew spent a couple of mornings leading workshops for aspiring middle and high school songwriters in Frederick County, Maryland as part of the STEP UP Frederick! Student Songwriting Contest sponsored by Chords of Courage. Imagine his delight to find out that one of the attendees was the Grand Prize Winner at the April 6th awards concert at the Frederick Community College theatre! This article from the Frederick News-Post features Vivien Renkey, one of the students from the workshop, and her song "Land of the Free" about Harriet Tubman won 1st place in the Middle School division...

Andrew spent a week in between weekends in Texas and southwest Virginia visiting elementary school schools in the southeast. Once a year he makes a day to visit the 4th grade classes at West View Elementary School in Spartanburg SC to share his "Telling America's Story in Song" workshop. In a fast-paced interactive session, they made a timeline from the arrival at Jamestown through the Revolution and the Civil War, and wrapped up with the Great Depression and Dust Bowl with Woody Guthrie's epic "This Land is Your Land". Andrew then enjoyed lunch with the students before closing the day with a short concert including his anti-bullying anthem "Good Things Matter."

From there, Andrew spent 3 days on the "Rooftop of Virginia", the beautiful Grayson County and the City of Galax, "World Capital of Mountain Music". 

Chords of Courage is changing the conversation from the demoralizing and cynical to the hopeful and inspirational – one song at a time. They have created the first songwriting contest of its kind in the world, open to Frederick County (Maryland) middle and high school age students and encourages them to use their creativity to write dynamic and powerful songs about people of particular courage...

We are excited that we'll soon by offering a video download of Andrew's full performance at the wonderful and unique Timucua Arts Foundation concert series in Orlando January 21st. Not only did Andrew turn in a fine set, he was "accompanied" on stage by painter Chris M. Gray, who started with a blank canvas and finished a remarkable work. The 12 songs include old favorites as well as some unreleased songs, and some of his finest new stories between songs as well - and 4 different guitars!...

Sure, I want you to have my music, and so this is definitely the year's best sale pricing on CDs, DVDs and downloads. But I'd love for you to consider guitar or songwriting lessons in person or via Skype, or a special video gift customized for your loved one. I have gift certificates that you can stick in the Christmas tree, download videos and music onto a flash drive, and plenty more...

This is my 2003 Martin DC-16GTE acoustic guitar, complete with onboard pickup/preamp. It has journeyed across the U.S. and Europe gracing stages small and large, but it's time for a new home and a new journey.

GET A FREE CD OR DOWNLOAD! Through May 19th - help me raise some money and reduce some inventory, and I help you have some great new music in your collection....

Are you subscribed and getting our monthly E-Zine ok? While we love everything else about our website hosts at HostBaby, the current email service they provide doesn't give any notification about bounced emails or automatic unsubscribes. So we're in the dark about people not getting email unless we go and manually inspect the log files. With over 3,000 subscribers, that's a lot of opportunity to miss connecting with you - and you are a vital part of the lifeline that makes continuing this work possible...

Andrew visited WINLife TV Saturday Feb. 4th for an hourlong interview/performance on "After Hours" host Eric Sandstrom at http://www.winlife.tv. The show was recorded and you can watch the archive below thanks to Livestream.com...

Andrew dropped by Cue Recording Studios outside of Washington DC to visit Justin Trawick on his weekly podcast "The Circus Life"- on Friday the 13th no less! Episode #180 features Andrew singing 2 songs live with his Fairbuilt guitar made of local native wood while business and life coach Lauren LeMunyan shares facts and fallacies about Friday the 13th, and helps dispel the mythology about personal coaching....

We are thrilled to kick off 2017 finding out that Andrew is this week's Featured Artist at the syndicated radio show "Art of the Song", heard on many NPR and community radio affiliates, and at their Standing "O" Project...

Andrew and his bandmates did a show last weekend for the Arts Council of the Eastern Shore on the Delmarva Paninsula. In addition to having a great and fun evening with some new tunes and old favorites, the concert was recorded for future broadcast on Delmarva Public Radio out of Salisbury MD...

Back in June Andrew was invited to perform as part of a special presentation of the National Public Radio program "Interfaith Voices" at George Mason University. The panel discussion and presentation, "Is Religion a Problem or Solution?", was hosted by Maureen Fiedler...

It seems we've had a great wealth of video to share with you this summer and fall, and the film keeps coming! Thanks to Texas folk fan and longtime "Kerrvert" (the moniker Kerrville Folk Festival regulars give themselves) Wayne Jennings, we've got a handful of songs to share with you, filmed during Andrew's March 2015 show at Arhaven House Concerts in the Texas countryside just east of Austin - a rare duo performance with old friend Sean Kelly on upright bass...

Ever find great music on Spotify and think to yourself "that's really cool and I want to hear more"? Dove in and listened to a bunch more songs - sure! Did you know that we songwriters and musicians get a fraction of a penny for every one of those plays? If not, now you do! And there is a way to lend a bit more support to the artists you love without going broke, and without enriching streaming services investors at the expense of those artists...

In advance of next week's vidcast, and with a thinner-than-normal autumn tour schedule, I'm devoting some extra attention to making more friends in this big old hurting world. I'd love to connect with people who might enjoy my music and words, and might be interested in helping get me into the ears and eyes of others who might like it too. I greatly enjoy the interaction with new people as well as old friends, and the vidcasts are very personal and interactive. These are crazy times in the business of making a livelihood from one's art, and I'm not complaining - just doing my best to "work smart" and enlist the best allies to help me keep doing so.

25% off on Turning Pages. In honor of the 15th anniversary of Andrew's 3rd CD Turning Pages, we are offering a great sale on the CD this month. Go here and use the code TP15 to get it for just $8.99 - including the download as well as the disc. Normal shipping/tax rates apply.

Save on shipping by ordering before October 1st. The postal rates have climbed to the point where we can no longer ignore them, so shipping charges per CD will rise to $4 each on October 1st. So save a few bucks and order CDs before October 1st, and let us know who to have them autographed for as well!....

This has been a busy summer, and thankfully some of the moments along the way were captured on video. All of these are courtesy of the camera persons and are credited as such - hope you enjoy them!

First, this beautiful version of "Company Town" recorded during the "Global Journey in Songs & Strings" concert with Michael DeLalla on July 9....

Andrew just wrapped up an exciting week with The Catoctin School of Music in Leesburg VA leading a weeklong intensive camp for kids ages 11 to 18. In tandem with CSM head and bassist extraordinaire Wayne Estes, Andrew helped lead campers through an exploration of song creation right through to recording production in state of the art studio... {includes pictures}

On July 9th in conjunction with the Friends of Loudoun Mental Health and the Ryan Bartel Foundation, Andrew and longtime friend and touring partner Michael DeLalla brought their "Global Journey in Songs & Strings" concert to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun in Leesburg, Virginia for a very special evening... {includes pictures}

We've got some great high-definition footage from Andrew's performance on the WDVX "Blue Plate Special" April 28th in downtown Knoxville TN. First up is this performance of "Made by Hand", which he wrote with current bandmate/founding NGDB member Les Thompson and past WV Fiddle Champion Chance McCoy from Old Crow Medicine Show.

Andrew tried out Facebook's new Live streaming video feature for an impromptu lunch concert on May 23rd. It's very casual and a lot of folks tuned in - and unlike most of our vidcasts, this one was preserved so you can watch anytime. We hope you and your friends wherever they are in the world plan to join us for the next live vidcast on Tuesday June 7th at 9pm Eastern at http://concertwindow.com/andrewmcknight...

Andrew visited the live interview radio show "Live at Studio One" on WETS Public Radio in Johnson City TN. The interview and performance with host Dave Carter is a very entertaining hour indeed! Audio only, stream it here WETS_StudioOne_160428.mp3

Andrew sat down with Michelle Mitchell from The News Virginian in advance of the March 25th Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders show at the newly renovated and reopened Wayne Theater in Waynesboro VA. You can read that and previous interviews/articles here on the website. Thanks Michelle for helping spread the word about the band and their music, and getting some folks in the seats enjoying it too.

After an autumn hiatus with each working on other projects, Andrew and his bandmates Les Thompson, Stephanie Thompson and Lisa Taylor have spent the winter in the studio writing and arranging new material for the band's first studio recording. Those new songs will be part of their upcoming short tour through western Virginia March 23-25...

It is live! After several months of careful planning and detailed work behind the scenes, we've launched the new AndrewMcKnight.net. It uses a responsive design, which means that it adapts to whatever device you are using. We'd love your feedback - are you able to find what you seek easily? Find any broken links? Let's hear from you!

...a collection of Andrew's essays is in the works, thanks to Sam Carman in Indiana. Andrew has written an Essay most every month since his daughter was born in May 2007, and Sam is painstakingly culling, collecting and editing. The project is in its beginning stages now, but we're hoping that we might have something ready for autumn.

We are excited to release Live: Bound for Glory, a full live audio keepsake from Andrew's Autumn 2015 tour. Now you can download, own and enjoy a great show captured during his nearly 8,000 mile odyssey in the Odyssey through 12 states, in his appearance on the venerable "Bound for Glory" radio concert in Ithaca NY...

So last night like millions of other folks we got to watch Les help John celebrate his 70th birthday for a 2-hour live concert extravaganza on the PBS show "Music City Roots". And what an all-star band! Rhonda Vincent, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and a whole bunch of other luminaries young and old put on a heck of a show...

If you'd like to do something EASY and QUICK to help spread the word about Andrew's music, please take a moment and subscribe at YouTube, http://youtube.com/andrewmcknightdotnet. If we can get 300 subscribers...

We're pleased to learn that Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders have again received a touring assistance grant and inclusion in the Virginia Commission for the Arts prestigious Touring Artist Directory. This means that eligible presenters within the Commonwealth may be reimbursed up to 50% of the band's fee for performances and workshops.

Now that Andrew has received and starting touring with his special native wood Fairbuilt Guitar made for him, he's also put in a lot of work with film editor Dave Kiser to finish the mini-documentary about the project, titled   "Sound of Home". Photographer and videographer Sarah Huntington filmed the story over two years, from the original brainstorming the concepts on paper and conversation at the Fairbuilt shop up til the moment Andrew walks out on stage with it for the first time. Andrew and his Beyond Borders bandmates wrote and recorded "By A Craftsman's Hand", the soundtrack song...

While they aren't farmers themselves, our good friends Scott and Becky Harris at Catoctin Creek Distilling Company are a big part of our local landscape. They've won a dizzying amount of national and regional awards and accolades over the past year in particular. They not only make great spirits, they do so with mostly their own energy from rooftop solar on their downtown Purcellville facility and a "waste nothing" approach that contributes to several other local enterprises, like beef cattle :) So naturally, we're not only enthusiastic for their success, we wanted to contribute the "theme music" that everyone hums when they think of Catoctin Creek...

We are thrilled and grateful that Elixir Strings has renewed our Endorsing Artist agreement through the end of 2016. Since starting as an Elixir Endorsing Artist in 2001, Andrew has been thrilled about the sound and longevity on both his Martin MC-68 acoustic and the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar...

If you're sad you missed out on their two reunion concerts in 2014-15, take heart! Thanks to Joleen Byrd at CU Photography, we have a few videos and a photo gallery from the Bull Run show. Further down the page is a SoundCloud audio recording of Jeff's "The Rocks Reel" from their final performance at the Shenandoah Coffeehouse Series in 2003. While no more shows are planned at present, the trio proved after 11 years, "never say never"...

Killing it In the Streaming Age offers a different take on what it means to have a music career in the 21st century. And what’s really surprising—virtually all of the advice is non-digital, real-world and do-able. Andrew's answer focused on the "Real Money" you want to make and save; "the real “currency” that makes this business go...

Andrew has long wanted a Fairbuilt Guitar handmade by local luthier Martin Fair. After a couple years of bouncing ideas around, in early winter 2012, Marty decided to design and build several identical guitars to Andrew's dimensions with slight variations in the wood, and per Andrew's wish to use local wood as much as possible.

And now, what a great start to 2015 - Andrew's brand new guitar is in hand and ready for the road! Per Andrew's wishes, the OM cutaway model features all native woods...

Congratulations to our pal Chance McCoy and the Old Crow Medicine Show for winning the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album with Remedy. Chance has been playing guitar and fiddle with Old Crow since 2012 and been part of their most successful years to date. Chance was an integral part of the studio band when we made Something Worth Standing For, performing at the 2008 release concerts at the Kennedy Center (see photos below)...

As a teacher, it is always a thrill to see your students take flight and achieve cool things in their lives. For the past two years Andrew has been working with Sidney Murray on guitar and songwriting. They recorded 4 of Sidney's songs in the summer of 2013, including "Tin Can of Blue" which wound up in an episode of NPR's "Car Talk". And thanks to the engineering and mixing talents of Beyond Borders trusted studio hand Dustin Delage, her debut CD Sparks is finished...

Thanks to his visit several years ago on the syndicated "Art of the Song Creativity Radio" (National Public Radio) show, Andrew was one of the guest artists invited to be part of the Standing "O" Project. In a way, Standing "O" does what your radio station used to be so good at: offering surprises and rich content that can change your day...

"Trying to pigeonhole Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders is like trying to fit a cello into a violin case. It just won't happen. Their music is eclectic - fusing musical genres with innovative sounds, beautiful harmonies and timeless lyrics."

Andrew was honored to be invited to spend an afternoon talking about his eclectic career in music with students at Lincoln Elementary School in Lincoln VA. Thanks to the school's guidance counselor, students came dressed up for the occupation they hoped to go into in adulthood...

The long-awaited "Musical Treasures of The Civil War" Exhibit has opened at The Discovery Station (Science and History Museum), 101 West Washington St, Hagerstown MD. Singer/songwriter Jennie Avila has worked on a CD of songs inspired by letters and documents from the residents of nearby Sharpsburg MD around the epic 1862 Battle of Antietam...

We were pleased and honored to find that One Virginia Night earned Andrew and his Beyond Borders bandmates two award nominations in the latest Washington Area Music Awards. The band was nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Duo/Group, and OVN for the Best Contemporary Folk Album.

During their recent performance on the syndicated public radio show "Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour", our pal Vince Herman and his bandmates in Great American Taxi shared their rendition of "Made by Hand"...