Here's hoping that your Valentine's Day brought a gold medal dose of loving kindness into your life. Personally, I love - and appreciate - that you allow me the privilege of a few moments again for this midwinter greeting....

U  P  C  O  M  I  N  G

• SA FEB. 21, STERLING VA Focus Music with Beyond Borders, UU Church of Sterling, 22135 Davis Dr Suite 104 7pm. 
In-person (save $5 advance) & livestream tickets at https://focusmusic.org

• FR MAR. 6, PULASKI VA First Friday Concert, Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley, 21 West Main St. 6pm. 
Seating is limited & first-come first-serve; cash bar & light refreshments.

• TH MAR. 26, “WELCOME SPRING” LIVESTREAM CONCERT, 8pm EDT. The last show of the 2025-26 Long Nights Livestream Series. https://youtube.com/live/Sll0v-naJZ4. 
Free but donations gratefully accepted! 

Details about shows, plus upcoming tour dates and livestreams added as confirmed at the Tour page at the website as confirmed.

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T  H  E      B  I  G      A  S  K

Rather than an ask, this month is a big thank you for a LOT of things! Firstly, the performance calendar is getting busier thanks to some special folks on the email list, and grateful doesn't begin to cover it! 

But I'm grateful for so many other things too - your emails and notes in the mail, the donations in all their forms, the folks who keep showing up at my livestreams and shows, and share my music with their friends, and of course the comments, likes and shares on social media too.

The overwhelming reason I've been able to continue bringing "my thing" to the world directly for 30 plus years is the enthusiasm and direct support from you and people like you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
 

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U P D A T E S   &   H I G H L I G H T S

• JOIN BEYOND BORDERS THIS SATURDAY NIGHT. A rare livestream performance with the band! We're thrilled that Focus Music livestreams their concerts, and this Saturday Feb. 21st we look forward to visiting living rooms and laptops across the continent as well as in person here in northern Virginia. This show doubles as February's livestream, but this one will require a ticket - get yours in advance so you're ready to go when the curtain goes up at 7pm EST!
   
• TURNING PAGES TURNS 25. Andrew's 3rd album introduced the concert staples "Western Skies" and "The Road to Appomattox" back in 2001. In honor of the milestone, the final edition of the winter livestream series on Thursday March 26th, 8pm EDT will feature several songs from Pages. If it isn't in your collection or playlists, have a listen here at our Bandcamp (or on your favorite non-Spotify streaming platform).
   
• NEW SONGS, NEW POEM. Andrew has been using his monthly songwriter's group challenge to do some experimenting and push his creative envelope. Last month's effort probably channels a bit of early 70s Stephen Stills as Andrew mulls our addiction to our smart phones; check out "Blue Screen" performed live during the January livestream, while on Facebook last night we posted “I Can't Turn Away”, a haunting, country-tinged meditation on empathy. For those who might enjoy a new poem, a recent morning watching birds feeding in the snow inspired "The Cardinal, and the Skeletons of Christmas". 

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N  O  T  E  S

Our winter storm came just in time to coop us up for the Olympics and the Super Bowl, along with a lot of looking out the window for two frigid weeks. It is a somewhat jarring disconnect between the magnitude of events in the wider world, and the intimate scenes of birds feeding in the snow outside during our morning coffee. 

My period of "hibernation" has certainly not been slothful though. I've been filming and producing some short guitar lesson videos for our veterans who are alumni of the Music Therapy Retreats program (each vet receives a beautiful new acoustic guitar as part of their therapy journey). My monthly Lincoln songwriters group has spurred me on to four new songs over the last four months. And while our recording has been temporarily paused due to some technical issues at the studio, my bandmates and I have been shining up a fine show for our local concert fans and viewers around the world this Saturday night.

Seeing the Olympics always brings back fond and crazy memories of performing two days in the Olympic Village at the 1996 Atlanta games. While the shows themselves were memorable more for the audiences (the Cuban judo team for one of them), it was quite an experience for a kid from the sticks to brave the crowds and be there while Opening Ceremonies were happening. I even got to see the President speak briefly to the US team in an auditorium packed with American Olympic legends of the past, and the US and Nicaragua take the field for the first ever Olympic baseball game.

While that was definitely cool, it would be even cooler to sing for you with my dear pals Stephanie, Lisa and Les this Saturday night. Come join us in person if you can, but get a ticket and join us on the livestream from wherever you are. It's a rare treat indeed to get my "bandies" in front of a streaming set up. If you haven't seen the band doing songs we've created together, with all the different instruments, and each of us singing, and…well, let's just say we'd LOVE for you to have that experience.

Joy is precious, and music is precious medicine. Here's wishing you as much of each as you can gather, and if I can play a small part in that, so much the better.

You deserve a gold medal just for being here, and so much more. Happy Valentine's Month to you ❤️

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P  A  R  T  I  N  G       S  H  O  T

The trees of naked truth. I just looked out the living room window as I finished teaching my last guitar lesson for the day, and had to dodge out to the front lawn for this amazing colorscape. ©Andrew McKnight

For more of Andrew's photos, please follow @andrewmcknightmusic on Instagram.

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