Grammy-winning songwriter Sandy Knox discusses her new musical/audiobook “Weighting,” plus work with artists like Reba McEntire, more.
Houston-native and Grammy-winning songwriter Sandy Knox is one of the few creatives anywhere who, when asked, can draw a line that extends from Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli and Carrie Underwood to Patti LaBelle, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Donna Summer and Dionne Warwick that’s only one degree of separation removed.
Seated on a couch in her massive West Nashville home, which doubles as a creative hub and office, the 67-year-old Knox appears quite contented with her success. That is, of course, until you get her talking about her new novel, “Weighting.” Released June 20, it doubles as a complete musical recorded as an audiobook — or a “boosical,” as she calls it.
Believing it only to be a collection of hilarious, embellished personal experiences about Knox’s retreat to a diet center is half of the equation.
Knox’s Grammy comes from McEntire’s 1993 Billboard Country chart No. 1 duet “Does He Love You,” featuring Linda Davis.
“Weighting” is a story based on much of the past quarter-century of Knox’s life, after that success. Ultimately, it also embraces that she’s grown into the same type of empathetic, evocative writer her chemical engineer father was when he was courting her former runway model mother through handwritten notes, now in her possession.
What has sustained Knox’s songwriting aspirations for four decades in Nashville?
Added to such intriguing roots, consider that Knox spent time in no fewer than three different cities in the early 1980s in pursuit of pop songwriting success.
By 1983, Music City had welcomed her with open arms. Country’s lucrative business boom lured performers and songwriters with tastes capable of broadening the genre’s crossover reach to Nashville.
She even recalls the era before receiving a publishing deal, involving work at the Cain-Sloan (now Dillard’s) department store in Green Hills and receiving a $600 personal loan from Third National Bank in Hillsboro Village to tide her over.
Uniquely, she was a songwriter who harbored no delusions of grandeur attached to becoming an artist herself. A decade into her time in town, she developed a lounge act-style group to preview her songs. However, by 1998, at her father’s behest, she finally released a well-regarded solo album titled “Pushin’ 40, Never Married, No Kids.”
Following that album’s release, Knox returned to Texas to care for her ailing father, who soon passed away. She then moved to Austin, where she taught songwriting at the University of Texas School of Continuing Adult Education.
By 2006, she had returned to Nashville.
“Nashville’s musical soul respects and reveres songwriters. Our dreams and happiness define a support system driven by a deep, soulful camaraderie.”
Why did Knox create ‘Weighting’ as a book, audiobook, instead of a musical for the stage?
“‘Weighting’ is a story about how unconditional love and acceptance is what we all want, need and deserve. And how many of us think that will happen just as soon as we lose 20 pounds,” said Knox.
Like her ’90s-era band, it could’ve existed as an off-Broadway stage show.
Instead, it’s a book that also features nearly two dozen vocalists (including acclaimed performers Stephan Oberhoff, Wendy Moten and Manon Ward), plus production credits shared by Knox with classical and country-acclaimed Nashville producers Lawson White and Ethan Greek among the over 100 people who brought “Weighting” to life.
Five years ago, lawyers advised her that a project with such ambitious potential was best if it remained largely in her hands.
“I wanted to create a story that mirrored real life, where, naturally, like a movie or musical, sometimes it feels like music should start playing and there’s a song to describe what’s happening,” Knox said. “When I’m writing songs, I always have a little movie’s worth of visual imagery going in my head.
“Developing these characters and songs made me want to control the storyline more than I could if I had let it just become a stage show. There’s a lot of my backstory with my parents in these characters. Also, through the years, people trusted me with heartbreakingly intimate stories about what was — or was not — happening with their bodies.”
What does Knox want listeners to take away from ‘Weighting’?
“I always want people to feel like they want to laugh, cry, or make love when they’re listening to songs,” Knox said about what inspires her songwriting, whether it’s on the radio or in a book.
“‘Weighting’ impacts your mind, body and soul more than a number on a scale can.”
She smiles joyfully when offering how the “Weighting” soundtrack should emotionally impact the listener.
Song titles include “Shut Up and Eat It,” “Condolences and Casseroles” and “There Could Never Be Enough of You.”
Storied singers capable of headlining stages from TV’s “The Voice” to Carnegie Hall, the Ryman Auditorium and beyond can deliver songs, regardless of style, embodying the characters in the book.
“A cauldron of great music and voices showed up prepared to hold their own,” Knox said, when asked to summarize the project in total.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tennessean.com ’
