Northampton\u2019s Iron Horse Music Hall.<\/a> The New Year\u2019s show will feature Knight, one of the area\u2019s most popular children\u2019s music performers, who has been playing children\u2019s music for more than 30 years.<\/p>\nBut what really sets Knight apart from many other kids\u2019 music artists is that he incorporates puppetry into his shows. Knight talked about his artistry in a recent interview with The Republican.<\/p>\n
Knight certainly has a diverse background in music. He studied violin in third grade, upright bass in sixth grade, trombone in junior high, Appalachian dulcimer in college and finally got around to guitar after college. But as far as writing songs, it has always been in his blood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved music. I can remember making up my own songs when I was walking to school and like third grade. I remember hearing some song on the radio when I was like 10 or something and I thought \u2018I can write better lyrics than that,\u2019\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
But he didn\u2019t truly start pursuing songwriting until after college. Fast-forward a few years, and Knight found himself working at a preschool in Ithaca, New York. A teacher learned that Knight played guitar and asked him to bring it in and play for the kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some original songs, so I played them, and the kids really liked them. I didn\u2019t realize they were kids\u2019 songs, but it turned out they were,\u201d he said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
Another teacher at the school was a puppeteer, and asked Knight to do music for the puppet show she was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked with her for years, but then I started getting more interested in the puppetry, and she started getting more interested in the music, so we went our own ways,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I decided I didn\u2019t want to be just another guy with a guitar so I started to figure out how to make and perform with puppets myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the puppets provide visuals for the audience, Knight noted that the puppet part of the show is always based on the music. <\/p>\n
Obviously, he can\u2019t operate the puppets and play music at the same time. So, he prerecords his music as sort of a karaoke track for the puppets to perform to.<\/p>\n
For his public shows, he usually draws a crowd of ages 2 to 6. But he also performs at school assemblies, where the age groups can reach up to 11 or so.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I have to kind of tweak the show a bit for the older kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He is also working on a more educational show about bullying. While he enjoys doing lighter performances, he is also looking to give his act more meaning at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like it could be something really powerful in this day and age when so many unkind things are being said by people in power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Knight said the most challenging thing about his shows keeping the children engaged. He noted that some songs may work really well as a recording, but unless the kids have something to do, it\u2019s not necessarily going to work for youngsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing is that if kids don\u2019t like something, they\u2019re not going to pretend that they do. Unlike adults, if they don\u2019t like something, they\u2019ll just walk away,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cBut in some ways, that\u2019s a good thing because it keeps me honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.masslive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTHAMPTON \u2014 From week to week, this column strives to cover a wide array of music that may appeal to a diverse group of fans. Whether its classic rock appreciated by older folks or Indie music that appeals to a younger crowd, Live Wire attempts to cover as many bases as possible. But as we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2215618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2215618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2215619,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215618\/revisions\/2215619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2215618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2215618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2215618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}