When Lonnie Knight Says Jump...

by Doug MacRostie

Lonnie Knight was there for the first digital recording. Yes, I'm serious. He was working as Staff Guitarist at Sound 80 when 3M built the first digital machine and he was on the very first recording sessions to test it. That's just one of the numerous examples why this Minneapolis singer-songwriter with mutliple MN Music Awards rightly is a legend in MN music. Picking up his first guitar back in the 60's, when he was 12, Lonnie started out as a folkie, then played in some of the Midwest's seminal bands like Jokers Wild,. Neilson-White Band and The Hoopsnakes. His professional career went beyond being a studio musician - he was also a producer for a while in Nashville. His most recent work has gone back to his acoustic roots, and Lonnie Knight will be joining me on Centerstage MN to talk about his new album, "So We Jump," which is an excellent release of clever acoustic music bringing together many of the best aspects of Lonnie's music.

There is a lot of great new music just released/about to come out - and we're also going to hear from Matt Ray and Those Damn Horses from the Iron Range, The Marc Gartband from Duluth - that's one of the projects by Marc Gartman of Two Many Banjos; when Marc puts down the banjo then it's the Gartband, and lately he has been picking up the Irish Bouzouki. Which comes out of the new Wise-Magraw album "How the Light Gets In" perfectley. Wise-Magraw is Marcus Wise on tabla and Dean Magraw (of Boilded in Lead) on guitar.

Centerstage MN is Thursday evenings at 6, streaming live online at www.KAXE.org; or 91.7 Grand Rapids, 89.9 Brainerd and 105.3 Bemidji and can be heard again Sunday mornings at 6. All interviews are archived at www.KAXE.org. Centerstage MN is also heard on KSRQ in Thief River Falls Saturday nights at 11 & Wednesdays at Noon, and on WTIP in Grand Marais Thursdays afternoons at 4. Often featured on MNartists.org.