Friday, April 15, 2005
By: Chip Chandler
Photo by: Steven Dearinger
Sit Back and RElAX
Musician enjoys preforming his soothing melodies
By all rights, Josh Knapp shouldn't have been nearly as composted as he appeared. On this day, he had rushed out of the Country Barn to set up a promotional gig with the Panhandle Association of Massage Professionals, not to mention a quick photo shoot and interview. He's in the middle of a swath of such appearances to promote his second CD, "Conversations," including a release party set for Sunday at More Church.
And to top it off, he had just come in from his day job at this dad's accounting firm. In the middle of tax season.
So, it would be easy to expect to see his mane of shoulder-length curly hair to be approaching Carrot Top proportions of a white-Mann's Afro. Instead, it was neatly pulled back in a bushy ponytail. Nothing about him, in fact, betrayed the stress a normal person would be feeling.
And really, that makes sense. After all, he is the king of soothing.
Knapp evangelized about the ability of music, his particular, to white away the day's pressures.
"This whole goal of mine is to promote a soothing atmosphere, that when people have had the stress of a day, they can sit down and put on this instrumental album. It helps you refocus and really relax - no, that's not the right word. De-stress."
He first saw that happen thanks to his dad.
"He'd come home from work, and I'd be in the living room playing guitar. At the time, I was playing eight to 20 hours a day. He'd lay down on the couch in his bedroom. I'd start playing, and he'd fall right to sleep," Knapp said. "He's always said I need to put a disclaimer on my music: 'May cause drowsiness.'"
Obviously, Knapp isn't your traditional musician. He's not the type of guitar player who'll patiently strum along for a verse or two, then rip out a blistering solo. In fact, he's happier when people don't even know that he's playing.
When he plays at O.H.M.S Cafe & Bar or the Amarillo Club, he said he hopes patrons focus more on their meals and let his music just seep into the atmosphere.
"Then, they walk out and their mood has completely changed. That's the biggest compliment," he said.
Knapp first started playing guitar around age 13 when his brother Davy taught him some chords. After a couple of years, he was hooked.
"Something just connected with the guitar. I just played and played and played for hours and hours," Knapp said.
He studied mission while attending Amarillo College, including taking lessons from Jerry Thompson.
"I heard a lot of his stuff when it was in the preparatory thought, so to speak," Thompson said. "... He always came up with real unique progressions and voicing that I've always enjoyed playing.
"...You could always hum the voicing changes in the chords and I've always thought that ... a month later, if you could still hum what they were doing, that was the mark of a good songwriter," Thompson said.
Knapp's first self released CD, "Relax," hit stores in summer 2003. He began working on its follow-up, though, before "Relax" was even released. "Conversations" was inspired, as its name suggests, by talks he had with friends and family including his wife of about 18 months, Cerise. Knapp plays guitar, bass, keyboard and all other instruments on the CD.
At his gigs, he prefers playing his own work, rather than nationally known songs.
"One thang that's really frustrating is when people ask me to cover songs. Honestly, when I'm playing, I'm a composer. That's me in the raw form. I take bits and pieces of things that inspire me and use them,". Knapp said.
"...It's not that I wouldn't enjoy covering other people, and there's a lot of good stuff out there, but if you cover someone, you nary to sound like them, and when I'm doing my own stuff, I can be myself."
And that self is on a mission to make people relax.
"There's such a need for that in this community and beyond," Knapp said. "But for right now, my focus is in Amarillo. You just try to influence the people closest to you."
By: Chip Chandler
Photo by: Steven Dearinger
Sit Back and RElAX
Musician enjoys preforming his soothing melodies
By all rights, Josh Knapp shouldn't have been nearly as composted as he appeared. On this day, he had rushed out of the Country Barn to set up a promotional gig with the Panhandle Association of Massage Professionals, not to mention a quick photo shoot and interview. He's in the middle of a swath of such appearances to promote his second CD, "Conversations," including a release party set for Sunday at More Church.
And to top it off, he had just come in from his day job at this dad's accounting firm. In the middle of tax season.
So, it would be easy to expect to see his mane of shoulder-length curly hair to be approaching Carrot Top proportions of a white-Mann's Afro. Instead, it was neatly pulled back in a bushy ponytail. Nothing about him, in fact, betrayed the stress a normal person would be feeling.
And really, that makes sense. After all, he is the king of soothing.
Knapp evangelized about the ability of music, his particular, to white away the day's pressures.
"This whole goal of mine is to promote a soothing atmosphere, that when people have had the stress of a day, they can sit down and put on this instrumental album. It helps you refocus and really relax - no, that's not the right word. De-stress."
He first saw that happen thanks to his dad.
"He'd come home from work, and I'd be in the living room playing guitar. At the time, I was playing eight to 20 hours a day. He'd lay down on the couch in his bedroom. I'd start playing, and he'd fall right to sleep," Knapp said. "He's always said I need to put a disclaimer on my music: 'May cause drowsiness.'"
Obviously, Knapp isn't your traditional musician. He's not the type of guitar player who'll patiently strum along for a verse or two, then rip out a blistering solo. In fact, he's happier when people don't even know that he's playing.
When he plays at O.H.M.S Cafe & Bar or the Amarillo Club, he said he hopes patrons focus more on their meals and let his music just seep into the atmosphere.
"Then, they walk out and their mood has completely changed. That's the biggest compliment," he said.
Knapp first started playing guitar around age 13 when his brother Davy taught him some chords. After a couple of years, he was hooked.
"Something just connected with the guitar. I just played and played and played for hours and hours," Knapp said.
He studied mission while attending Amarillo College, including taking lessons from Jerry Thompson.
"I heard a lot of his stuff when it was in the preparatory thought, so to speak," Thompson said. "... He always came up with real unique progressions and voicing that I've always enjoyed playing.
"...You could always hum the voicing changes in the chords and I've always thought that ... a month later, if you could still hum what they were doing, that was the mark of a good songwriter," Thompson said.
Knapp's first self released CD, "Relax," hit stores in summer 2003. He began working on its follow-up, though, before "Relax" was even released. "Conversations" was inspired, as its name suggests, by talks he had with friends and family including his wife of about 18 months, Cerise. Knapp plays guitar, bass, keyboard and all other instruments on the CD.
At his gigs, he prefers playing his own work, rather than nationally known songs.
"One thang that's really frustrating is when people ask me to cover songs. Honestly, when I'm playing, I'm a composer. That's me in the raw form. I take bits and pieces of things that inspire me and use them,". Knapp said.
"...It's not that I wouldn't enjoy covering other people, and there's a lot of good stuff out there, but if you cover someone, you nary to sound like them, and when I'm doing my own stuff, I can be myself."
And that self is on a mission to make people relax.
"There's such a need for that in this community and beyond," Knapp said. "But for right now, my focus is in Amarillo. You just try to influence the people closest to you."
