Zephyr Acoustic Productions
David Alderson
2314 Johnson St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Tel: 612.781.1595
email: david@zapmusic.org

Lonnie Knight’s guitar playing alone has astonished nearly everyone who’s seen it happen during the past four decades, from his days in Jokers Wild to his role in the Hoopsnakes. It’s made him a multiple winner over the years for best guitarist at the Minnesota Music Awards.

Tall and thin, his presence while playing the guitar gives him the appearance of an authority looking down calmly on his six-string subject; but it's the actual sound from the instrument, the pure music he makes of the guitar, that confirms the authority.

His songwriting began with Jokers Wild, but over time it was refining itself to the folk-oriented work that anchored two Lonnie Knight albums in the 1970s. He was working as a studio musician at Herb Pilhofer's Sound 80 Recording Studio, and touring nationally on the Bitter End College Coffeehouse. Producer George Hanson took a liking to Knight's playing. Hanson produced his first album Family in the Wind, which was followed up with Song for a City Mouse. The title was an homage to the Mankato band in which Knight played for several years in the early 1970s. That relationship began when Knight was playing with the Chad Mitchell Group and met City Mouse founder Bill Steiner. Throughout the 70s, Knight continued a prolific career playing in studio and on stage.

In the 1980s, he united with acclaimed songwriter Mark Henley to form the Knight-Henley Band. Henley and Knight became producers for WrenSong Publishing in Nashville. Regular trips to Music City pushed Knight into the country scene, leading to stints with Wild Horses and the Neilsen-White Band.

The 90s brought Knight to the ideal job as guitarist with the Hoopsnakes, founded by Bruce McCabe. In 1997 Lonnie formed the band he still occasionally fronts, Big Shoes. In 1999 he signed with Aquarium Records, releasing the CD Big Shoes. 2001 marked the follow-up recording, Cain's Blood, an electric tour de force with the band. His latest offering, Better Days, an acoustic solo CD produced by Dakota Dave Hull, was released in June 2005 on Mosquito Shoals Records.

Lonnie Knight is currently performing primarily as a solo artist. Recent and upcoming venues include Ginkgo Coffeehouse (St. Paul), the Bayfront Blues Fest, Rockbend Folk Fest, Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson WI), Bothy Folk Club (Mankato MN), Amazing Grace (Duluth MN) and Sugar Beats (Salt Lake City UT).