The Los Angeles Times called Jennifer Knapp "a rising star"; People Magazine described her as "an uncommonly literate songwriter"; and Billboard proclaimed that "Knapp proves herself to be the cream that rises to the top." Her impressive critical praise only hints at her musical gifts, but grasping the true Jennifer Knapp experience is realized only by the empowering touch of her voice.
This Kansas-born singer-songwriter has very quietly and quickly sold over 850,000 copies of her first two label releases, 1997's KANSAS and 2000's LAY IT DOWN. Her debut is now certified GOLD with over half a million sold. Coupled with extensive touring, Knapp proved herself as a folk-inspired rock artist whose masterful stroke paints introspective portraits of life's bumpy road. Song after song, she empties her soul through catchy poetic lyrics that utter the precise words so many hearts have long struggled to find. In 2001 Knapp returned with her most stirring collection of new songs for her third label release, THE WAY I AM. Now, through fan-driven voting Gotee has released THE COLLECTION, a collection of best-loved tracks and rarities.
From the London Symphony Orchestra to the profoundly intimate percussion, Jennifer Kanpp’s albums have consistently featured realized, full-sounding backdrops and intense lyrical impressions. The musical dynamics draw out the emotion and passion, especially with the compelling spiritual themes that run through her songs. In fact, the struggles and inner-conflicts addressed in her music are often expressed in the form of confessional prayers. In this way, Knapp joins artists like Macy Gray, Bono, Lauren Hill, DMX, and others, who are very articulate in composing songs directly to
God.
As a teenager, the classically-trained Knapp attended Pittsburgh State University on a music scholarship. Though at first it appeared her major was Freshman Partying 101, fellow students inspired her to open her mind to spiritual matters and eventually incorporate them into her music. From there, Knapp began performing throughout the Midwest selling her two custom recordings at shows. Her second indie album, WISHING WELL, attracted the attention of Nashville label Gotee Records, who signed her the following year. With her personal songwriting and gut-rock vocal style, Knapp immediately connected with a national audience who, like herself, had known difficulty in life and was looking for genuine insight.
As an incredibly active performer, Knapp has already shared the stage with many greats, including several peers during dates she did on the last Lilith Fair tour. In the 120 shows she performed in 2001, Knapp impacted almost a million individuals. This makes it no surprise that Pollstar Magazine included her among its Top 50 touring acts of the Winter/Spring 2001 season.
The story behind JENNIFER KNAPP LIVE is pretty amazing with the benefit of a little background. My work with Jennifer started with a buddy of mine, who was her manager at the time, asking if I could join up with Jen in support of a few Lilith Fair dates that were obviously important to make an impact on. After some crash rehearsals, it ended up that the shows went extremely well and were well received by patrons and critics alike. I'll never forget Jen at the press conference sitting there after Sheryl Crow made some comment on the Reverend Falwell and then a reporter asks Jen if she was taking heat for being at the festival. She simply said that every artist there was asked to play and share their beliefs through their music, so why should she be any different, even if she sang about Christ. It was a simple and poignant statement that hit home with everyone there, myself included.
Over the next 2 years we did a ton of touring that ran the gamut of everything from arena shows to acoustic sets at Borders. They were all a great time, even if it was a lot of work. One of the outstanding things about Jen is that she encouraged us to hold nothing back as a band and to bring whatever signature we had to the music. For Tony, Derek and myself, it wasn't like "you guys stay on your riser and play the part exactly like the record"; it was more like "bring your best ideas and performance to the show and we'll do something cool for the fans each night". She allowed us a lot of musical liberty.
Her first headlining tour was called "The Back Forty Tour" as most of the shows were outside of major cities and took place the winter/spring of 2001. The idea was to bring top-notch production and lighting into towns and venues that might not get as many big shows as some other places. Jen had already released 2 successful albums in KANSAS and LAY IT DOWN and was working on songs for THE WAY I AM while on the tour. At this point in time, I was already starting to make a change in life from a guitarist to a producer and was building up a studio full of gear. Just for my own benefit, I brought a rack of tape machines on the road and recorded a handful of shows that I was planning on taking back into my studio and mixing just for Jen, myself and the guys to have as a tour memento. The idea seemed good enough but at the end of the tour I went home and left the tapes behind figuring I'd catch up to them later. When I checked back, no one knew where the tapes were ... I figured no big deal, as it was just for us anyway, so I left it at that. I went back on the road with dc talk and didn't think of it.
As God would have it, the tapes surfaced in the fall of 2005, in random fashion in a box buried under cartons of tee shirts when management was cleaning out a storage facility. They were graciously entrusted to me to check out and see if 1) they would play at all and 2) if there was anything suitable for the public to hear. Mix engineer JR McNeely and myself spent a day tracking down machines to play the tapes and then listening to them. To our amazement, they did in fact play and the recordings were not bad at all. I then sat down with Grant and Brad at Gotee Records and discussed how to go about assembling this into something for the fans. We decided that going back and fixing anything in the studio was not an option we wanted to pursue and that it was going to be a "real" live album, mess ups and all. That meant if things were out of tune or someone made a mistake, we were going to leave it. This also meant listening through the different shows and picking the "best take" based on Jen and the moment. None of these performances are musically perfect, as we were trying to put on a good show and not just stand there and play. Things are off here and there because we were knocking around on stage and Jen was sometimes out of breath from the effort, but it's a true representation of Jen at the time and the songs are still great. In the end I think you'll love this CD as I do.
Romans
Ogden, UT - 03/30/01
We tried to rock this up a bit since we didn't have a violin in the band (like the recorded version) and it seemed like a good way to open the show. I used to crack myself up every night because the line "with the Spirit as my guide" always sounded like "spirit of MacGyver" to me. I hope I'm not the only one who thought that.
Lay It Down
Newberg, OR - 04/01/01
When I first heard this song, I thought it was Jen breaking into somewhere between the country market and Sheryl Crow. We kept it pretty much true to the record but maybe a couple beats per minute quicker for the live thing.
Whole Again
Rockland, CA - 03/28/01
This is Jen playing her Guild hollow body through her 60's Ampeg Reverb rocket amp and a bit of a different arrangement from the band. She loved that guitar, although it was a real pain to keep in tune.
When Nothing Satisfies
Newberg, OR - 04/01/01
The start of some acoustic tunes in the set. On the album, there is mandolin. Since I didn't have one handy at the time, I just used a capo high on the neck and adapted the part to guitar.
Usher Me Down
Ogden, UT - 03/30/01
A very cool song of repentance. The tremolo on the guitar is right off my 60's Sears Silvertone Twin 12 amp that I used on this tour.
The Way I Am
Ogden, UT - 03/30/01
Jen brought this song to us when we were already on tour. She wanted to try and fit it in the set, so Tony, Derek, Jen and myself worked out an arrangement that you hear now. This predates the album version by many months. If you ask us in the band, we prefer this to what ended up on the album, but maybe we're just biased.
His Grace Is Sufficient
Farmington, NM - 03/22/01
Here we are back on electric guitars and rocking it out. Jen was on Stratocaster and I think I was on the PRS. The solo sections were just kind of off the top of our heads a bit and not meant to be taken seriously. It was cool of Jen to introduce the band to the crowd each night.
Martyrs and Thieves
Ogden, UT - 03/30/01
This was a powerful song in the set and one of the longest, clocking in at over 6 minutes. At this point Derek picked up a djembe drum and we all went acoustic. It was amazing that when Jen would sing ballads like this, we could be in front of 2,000 people and you could hear a pin drop at the break. I think they were caught up in the moment.
Fall Down
Rockland, CA - 03/28/01
Once again, an early arrangement of a song that ended up on her third release. This early acoustic version had a cool feel to it and people loved it. I think it was fun for us to play as well, being a new song and feeling like we were covering new ground.
Refine Me
Farmington, NM - 03/22/01
This is Jen doing what she did so many times in the early part of her career. She would win the crowd with just her voice and a guitar. This is one of 2 songs that she didn't write, but she knew it was a good song and it must have ministered to her and knew it would touch others as well. So many of the girls in the audience would sing every word each night with her that it was a really incredible moment.
A Little More
Farmington, NM - 03/22/01
This was the big song on Lay It Down and the original had strings and stuff on it. We did a pretty good job of delivering the song without the huge production if you ask me.
Into You
Rockland, CA - 03/28/01
One of the most rocking tunes Jen ever did... she was back on electric, this time with a Stratocaster and a Tube Screamer pedal.
Undo Me
Ogden, UT 03/30/01
We wanted to do something different for the end of the show and this song is a big crowd favorite, so we basically came up with a separate piece of music for the top of the tune to set up the song. For the front, we came up with a 70's experimental pseudo blues thing for Jen to ad lib over. That's my Telecaster through the Silvertone on the front. Jen actually took off the guitar for this one and fronted the band, which was pretty cool and she did a great job.
Artists Bios 
