Singer songwriter Jennifer Knapp returned from a seven-year hiatus with her new album Letting Go (Gravlin/RED), released on May 11th 2010. The Grammy nominated, Dove Award winning artist is currently on a cross-country tour, which included performances at SXSW and the re-vamped Lilith Fair.
Recorded in Nashville, Letting Go was produced by Paul Moak (Mat Kearney, Martha Wainwright, and Amy Grant) and features ten intimate folk, country-tinged rock songs showcasing her astonishing straightforwardness and spirituality.
In what many would consider a controversial but brave decision, a month before the release of Letting Go, the acclaimed musician publicly came out as a lesbian. And as always, Jennifer Knapp continues to speak openly and honestly. She told Reuters “If there’s any frustration, it’s trying to politely break the yoke of being asked to be something that I just can’t be, and with all humility go: ‘Just please be kind when you discover the truth.’ It’s kinda all you can do.”
Knapp’s impressive history includes selling over one million albums with her previous releases Kansas (her debut1998), Lay It Down (2000), and The Way I Am (2001). The Kansas-born musician toured the globe with artists such as Jars of Clay and was featured on 1999’s Lilith Fair tour. She received critical acclaim with The Los Angeles Times calling her “a rising star” and People Magazine describing her as “an uncommonly literate songwriter.”Jennifer went on to win her first Dove Award in 1999 for Best New Artist, scored a Grammy nod in 2002 and another Dove nomination in 2003. With a considerable fan base, critical and commercial successes, Knapp walked away from it all at the height of her career. She explains her choice wasn’t easy but definitely necessary, “I completely had to divorce myself from the whole thing because I never really took ownership of what music meant for me as an individual. I needed to figure that out, so I really left the music business with the idea that I may not ever do it again.” She continues to explain her decision to return, “It was hard, and the whole time I was gone, it was like I had a shadow following me. I began to return to it in my own private time, getting out my guitar, starting to play and falling in love with music again without any expectations. I just wanted to play because it meant something to me.”
After seven years of soul searching and time spent in Australia, Knapp comes full circle with Letting Go, an album of songs about inner-conflicts, spirituality, and life lessons. Jennifer Knapp plays the Iron Horse this Saturday, August 28th at 7pm. Tickets here.
Official Bio Available Here
www.jenniferknapp.com
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