Quality Americana

B. Knox spoke with us about releasing his first independent album From the Deep from the outskirts of Toronto.

Newfoundland

Knox was raised in Newfoundland on the East Coast of Canada amongst fishing villages and populated with Irish Catholics “for as many miles as you can travel in any direction.” 

“The Many Deaths of Rose Murphy” was described as an old country ballad that turned into a sea shanty from his surroundings. 

It was formed from his trips to St. Johns, where his uncle drove an old Buick with countless country tapes. The idea came from seeing the cowboy cover from Marty Robbins Trail Ballads and Gunslinger Songs.

“My own music is fairly dark, although I don’t generally lean into that old country mystic very often,” Knox said. “I kind of found my way into it unintentionally.” 

Knox said he got sick of his uncle playing George Jones in the car when he was younger, but always found his way back to that sound.

“It’s an old school murder ballad,” Knox said. “I intended it to be kind of a country murder ballad, but it ended up sounding a bit more like a sea shanty. I couldn’t help it if I try.” 

While picking the guitar one day, the story started to form. 

“I was kind of bouncing ideas around,” Knox said. “I thought ‘I’ll call it The Many Deaths of Rose Murphy’ because if I ever decide to release alternate versions of it, there will be other deaths for Rose.”

Knox remembered coming to the mainland and finding music like Bruce Springsteen and Huey Lewis.

“It kind of rocked my world a bit, which was great,” Knox said. “One thing we did have back home that was very prevalent was old country music, so that kind of stuck with me all my days.”

Finding a Career in Music

Knox released his first single at 38, transferring from a life in education into his love of music. 

“I was a teacher for about fifteen years,” Knox said. “Where I grew up is very Irish culture, and everybody can play guitar, or recite a poem, or tell a story, or tell a joke. Nobody has any aversion to just getting up and singing a song. It’s hard to feel like you have any sort of talent, or you’re special in any way when everybody can do the thing that you don’t know if you can do.” 

It was while listening to David Ramirez that he got the notion to edit or write his own words.

“I didn’t think much of my own music or songwriting,” Knox said.

Knox was playing cover songs at the local bar and a friend started attending his shows.

“I started inserting a few of my own songs into the setlist and he heard one of them,” Knox said. 

His friend encouraged him to record them, but he figured it was nothing unique due to his upbringing around so many other talented story tellers. 

“I decided ‘well, I’ll try it out,’ and I sent an email to a producer that I long wanted to work with that’s also a pedal steel player,” Knox said. 

Producer Aaron Goldstein also was shocked that Knox didn’t think much of his own music. Knox was encouraged to send out “Deep Dark Love” and Starbucks picked up his first record to carry in-store. 

“Literally it was the very first single I ever put out,” Knox said. “If you went on Spotify then, it was one song.” 

After Starbucks, Sirius XM started playing his songs on their Canadian Americana channel.

“It made it possible for me to start writing and recording for a living,” Knox said. 

If I Break

One of his releases from 2022 “If I Break” was penned while still forming the transition to music as a full time career.

“Even when I try to write the happy songs, or the rock and roll songs, or the more upbeat songs I always end up finding out that ‘oh yea this is a sad song too,’” Knox said. “By the second record, I was feeling a bit like I was stepping on my own toes and tail.” 

He described it as the typical break-up song that leans towards political.

Going Independant

He’s getting back on the radio after going independent with “The Many Deaths of Rose Murphy,” performing for his first record release show and planning a future tour of Europe. 

Knox said that finding a full-time income from music was a lot of good fortune and knocking on endless amounts of doors. 

“There’s so many people who are talented out there, so many people writing songs and so many people doing this thing that never get heard until they are dead if they’re lucky,” Knox said. “I’ve been very, very fortunate.” 

Knox is now working to break into live performing as the studio side of things has been his main focus. 

“I’m actually going to be doing my first hometown show in Newfoundland,” Knox said. “I haven’t ever played a full show out there to this extent, so that will be very exciting.”

Support the Artist

More information about B. Knox can be found here.

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