Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders Set to Play at Royal Lake Park Tomorrow Night

Local musician Andrew McKnight and his quartet Beyond Borders will kick off the second weekend of the Braddock Nights Summer Concert Series Friday night. The quartet will perform a blend of folk, Americana and roots music at Royal Lake Park in Fairfax at 7:30 p.m. McKnight started his solo career in 1993 and formed his quartet in 2008. The Lincoln resident lives at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with his family.

Learn more about Friday's performance in this Q&A with McKnight.

What can local concert goers expect from your performance tomorrow night?

The performance will include songs from my CDs, primarily. Our arrangements of them tend to be more energetic because we have four voices. You'll hear a variety of different sounds and styles. The song craft is considered by a lot of folks who render opinions about these things to be pretty high-level. You might hear me playing electric guitar and the band playing banjo, upright bass and drums on one song and then we’ll all be playing acoustic instruments on another song.

Have you ever performed at Braddock Nights before?

No, actually this is my first time. I’m absolutely excited. It’s a very well-run series. What I'm doing right now is crossing my fingers and doing a little thunderstorm prevention dance. Hopefully, it won’t be an issue!

Would you say your solo music has a different sound than your quartet?

I'd say it's the same songs, just arranged differently. A song is like a vehicle and how you play it and who you play it with determines how you drive it. All of my bandmates are very talented songwriters and musicians. It’s a very collaborative effort.

How has your sound as a group changed over time?

We're all pretty creatively engaged both in our own musical endeavors as well as our musical endeavors together in Beyond Borders. We all get ideas about trying a new instrument or tweaking an arrangement - it becomes a living, breathing organism. I wouldn't say the sound has changed as much as we've added more sounds to the palette, if you will.

What is your favorite part of being a musician?

The thing about being in a band is that you actually get to be a musician. When I tour solo, it's really kind of like one-man theater. It's a thing unto itself and that's cool. But as a musician, the ultimate thing is to play with other people and have that sort of circle of energy. I love that creative cauldron of being in a room with people that you know and care about a lot and you have this whole other language that you speak.

Outdoor lawn concert; cancelled by 3:30pm day of the show if inclement weather. Click here to listen to one of McKnight's songs. For more information on McKnight, click here.

Friday, June 10, 7:30 p.m.; Free
5344 Gainsborough Dr. Fairfax, VA; (703) 324-SHOW