Megan Knight may seem young to be an old pro, but at twenty-four, the Williamsport, New Jersey native has been in the music business since she was thirteen. She found her way to Muscle Shoals unexpectedly after playing a backyard benefit party. Someone there mentioned having a friend in Alabama and wanting to send some of her music that way for them to listen. She didn’t expect anything to come of it, but singer-producer Gary Nichols called and said he’d like to work with her. She traveled to the Shoals to meet him and recorded her first record when she was fourteen. She was brought into the local music family there and mentored as she built her career.
Back at home, Megan completed some local side projects, including a record called State of Mind and some cinematic projects for film and television. Megan says she realized, “Country music is my thing, and I’m going to stick to the country route from here on out.”
Knight recently released the title song for her upcoming EP “My Drama,” the second single from that project, following “Hard Way to Go.” The two singles showcase the variety on the record without abandoning her country groove.
She said, “We actually were unsure if we were we were even going to put [“Hard Way to Go”] on the record because it’s so in-your-face and rock-driven. It’s a good song to be a single because it just hits you out of nowhere, and then “My Drama” is a little more pop, more contemporary. I like pushing boundaries in music.”
Part of the mentoring Knight has enjoyed from the Muscle Shoals music family over her career has included good advice to her and her father, who handles much of the business side of her music—all the sound and most of the bookings. Her interested in music was piqued early, Megan says. “My dad played a few chords on a guitar just for fun but wasn’t doing anything with it. I wound up picking up that guitar that was sitting dusty in the corner.” She enjoyed making recordings on the video camera when she was young and decided she would learn to play, teaching herself on YouTube.
She said that early on, Nichols warned her dad to keep her from being overwhelmed by the business side because, he said, “that’s where people lose their love for the art.” She feels lucky to have a good team with her family involved in her career.
Along the way, Megan has learned enough to maintain some creative control. She co-produced the new EP at The Nutthouse Recording Studio in Sheffield, AL, with Jimmy Nutt and James LeBlanc. The team released a live session video of “My Drama,” with a strong line-up of Muscle Shoals musicians. James LeBlanc sings backup and plays lead guitar, along with his son Dylan, also a renowned recording artist, on guitar; Jimbo Hart of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit plays bass with Jon Davis of the Pollies on drums.
Knight also worked closely with Alex Gibson and Jen Gibson on production of the official music video recorded with Scene Pros in Nashville set for release soon.
“I love Nashville,” Megan said. “I did ‘Bad Decision,’ one of my more recent singles there with Matt McVaney, who has written songs for Kane Brown and Lauren Alaina.” She says she loves the taste of Nashville but finds a different sound in the Alabama studio. “The Shoals is more of a traditional rootsy sound, and Nashville leans more towards pop nowadays. With this new project, I was trying to merge both of the sounds.”
Knight says she is already working on another EP to follow My Drama, and she expects it to have more of a Nashville influence blended with the Muscle Shoals roots.
While Megan performs a wide range of material, even recording covers by other artists, she focuses on writing and singing original material. For her upcoming EP, she says she went in with Nutt and LeBlanc with a blank piece of paper and said, “Guys, how about I got into the studio with you this time, we talk is out, see what our goals are, what we want to write about, and see what happens?”
At the time, she says she was “going through relationship stuff—probably like every other artist” and decided to write about it. “That’s most artists’ therapy, whether they are painting or writing a song,” she said. “’My Drama’ came about as a co-writing session where I was venting: If you find somebody you truly love, you have to love all parts of them—the dark and the light. I think that’s what true love is. There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship.”
Other than “Hard Way to Go,” which she wrong by herself, the other songs on the EP were co-writes with Nutt and LeBlanc. She feels comfortable building on that friendship and that foundation that started when she recorded her first album at fourteen.
“You cannot find that first CD anywhere,” she says. “I sounded so young, but it was the mentorship I needed, so I threw myself into it.” The years working with the team creatively have paid off. She says that as she has matured, she has been able to sit down and build a connection in a writing room.
“You know, a fourteen-year-old is not going to write a song for a twenty-five-year old,” said Knight. “I look back at myself, and I just feel like a completely different human.”
As they get ready for the EP release, Knight plans to head south soon, flying into Nashville then heading to Muscle Shoals, but she plans to spend time in Music City making music with friends before flying back home to New Jersey.